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PS3 Pre-Orders Came and Went 230

Posted by Zonk from the quickest-stock-run-ever dept.
Warlock7 writes "Well, it's official. The pre-orders have begun ... and mostly ended. I just got mine ordered and four hours later there are already units on eBay. Some acutions have already gone north of $1000 USD. The guys at EBGames told me that the most units going to any one store was 36 and that there were an average of 8 units being distributed to each store. The one I went to reported that they were going to be getting a total of 16 units. They waited this long to take pre-orders because they wanted to be sure that they weren't going to get burned like they did for the XBox 360 launch." The reports from across the internets are varied, with long lines netting nothing for some, and others reaping the sweet rewards.
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PS3 Pre-Orders Came and Went More

PS3 Pre-Orders Came and Went

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  • I have a better idea. I'll wait to get one (if I bother at all) and then when I do all the bugs will have worked out, there will be more games available, it will cost less I won't have to wait in any ureasonably long lines and I won't have helped fuel Sony's ridiculous hype machine.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by twistedsymphony ( 956982 )
      Yeah but don't you want to buy one to cook up some tasty low-fat Sony brand burgers [ps3grill.com]!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jbrader ( 697703 )
        I hadn't heard about the grill feature, I retract my previous statement. And what's all this about paying for gmail invites? I didn't pay anything.

  • Heh... (Score:2)

    by Otter ( 3800 )
    After hearing chatter about PS3 pre-orders at GameStop in #ps2 on efnet, I checked your site in order to see if it was true. I figured since it was my night off, I might as well waste it camping out for a few hours...Once I got to my nearest Gamestop, I saw there was only one guy camping...He had gotten there at 5 a.m.

    Now there's a gamer -- standing in line at GameStop from 6:30 to 9 qualifies as "camping out".

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by jayhawk88 ( 160512 )
      Now there's a gamer -- standing in line at GameStop from 6:30 to 9 qualifies as "camping out".

      In the guys defense, that's probably about how long the battery in his PSP was good for.
    • Heh.. freakin' campers.. buncha noobs..
    • Now there's a gamer -- standing in line at GameStop from 6:30 to 9 qualifies as "camping out".

      In his defense, camping in front of an electronics store on next-gen-console release day is probably a lot more dangerous than camping in any established campsite you can name...

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by rifter ( 147452 )

      "After hearing chatter about PS3 pre-orders at GameStop in #ps2 on efnet, I checked your site in order to see if it was true. I figured since it was my night off, I might as well waste it camping out for a few hours...Once I got to my nearest Gamestop, I saw there was only one guy camping...He had gotten there at 5 a.m."

      Now there's a gamer -- standing in line at GameStop from 6:30 to 9 qualifies as "camping out".

      Too right! after all clearly the guy going there at 5am was a camper, but what the commenter le

  • Its silly to get a console on release (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tont0r ( 868535 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2006 @04:30PM (#16383119)
    How many consoles have we gone through that had problems on release? Everything from the DS Lite cracking, to the xbox controllers being the size of a small gorilla, to the xbox360 over heating, to faulting dvd roms of the ps2. Its almost at the point where its guaranteed to have a flaw in it. And i feel worse for people who buy it on ebay at an extra $500/pop.

    And with all these horrid rumors of design flaws with the ps3, its more of a reason to just wait it out. Same with the Wii. I refuse to believe that 6 months down the line, they are going to come up with a much more accurate wiimote than the have now.

    • Re:Its silly to get a console on release (Score:5, Interesting)

      by HappySqurriel ( 1010623 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2006 @04:40PM (#16383267)
      Personally, I have only ever had a single problem with a Nintendo made product and that was I got a disc-read error on my launch Gamecube about 8 months after I bought it. My dealings with Nintendo's customer service about my broken Gamecube were so good that I have no worries about buying a Wii at launch; essentially, Nintendo just told me where to drop off the Gamecube and they shipped a refurbished Gamecube overnight to their Depot so I only had 1 day without my gamecube.

      The PS3, on the other hand, I would be worried about mainly because I have had bad experiences with Sony's customer service in the past and the PS3 has a first generation optical disc drive in it; my memories of first generation CD-RW and DVD/DVD-RW drives tells me that the most you can really expect from a drive like this is (about) 12 months of usage. I never want to have another system (like my PS2) where I own it for 13 months and have to go buy a brand new system (at full price) because of a disc-read error.

