Although no fan of ebay think it is a pretty good indicator of demand as a whole. It stands to reason that if people cannot find a console to purchase at a retail establishment, whether online or at a brick and mortar store, they will turn to ebay. In such situations that will, therefore, drive the prices up. I personally try to avoid buying from ebay unless it is for something rare and there is few, if any, other options available. I have been covering the console launch for a blog and the demand has obviously been quite high since launch for both the Xbox One and the PS4. In my travels I have yet to see the PS4 readily available at any retail location while seeing the Xbox One available intermittently.
Without knowing what kind of production number either company is knocking out it is hard to say say how exactly demand is exceeding supply with any accuracy. We can really only go by what we see available both in stores and online and try to correlate that with the numbers we do know.
For the aforementioned article I check stock at anywhere from 6 to 8 major online retailers multiple times daily as well as follow the community at nowinstock and other stock check type sites to get an idea of how easy to pick up either console for an average person. I have also set email alerts for most major retailers for when stock becomes available. Until yesterday the PS4 was simply not available for any length of time since launch. Amazon had it twice since launch and sold out in 10 minutes and 34 minutes both times. Best Buy, Walmart, and Target sold out in a similar fashion. The XBox One has been available several times and sold out as well albeit at a much slower pace. Now again, without knowing how many are being produced that really does not mean very much. It seems to me that there has certainly been more consistent stock on the Xbox One but I have also noted that it highly depends on where you are located in the U.S. at least. We know it is being outsold but perhaps Microsoft is also producing much more consoles.
It certainly does not surprise me that the ebay prices would drop for Sony's console today since Walmart had their biggest shipment of it yesterday and Best Buy also had a plethora available for much of the day. Reading through the comments at nowinstock many people that have been looking for one did not pass up the opportunity of snatching it when it became available after seeing how quickly they have been selling out over the last few weeks.
It will be very interesting to see now what happens to those prices at ebay as we inch closer to Christmas. Clearly people want these next gen systems and if Sony and Microsoft have produced enough for the rush those looking to make a substantial profit on ebay could be disappointed. If stock dries up, though, and the desperate need a console quickly they will no doubt drive up prices at both ebay and CL which will certainly make those sellers happy.
Personally, because of a cancelled trip, I found myself in the position of having an extra Xbox One and PS4. Since they were gifts I will now not need until February I will probably try to sell them if there is a shortage so we can make someone happy for the Holidays. Although, I am not going to try to make money off either one, rather just cover my costs and hopefully gain some karma in the process.
Well, my first post at this community and it seems like some good stuff here to read and talk about. I look forward to checking out more. Many of you seem quite knowledgeable and make some excellent points. Cheers!
