A cautionary tale of the ps3 phenomena

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Has anyone been watching the ps3 mania sweeping the nation? Yeah, me too, and I could care less. Although, I was at my sister's today when my brother in law related a cautionary tale on one computer game affecianado who got a good life's lesson off of all of this.

Apparently my in-law's friend was one of the first ones in line to buy a PS3 at a popular electronics retailer in Sioux Falls. In fact, he was exuberantly on South Dakota tv talking about it.

How did he accomplish being first in line? By taking three days off of work and starting in line on Tuesday. He and a friend had manned the line to be able to buy two ps3's. One for personal use, and another to speculate on eBay with - a promise which across the nation had been noted to make the savvy videogame speculator thousands.

The only problem? That's what most everyone else is doing. A good example of th elaw of supply and demand. With supplies on ebay being plentiful, instead of selling for $2300 or more as had been rumored, many aren't bringing their sky high reserve prices.

Those that are selling are only bringing in a little more than their original sale price of $500 or $600. And they certainly aren't bringing in thousands. In fact, in the story I heard, the speculator hadn't had an offer which would make up what he had invested - the purchase price plus the expense of taking off three days of work.

The end result? He doesn't dare play the one he's keeping more than 10 minutes at a time. At least when his wife is around. She's not very happy with him.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The ebay greed is what drove this, more than the desire to own the new toy. People were hoping to clear a couple of thousand dollars for sitting in line. Retailers need to change their tactics on high demand items. Expect to see some of the same injuries and violence on Black Friday.
7:53 AM
Anonymous said…
these machines are a major factor in why society is so stupid. sad. sad.
8:28 AM
Anonymous said…
Unbelievable. What a misplaced sense of values.
9:34 AM
Anonymous said…
Yep, keep production low so prices can be high. I am not sure this truly qualifies for the supply and demand debate. IMHO.
12:42 PM
Anonymous said…
"What a misplaced sense of values."

Since when is entrepreneuership a bad thing?

So it didn't work out for them. They had a good idea and took a shot. Good for them.
1:40 PM
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