I am pretty sure the msrp was in the system at 449.99 too. The same screen shows both.

It's still weird though, I still think it might be a glitch, somebody forgot to update something (if that's even possible on this system, since it might be used to pay for things). Or maybe a temporary thing.

But I tell you what's weird, I went to this store (the one who's distribution center I work at) the other day looking for Bioshock, at that time I noticed they hadn't even updated the premium 360's price. It was still listed on the shelf at 399.  I am sure upon purchase you would get the new lower price, but they hadn't changed the display price tag yet which I thought was a sad commentary on the up-to-date-ness of the video game section in that particular stor.

I just cant believe we'd sell something at a loss. 

I will check again soon.

And people are throwing around a lot of costs from Sony for products..only extreme insiders at Sony know that info guys, and not only that but it would be constantly changing. Nobody outside Sony knows what PS2 or PS3 cost exactly..

Im willing to bet Sony makes more than $7 on a PS2 by now, and also that PS3 costs more than $649 to produce. 

I'm betting you work for circuit city. I used to work there and it was easy to look up costs on items. Just remember the costs it displays is not the actual price you pay for it but the overall cost to the store. i.e. cost in transporting, shelf space, etc. basically its total cost.

Furthermore, retail stores frequently have items that they don't make money on in their store. They use those to gain other sales that make a lot more money. As an example, the HDMI connection you buy with the 360 is marked up over 200% probably. That's where the money is, those little extra's, or accessories.

That may be so, superchunk, but that still indicates that the Elite is a losing venture while other consoles are not.

And yeah, we don't and really can't know what it costs to produce any console. We can listen to the estimates given by analysts though, which are based on the actual cost of the parts (meaning it should be a good guess). Analysts haven't said much about the PS2 lately, but the concern adressed about the PS3's price has and the best guess is that it was $740 at launch and has shed about $100 between the cost of ble-ray diodes and the emotion engine and they stand to cut costs by more when 65nm is used. Not that they've sold out of all the old units yet...

My guess is the store stocked up on the Elite before the price cut and now they sell their inventory at a loss.