Lazard Capital Markets' Colin Sebastian has said that high demand for Microsoft's Kinect peripheral has led to inflated prices on eBay, where it is selling at around a 30% premium.

Kinect is already sold out at a number of major US retailers and Microsoft has said it can't meet UK demand.

"While several retailers are indicating out-of-stock positions on their websites, the majority of bricks and mortar stores we called had units available for sale," said Sebastian.

"Nonetheless, we believe that early signs of demand for Kinect bode well for the device as a holiday gift item, and if the momentum continues, could provide the industry with a near-term shot in the arm."

He added: "Our survey of completed transactions on eBay indicates that Microsoft Kinect, the motion sensing controller for the Xbox 360, is selling for an average price of roughly $190, or nearly a 30% premium over the retail price of $150,"

Judging from early signs it looks like Kinect may be this years elusive Christmas gift of choice. 

Market research firm Ipsos has already called Kinect 'the big motion control winner' of Christmas 2010. 

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=274799

Can't they just get X360 bundle and sell X360 (either new or old) ?

The $299 4GB/Kinect bundle is the value package. Readily available at retail. I've seen them at two different Targets as of today, and a Fry's Electronics last Sunday. And they're still in stock through Amazon.

There's almost no point in paying $199 for a scalped Kinect add-on kit as long as the $299 bundle is readily available, but... not everyone trying to upgrade wants an extra Xbox even for a mere extra $100. Presumably they're too lazy to sell the 360 as well.

I still think a lot of these Kinect standalone kits are being bought in multiples by hardware flippers who want to make a quick buck off of all the MS marketing and media generated hype.

Ebay currently shows that people aren't bidding on Kinect kits priced at $199 or above; and there are flippers trying to get more, but with no takers. Same with console/kinect bundles. Readily available through online retailers at MSRP and yet flippers are trying to get up to $100 over MSRP, albeit unsuccessfully.

Maybe flippers should be holding onto their hoards until after Black Friday instead.

Had a blast playing just Kinect adventures for a few hours tonight with a friend over live. Looks like I won't be selling it for profit :)

The number of Kinect on E-bay is growing every day. Some pics shows stacks of Kinects. No doubt there are a lot of people buying up Kinect just to sell them online for marked up prices. I wouldn't be surprise to see even more Kinect for sale  on Ebay tommorrow.

I can go to Best Buy and buy 20 Kinects right now (no clue if it's 1 per household or anything), I just don't believe they sell on Ebay. Kinect isn't an popular as MS wanted us to think. This is just my thinking by the stock in the stores around me (Chicagoland). Though this is one area, it's a big consumer area. If I have no troubles gettings it, I cannot imagine tons of people cannot find it. They made to many Kinects for this to be true. Stock isn't limited, and price is flat.

On Ebay, the ones that go for Premium, they don't sell. The regular priced ones do.

This isn't Microsoft saying this.

Why would anyone buy a more expensive KINECT off of ebay when they can go to just about any store and buy one for normal price.

Sucks for them, visited both my local gamestop and walmart today and there are tons of kinects on the shelves.

Kinect is awesome and all but lets be honest here. It is not flying off shelves and it is not extremely hard to find one. I went to toys r us yesterday to buy black ops and there were many kinect boxes in stock.