(Image credit: Spawnpoint)

Current generation hardware has still proven to be difficult for many to get their hands on. Between the PlayStation 5 chip shortage, the demand for said chips across the board, supply lines have been hard to maintain and retailers to keep up with the requested inventory. Customers have resorted to rely on inconsistent updates from websites to notify them on availability, only to fall victim to scalpers.

As it turns out, the scalpers, who originally saw an opportunity to upsell PlayStation 5's and Xbox Series X|S models after launch, have saw a dent in their profits. According to a report in Forbes, the demand for the PlayStation 5 has dropped close to a third of the secondary reseller asking price. Digital editons of the PlayStation 5 once having peaked at $1,000 during Cyber Weekend in 2020 have seen prices going for as low as $715 as of September. Forbes spoke to a reseller 'Matt' about the climate of the secondary market.

Resellers I have spoken with echo the fall in prices, with one eBay vendor - called Matt - telling me that sales remain consistent but the prices are steadily dropping.

“To put it into perspective, at the beginning of July I would have auctions ending at around $760 + $40 for shipping easily. Now, I had an auction have no bids at $729 + $40 shipping and I just had one end at $709+$40 shipping.”

The Series X has seen a markdown of 25%, not as sharp as the PlayStation 5. While the scalpers continue to make money off scalpers, Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki stated in an August conference call that they have enough chips to meet demand for the financial year.

SOURCE: Forbes