Update (Mon 30th Nov, 2020 17:00 GMT): UK retailer Very has since cancelled these 1000 orders from scalper group CrepChiefNotify according to Sky News, following what it referred to as "a technical error":
"As a result of a technical error, some people were able to place orders for PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles for a short time on Sunday, however, these items are not on sale and affected customers have received notice that the orders have been cancelled. We apologise for the confusion caused."
Sky News reports that legitimate customers have also been affected and as a result, their orders have also been cancelled.
Original story (Mon 30th Nov, 2020 14:30 GMT): A UK scalper group known as CrepChiefNotify has reportedly gathered over 1000 Xbox Series X consoles to resell, telling those you haven’t managed to secure one: “You snooze you lose.”
The report comes via Video Games Chronicle (VGC), which detailed that the scalper organisation has managed to secure many through bot software, which scours the internet and purchases the consoles as soon as they become available.
Speaking to VGC, one member reportedly told the publication that the stock was obtained through the site Very, after making a statement on its Facebook page that the group had located more stock:
“We just notified our members of a Xbox Series X restock on a very well known online retailer. They have now managed to secure over 1000+ today and there’s still many hours left. You snooze you lose.”
As reported by our sister site Push Square, the group also managed to secure over 3500 PS5s early last week, with the Xbox Series X now being added to the equation.
In another Facebook post, the group also attempted to defend its action, citing reasons such as being “furloughed” and the reselling is enabling them to put food on the table:
“Lots of our community have been furloughed, made redundant, or at some form of disadvantage due the pandemic. These people have managed to cover their bills, put food on the table and supply Christmas presents to their children. It may be unfortunate that a child wont wake up to a PS5 this Christmas, but another child may have woken up to nothing. We have no regrets.”
Scalping has been one of the biggest issues since the Xbox Series X|S launch, with many appearing on sites such as eBay at an excess of $2,000. Hopefully in the coming weeks as more stock becomes available the scalping ceases to be.
What do you think about the scalping issue? Let us know in the comments below.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 31
"You snooze, you lose"
Eff right off.
Simple solution: just don't buy from scalpers.
I personally don't see any harm in people making a profit. More power to them.
Just stop giving the scalper scum attention
I don’t get why people are in such a hurry to play a new console right away that they are willing to pay more for what’s worth.
Free market. Any tension between offer and demand and the price get a severe correction.
This is why we can’t afford to lose brick and mortar stores. The pandemic has highlighted the fact that scalpers will use bots to create an artificial shortage in anything people find even mildly interesting. No one should have to pay $50 for a pack of toilet paper or $1000 for an Xbox. The retailers could care less because they instantly sell through their stock.
Rumor has it, that sony is upping production, upwards of 10+ million units, for the next batch. I can presume, ms is doing the same. So hold off on the scalpers, let them set with wasted product. Then the regrets will roll in.
Good thing I'm in no rush to buy an S then. Pieces of 💩
Scalpers suck, but ultimately, the onus is on the retailers to have a way of verifying that it's a real person making these purchases.
I am sure real people will be happy to go through some extra steps to making these purchases if it means actually having a legitimate chance at getting said item.
The other option is to stop making online-only the only way to get these consoles. Just quietly start stocking the shelves with consoles on a regular basis to avoid mass gatherings.
Come the new year I assume they will be readily available and hopefully the scalpers will be stuck with them.
@Medic_Alert They could have purchased bread to put on the table with the money they instead spent on game consoles and bots and scalper group membership fees - the logic here doesn't make sense.
@everynowandben nearly £450,000. Can't believe that.
@Medic_Alert these groups aren’t just a random guy sitting at home with no income thinking how can he make a quick buck buying Xbox’s or PS5’s and selling them on, they are big, organised groups who have the money to buy in bulk and then sell them on at huge profit.
It’s organised scalping and it’s a problem. They’re saying they’re doing it because they’re furloughed, but what about the parent sitting at home furloughed who can’t get a console and their only option may be to pay double to get one for their child at Christmas.
