A few weeks ago a good friend of mine called me and asked me to run up to the Stanford Shopping Mall to pickup a PS3 the guys at the Sony Style store were holding for him (as he was working). His plan was simple: To sell the PS3 for extra X-Mas cash. As many of you know, I am against this, but because he is being raped by the courts for child support to his X-Wife that makes over 70k per year (plus her new husband makes quite a bit), he needs the money. So I went to Palo Alto in rush hour (in the rain) to get the unit (even though I was risking my life).

Since he works 6 days a week, he needed my help to sell the unit on Craigslist. I started with a price of 1k and NO ONE contacted me. I lowered the price to 800.00 and then 700.00, no takers. I have now lowered the price to 650.00 (which is cost including tax) and still nothing. This is a stark contrast to the 360 last year. On Christmas Day last year 360's were going for 500.00 to 600.00 all day (no one was taking losses). As of this week on Craigslist, PS3 60GB units are going for below consumer cost. Many units are listed at 600.00 which is a loss as the unit is 649 out the door. Even a co-worker of mine picked up a PS3 bundle from Costco last week and returned it on Sunday as he could not sell it. It definitely seems like the demand is fading very quickly.

BTW: This is NOT the unit we are giving away.

Craigslist ads of units selling for less than cost.

Ps3 New!!! - $600 (san jose east)

PS3 FOR SALE WILL NOT LAST!!! - $600 (san jose east)

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"True adaptability involves changing ones self to meet ones environment, not changing ones environment to meet ones needs" - Species8472

I think the demand wasn't there after all the bad press. I know more and more PS3 fans that have decided they can wait after seeing the hits sony is taking. Furthermore, the majority of people that waited in line admitted to motives of turning a profit. So what you've got is enough supply to meet demand. The problem is the supply is in the scalpers hands and the demand is waning.

I think it's a combination of bad press and Wii's Omega hype train. When a few games come out PS3 will be back on the board I'm sure.

I personally think its the pricepoint and the Ebay scalpers. You can only scalp so much. I waited in line for both the PS3 and the Wii (was one hell of a weekend). I went to a walmart for both, I got there late for the PS3 and didnt end up waiting very long, after about 2 hours of waiting the manager was kind enough to let people know how many systems they had and I decided to leave.

They got 4 systems in and only one of them was kept to play, the other 3 first people in line were going to put them up on Ebay. In contrast when I waited in line for the Wii, they got 20 systems in and only two people expressed interest in Ebaying it.

Another problem is that I don't think HDTV penetration is deep enough into the consumer market to cause enough of a demand. Its not worth getting a $600 console if its going to look horrible on your 480i standard def TV, because then you will have to spend another $1000+ on at least a 720p TV

It just comes out to be too expensive for most consumers, even the premium 360 is pushing it at $400, the $300 core is just right, if not for some consumers perception that the lower priced system is garbage when compared to the more expensive one, even though both play the same games exactly the same.

Yeah, making a killing off of eBay or CL from PS3s only lasted a short while. Any way you look at it, $600 is a lot of money. A lot of people are returning them to stores... my local GameStop had two in stock and nobody even looked twice x_x

Everybody that wants a PS3 should be able to get one as scalpers start returning their unsold units to the store. I wonder if resold consoles factor into NPD's and other's statistics on number of consoles sold?

Hahha, thats funny and I LOVE Craigslist

I've had many people they were very tentative selling things on Craigslist. One must consider that any baddies could easily use it to case your house. I know, I sound like some 60's cop-show detective.

-Sinner

or you could end up like the guy who agreed to meet a buyer from Craigslist behind a McDonalds at 1:00am to sell two PS3s. Needless to say, he got the crap kicked out of him and got jacked for his loot!!! Don't you just love the Christmas Spirit? lol

-Oegin

That's what you get for being stupid enough to meet some guy at 1 am to sell a hot commodity.

Darwin was probably laughing his arse off at that moron.

-Sinner