Driscoll had 157,000 PS5s sold at a retail price or higher on eBay and StockX – 7.06% of the estimated 2.067 million VGChartz PS5s were sold in the United States until January 16. Driscoll then looked at active lists of services like OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, coming to the conclusion that probably 10-15% of PS5s were resold in the United States.
Driscoll’s report is a very interesting read in addition to the headline numbers. On eBay and StockX, the most recent estimated average price for a digital edition of the PS5 is $ 799 (double the recommended price), while a disk edition is $ 849 (1.7 times the recommended price). Driscoll estimates that the money changers made $ 43.2 million in profit during that period, with eBay, PayPal and StockX making $ 15.9 million combined as a result of the resales.
Although we cannot be sure of the numbers involved (Sony has not yet released its own official data for the launch), the report puts the scale of the PS5 resale in perspective, especially with scalping becoming a major talking point in the launch window. PS5, Xbox Series X / S and new Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. The scarcity of supplies and the widespread use of automated bots have led to price inflation and repeated disappointments for normal customers. As a result, some UK politicians are even calling for the practice to be considered illegal.
Joe Skrebels is the Executive News Editor at IGN. Follow him on Twitter. Do you have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Send an email to [email protected].