The Decline of the PS3 Grey Market

Kotaku has a great piece up looking at trends over time in the PS3 grey market. Michael Fahey has been tracking the falling prices for Sony's new console, via sales on eBay and other markers. He called around to stores as well, getting a feel for the number of returns and current availability of the console. His conclusions: "As it turns out my gamer instincts and the threat of hordes of angry readers steered me clear of potential disaster. Aside from a couple brief spikes, there is no way I'd have been able to pull off the television, and I know damn well I would have waited for Christmas like so many others did, only to lose even more. The moral of this story? There's no such creature as a sure thing. The majority of eBay prospectors walked away from this experience with that lesson burned into the back of their brains. My suggestion for the future? If you want to gamble, go to Vegas. If you want to invest, try mutual funds. Leave the video game system buying to the gamers. We'll all be happier for it. "

Comments

Re:good article

[drinkypoo]

For those who want to wait until prices fall on the PS3, I suggest checking the price curves on the PS2. Here's a hint: They didn't move for over a year.

If I were going to buy a PS3 - which I am not, because I am boycotting Sony and making sure to tell everyone why (more on this later) - then I would be happy to wait a year, so some good games could come out for the system.

I already have a PS2, like practically every other gamer in America, so the PS2 games aren't any kind of attraction.

Re:good article

[drinkypoo]

I am boycotting Sony and making sure to tell everyone why (more on this later)

Okay so replying to myself is sad but I realized I forgot to give the more on this - everyone here already knows why so I won't go over that part but we all need to remember that if you are at all like me, people are asking you what to buy and why. Make sure to tell these people not to buy Sony, and why! Collectively we (geeks) made a huge difference in the whole DivX thing (the DVD player that phoned home, not the MPEG4-based video codec) and we can do it again with Sony. Make sure to tell people the many reasons not to buy that Vaio, that PS3, that Sony Ericsson mp3 cellphone.