PS5 and Xbox Series X/S Became a Gold Mine for Scalpers

It's been a while since the release of next-gen consoles, but their availability still leaves much to be desired. PS5 and Xbox Series X and S are in short supply in many countries, which makes both devices of great interest to scalpers who are just waiting for the opportunity to resell the goods at inflated prices.

IN A NUTSHELL:

As with GPUs, next-gen consoles are falling prey to scalpers due to their limited availability;
Data engineer Michael Driscoll has published detailed research into the second-hand sales of new consoles i.e. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S on eBay and StockX;
The shortage of next-gen consoles is also pushing up the prices of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One S.

We've previously written about scalpers selling the latest RTX 3000 series GPUs. Equally interesting is the aftermarket analysis of the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S by Oracle data engineer Michael Driscoll, who used a script to track sales of next-gen consoles on eBay and StockX. The conclusions presented below only apply to data from the aforementioned US sales platforms, but can certainly provide a relevant benchmark for other markets.

PS5 sales:

7% of all PS5s bought in the US were later resold on eBay and StockX, with the probable total share of consoles resold by scalpers being as high as between 10 and 15%when other sales platforms are taken into account.
In this way, a total of approximately 150,000 PlayStation 5 units were sold, and the revenue from these transactions amounted to at least $143 million.
The estimated income of scalpers reached about 43.2 million dollars. In turn, the intermediary auction services and PayPal got 15.9 million dollars.
Interestingly, PlayStation 4 prices increased by 50% after the release of the PS5, and sales of the older console tripled in the first weeks of the new console's debut.
PS5 Digital Edition can now be purchased for around 200% of MSRP, and the PS5 version with built-in drive for around 170% of MSRP. A more detailed 'real price' to MSRP ratio can be seen in the graph below.

PS5 and Xbox Series X/S Became a Gold Mine for Scalpers - picture #1

Price chart of each PS5 model against MSRP, source: Dev.to/Michael Driscoll

Xbox Series X and S sales:

6.85% of all Xbox Series X and S consoles bought in the U.S. were later resold on eBay and StockX, with the likely total share of consoles resold by scalpers being between 15 and 20% when other sales platforms are taken into account .
A total of approximately 113,000 units of Xbox Series X and S were sold, with revenues of at least $79.7 million.
The estimated profit for scalpers was approximately $14.6 million. In turn, intermediary auction services and PayPal got 10.4 million dollars.
It is interesting to note that the prices of the older Xbox One S console increased by 33% after the release of the Xbox Series X and S consoles.
Xbox Series X and S consoles can now be purchased for about 150% of their suggested retail price (MSRP). A more accurate ratio of "real price" to MSRP can be seen in the chart below.

PS5 and Xbox Series X/S Became a Gold Mine for Scalpers - picture #2

Xbox Series X and S prices vs. MSRP, source: Dev.to/Michael Driscoll

The market is therefore far from equilibrium, the latter being expected to appear only when all the companies responsible for the production of next-gen consoles provide a sufficient supply. Unfortunately, things do not look good in this field - Microsoft warns of shortages in the supply of Xbox Series X and S, and AMD has already confirmed that problems with the production of components for new consoles may last even until the end of this year.