It’s a free market, this stuff happens and it sucks. Only option is to not buy from them and wait, but people can’t for fear of missing out.
sighs but no one wants an Xbox /sarcasm
@Medic_Alert I got nothing against a single person flipping an extra machine or two. And I respect the scalpers who use to have to physically walk into store to get this done. But not all of them people involved here are trying to put food on the table. Let’s be real. For those twits I hope they get stuck with the product . ^___^
Nothing to see here. Especially not morals.
@mousieone that’s the thing if someone has one and doesn’t want it, sells it on for double, fair play. These are organised groups though, the same group that claimed to get 3500 PS5’s, that’s not just to put food on the table.
@Medic_Alert the motivation is money, and a lot of it.
@Medic_Alert no but it doesn’t take a genius to work it out.
@Medic_Alert absolutely and there is nothing wrong with having a different point of view. Otherwise people don’t always think about these things.
@Medic_Alert Some people break into others home and steal things to provide food for their kids. Does that make it right? No. If you can create bots to scalp consoles, you can probably get a respectable job in IT and not have everyone hate you.
I also find it hard to believe that they have millions of dollars available to scalp thousands of consoles. But can't put food on the table to feed their children.
@Fenbops like It has been said hope the greedy ones get stuck with the product
Every member of the Mafia, Bloods, Crips, MS13, Pagans, Hell's Angels, Yakuza, Triads all have sob stories too..... If ethics are mere conveniences for the well to do, then let's just get to the shooting war and get it over with.
@Medic_Alert The jobs thing is not utterly wrong. Most people that are being laid off do NOT work in tech. They work in other fields. Secondly, you would need just enough computer skill to not get a virus while downloading and running said bot, and if you can manage that, you can probably also manage IT support.
And lastly, none of that detracts from my final (and probably most important) point:
"I find it hard to believe that they have millions of dollars available to scalp thousands of consoles. But can't put food on the table to feed their children."
@Medic_Alert At a bare minimum, they would need at least $500. They can maybe profit $250 from that, (who knows what kind of fees they'd be hit with as part of their scalper group, and how liquid their investment is). Or they can spend their time/money, taking training, getting certified, applying for jobs, and earning a lot more than $250 one time.
@Kamalen Your post is framed such that it presumes that a free market is a good thing, and therefore if it gives rise to organized large-scale scalping then that must also be good, but you've got it precisely backwards - the existence of such outrageously parasitic things as this is an argument against a no-holds-barred unregulated free market.
A marketplace in which this sort of behavior was illegal would be slightly less free, but significantly more fair and efficient.
@Medic_Alert
You actually believe that utter nonsense from these scalpers trying to make a quick, easy buck?
If you have enough $ to buy up 1000 Xboxes, you have enough $ for food. They don’t deserve any sympathy.
@Fath Making the behaviour illegal is impossible without large side effects. What do you forbid exactly ? Forbid selling higher than MSRP would destroy collectors market. Forbidding resale entirely and you have killed the used market.
Freedom is freedom for all, not for when it's convenient. The only good answer to the situation is to stop supporting companies that do fake paper launch for marketing reasons instead of when supplies are actually ready.
The joys of gaming one generation behind. Just picked up an Xbox One X. Exciting times ahead.
😂😂😂😂 Their orders were canceled.
@Kamalen Your platitude about freedom is technically meaningless, as far as I can tell, but the absolutist sentiment I understand behind it is just flat wrong. No legal marketplace in any developed country today is 100% free and unregulated, and you wouldn't want it to be.
Likewise, your assumption that any law outlawing organized scalping would be impossible to construct without doing more harm than good, based on a few half-hearted strawman and what I can only assume is a deep-rooted disdain for the idea of creating laws in general, is similarly incorrect. The existence of laws already forbidding other types of market manipulation is evidence enough of that.
You're misguided in both sentiment and practice.
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