So, what is Scalping? In short, it’s the process that some people are doing online where they buy stock in bulk and sell them online for higher prices than what the actual retail selling price is. Scalping isn’t exclusive to the gaming industry, it’s been an issue with concert tickets, trainer releases and much more. More recently however the Scalping on consoles such as the PS5 and Xbox Series X (more so the PS5) has risen drastically.

It’s gotten to the point where the BBC, Forbes and other outlets are covering the matter as well as the government deciding to step in and take action over whether the act itself should be made illegal. Back in March the BBC covered this in an article where they showed how profitable this could be when a man called Jake talked about how up until that point, he had made £10,000 in profit since November, the release date of both the next generation consoles.

The Shocking situation that many people found themselves in if they wanted to go out and buy a PS5 or Xbox Series X was that they couldn’t find it anywhere online, not on Amazon or any other retail or gaming stores that sold the consoles. Then when they would go to online stores such as eBay, they would find the devices at almost DOUBLE the retail price. A high number of people would buy even at those prices due to the fact that as of late thanks to COVID that stock was low, and to wait for the consoles to be available again could mean waiting MONTHS.

For a lot of hardcore gamers and fans alike they would find themselves forced to wait until the exact second that stock dropped online and hope that they could checkout their basket before more scalper’s algorithms bulk bought the items. Although as of late a lot of online stores are doing their best to try and catch out these bots that buy so much of the stock and stop the sales there and then.

Now, the reason the government reacted at all was thanks to a community led petition that ended up with over 17,000 signatures quite quickly. But even with all the attention surrounding the situation you can still find today, PS5’s on eBay for around £700-£1000. Jaw dropping prices that some parents are paying for the sake of their kids, or gamers who want to experience the new game releases on day one instead of having to sit back and wait for months on end.

And in the end, with COVID going on there isn’t much that Sony and Microsoft can do about stock. Sony made it clear at the end of 2020 and early 2021 that they were suffering from chip shortages that power their consoles due to the way businesses overall have been affected by the pandemic. This has definitely been a difficult and infuriating wait for many gamers who want to be able to join the fun that they see online by the people who were lucky enough to get their PS5’s and Xbox’ before the shortage and scalping took root.

The Question here is, how long will this carry on and when will more people be able to buy these new consoles without having to worry about losing them to bots? Hopefully, not much longer.

Written by Mo Rasoul, InZone Plug (Gaming).