      • -1 (Score:2, Offtopic)

        by everphilski ( 877346 )
        wii karma whoring in a ps3 article
      • My brother has been through 3 PS2's and an XBox. A friend of mine; 2 PS2's and is awaiting his third 360. I've only purchased Nintendo stuff. Haven't had any problems so far and everything I own save the original NES was purchased at launch. (My SNES has even turned greenish on some pieces of plastic, but plays fine). I don't have any qualms about getting a release model of the Wii.
        • My brother has been through 3 PS2's and an XBox. A friend of mine; 2 PS2's and is awaiting his third 360.
          Ever think this is where they made the money?

          1. Sell consoles
          2. Wait for consoles to break down around the same time manufacturing costs drop
          3. Profit!
          • ...but they're losing money on the XBOX, XBOX 360, and PS3 hardware. So if it breaks, and you buy a new one, it's against Sony and Microsoft's best interests.
    • to faulting dvd roms of the ps2

      If I were looking for early-adopter flaws, I'd select some that have actually been fixed. Even slimline PS2s suffer more drive failures than any other optical-drive console I've ever used. Someday when all the PS2s have failed because their drives died, you'll still be able to get a working Sega CD from a flea market.

    • Re:Its silly to get a console on release (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2006 @05:31PM (#16384075)
      Anyone who buys a console on day 1 needs their head examined. Aside from bragging rights, or sell the thing on ebay, what is the point? If a console is THAT GOOD, it will be just as good a few months down the road. Then you can make an informed purchase decision in the absence of hype and with a good chance of getting a replacement if the thing turns out to be broken.

      This applies equally to the Wii, or any other shiny overhyped piece of kit (e.g. anything made by Apple). Never buy version 1.0 of anything

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Aladrin ( 926209 )
        Crap. I was hoping to never have to have that examination.

        I'm going to buy a Wii at launch. My thought is, at $250, I'll have that much fun in the first 3 months before it breaks/burns down the house/explodes/etc. And then I'll buy one that has been 'fixed' a few months later and everything will be good.

        At $600? Hell no. I didn't even buy a 360 until a month or 2 ago. And I still worry like crazy that it'll overheat and die.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by DrXym ( 126579 )
          You presume that there are enough games to have 3 months worth of fun, that the kit works faultlessly, that the controller is as good as the hype, that the online services (are there any?) don't crash under the load, that the Wii is going to be "better" subjectively than the other consoles. If it's that much fun then it will be that much fun in a few months time when there might be a few more titles. Meanwhile as you say, you've got an XBox360 so I assume there are plenty of titles popping out around Christ

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Cadallin ( 863437 )
      While you may think me deranged, I have a fair amount of faith in Nintendo as a company. So far this hasn't failed me. Nintendo has an excellent reliability track record, even taking into account DS lite problems. They almost always get it right the first time, and when they don't, they fix it. Also, I want to play Twilight Princess + a half dozen other release titles, and if my monkey instincts make me want to play them sooner, rather than later, well, what can I say?

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Reaperducer ( 871695 )
        Nintendo has an excellent reliability track record, even taking into account DS lite problems. They almost always get it right the first time, and when they don't, they fix it.

        Whenever I heard "Nintendo" I think about how all of my friends had to constantly blow on their NES carts to get them to work.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Cadallin ( 863437 )
          And? Electrical contacts get dirty, what's your point?

          More telling, in my opinion, is the number of original (>20 year old) NES machines that can still be made to work perfectly with just this trick. Your PS1 still work? How about your friends'? Hell, how many people do you know that have had to replace a faulty PS2?

          Granted the NES design could have been better (by "better" I mean a top loading cartridge, like the SNES and the famicom in Japan). However, the NES was designed that way in orde

  • Really over $1,000? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Junta ( 36770 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2006 @04:30PM (#16383123)
    At the time of my looking at it, sure amounts were at 1,000 bucks or higher, but that was the starting bid and no one has yet bid on it. Not saying it won't happen, but at the time of story posting it is misleading.

  • Pre-orders are a scam (Score:4, Insightful)

    by The_Pariah ( 991496 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2006 @04:30PM (#16383125)
    GameStop now takes your $100, puts it in the bank, gets mad interest off of your cash and another 400,000 reservations, and you're left with nothing. Instead of just having customers pay when the product is physically here.... Sorry, but I want a product when I put cash down.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Vokkyt ( 739289 )
      Close, pre-orders are hype-machines. The fewer machine they put out means the easier it is to declare that all pre-orders sold out, and the bigger hype they can get from envious users who want to be able to claim that they have a PS3 pre-ordered as well. Think about it; would there be that much hype over the damn things if Sony released like 3.0 million world wide and every store had ~ 50 or so to shell out to people? (more in cities with higher populations) Hell, in that scenario, people would be more su

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by ChildeRoland ( 949144 )
      The entire continent is getting 400k units. GameStop/EB is not going to get them all. Best Buy, Circuit City, WalMart, and more will be selling them without preorders.

