I have a few X1/PS4 preorders I plan to sell on ebay when the time comes.
I've been watching preorder sales on ebay. These are not the actual consoles yet of course, it's people with preorders in hand promising to ship the console to the buyer on release.
Ebay rules are you cant sell a preorder until 30 days before release. So PS4 has only been legal on ebay only for about a week and X1 only a couple days.
Anyways a couple points, ebay/paypal combined takes in my experience about 13% of the sale price in various fees. Yes it is that much. Also, remember tax was paid on all consoles (unless you were lucky to be not taxed at Amazon, I am taxed). This means a PS4 doesn't cost 399, it costs more like $440 depending, and $550 for X1 after sales taxes and/or shipping depending.
So yeah I just watched a PS4 preorder auction end, it went for $630. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-Playstation-4-AMAZON-PS4-LAUNCH-DAY-EDITION-/221299826345?pt=Video_Games&hash=item33867f5ea9&autorefresh=true Sounds ok, but knock off 13% for fees, and assume the guy paid 440 for the console. He only nets 548-440=$108.
This particular auction offered free shippng as well. So likely knock another $20 off as he has to pay shipping. Unless he so called "drop ships" from Amazon (has it shipped directly to buyer) and I'm not sure how that works, I've also heard rumors you may lose your spot in preorder line if you change shipping address, so it seem dicey to me.
So yeah $100 bucks may sound good, but remember there's also risk of something backfiring, the buyer filing a backcharge on you or some problem like that. You could be out the whole cost of the console.
Anyways X1 is not much better, it seems to be selling for maybe $770, but remember it costs more like $550, plus ebays 13%...
I sold a PS3 at launch for $1200, so things have declined. Granted PS3 demand fell off a cliff, they only sold for high prices in about a 2 day launch window I happened to catch.
So yeah is this an indication of soft demand? PS3 and 360 both sold only like 200k there first months in NPD. VGchartz says they are track to sell over 1-1.5 million each this time, even if that may be worldwide, so this may hold ebay prices down as well. I also think the fact TWO consoles are coming out nerfs demand, as their is in effect 2X supply. I think demand would be higher if ONLY X1 or PS4 was hitting this year.
It's also possible demand/prices will be much higher at launch. I'm not sure sales of preorders mean a lot. We will see.
I also think next gen consoles may not be providing enough of a graphical leap to entice the average consumer here. Average Joe may not see enough improvement over his X360 or PS3 right now.