      It's not really a scam to me. The way I see it, I am forfeiting the interest from that $100 in exchange for a) waiting outside in the chilly October cold rather than the frigid November cold and b) not having to wait for more than 24 hours outside.
      • I think waiting in line for a game console is pretty lame anyway. There's not a whole lot I'd consider waiting in line to get.

        • I've only waited like that one time, for the midnight release of Halo 2, and it was inside. Probably not the best use of my time, but really, it was more about the camaraderie with the other people in line with me. The talking about video games, playing GBAs, and the anticipation, rather than getting the product itself.

    • Re:Pre-orders are a scam (Score:5, Informative)

      by thefirelane ( 586885 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2006 @04:57PM (#16383569)
      The product launch is about a month away, you put down $100. Lets say you could get 4.40% (currently what I get on savings). ($100*.044)/12 = .36 So you are paying a .36 "fee" to be certain to get a system. Ripoff? hardly.
      • I agree, it's not as if holding onto such small sums of money for such a short time becomes a major income generator. Even if it's 12% APY, that's $1/month per downpayment.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Karma Farmer ( 595141 )
        So you are paying a .36 "fee" to be certain to get a system. Ripoff? hardly.
        Is this some wacky new definition of "certain?"

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Warlock7 ( 531656 )
      First, EB isn't getting 400k units, they're getting a percentage of the 400k available.

      They're also not making that much sure they'll make some interest, but it's less than 45 days away, it's not like they've had the money for months. They're certainly not making "mad interest" as you suggest.

      On top of that, if the item doesn't show up, you get your deposit back.
    • "Sorry, but I want a product when I put cash down."

      That's fine for you, but if they charge a deposit, it makes it harder for people to hoarde systems. (That and it helps ensure the people reserving are absolutely serious about it.)

  • Uh... what? (Score:3, Informative)

    by ack154 ( 591432 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2006 @04:33PM (#16383169)
    Some acutions have already gone north of $1000 USD.

    No they haven't.

    The linked auction search only shows LISTED auctions for the PS3. The starting bids for a couple are $1000 or more. NONE of them (as of this post) have any bids.
    • Well, this auction [ebay.com] ended before your post, for $1250.

      I guess you didn't check the completed listings checkbox.

      For some reason, eBay seems to be cancelling auctions for the PS3...

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Dr. Eggman ( 932300 )
        I would guess some of them edge over the fine lines between what ebay allows and doesn't. Possible candidate violations include:

        Contracts [ebay.com] (Pre-orders may be non-transferable and thus restricted, but the service of purchasing a PS3 on the day of launch with a "guarentee" through the seller's indicated pre-order, might not.)

        Misleading titles [ebay.com] (PS3!!1!11 versus PS3 order)

        pre-sale item [ebay.com] (This is probably the big one, must indicate item will be obtained and shipped no more than 30 days after the listing's
        • It's the pre-sale item. I thought that they allowed up to 90 days, but we're over 30 days away...
          • Technically, it's thirty days after the listing ends rather than 30 days until the product is out so any listing that ends before the 19th (or later depending on how long it takes for the seller to get and deliver the PS3) would be considered restricted.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by crossmr ( 957846 )
          I was going to mod this discussion, but I had to reply.
          Ebay doesn't give a crap about its policies. When someone can list a $50 shipping fee (via regular old post) and a 10% handling fee (based on the final auction price), which are both very clearly against ebay "policy", and ebay's response to an email inquiry into these is "Ebay trusts its sellers to set appropriate prices" (RE: fuck off) then they don't mean shit. Especially if you're a powerseller.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by crossmr ( 957846 )
            ack..that should have been a shipping fee of $50 for a USB thumb drive via regular US post.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Aladrin ( 926209 )
              They are just lazy at policing it. I bought a case for my cellphone from ebay where it was fairly obvious the price was in the shipping, instead of the bid. A month later, I get a message saying the seller's products had all been removed for improper pricing.

              Why I got that message, I don't know. But it was nice to see.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by crossmr ( 957846 )
                In my experience it is rare. When I was quite active on Ebay last year over about 3 months, I reported a lot of things to ebay, most were quite obvious things (like the ridiculously excessive shipping) or blatant misleading titles (D-link NOT linksys or cisco) and everytime the form letter was of the tone "Fuck off we're not going to touch it, this guy has sold 20,000 items here" Because powersellers are the worst offenders by far. I also found powersellers saturating an item, i.e. 20 or 30 of them (ebay li
        • *insert Sony rootkit joke*

          So these two rootkits walk into a bar....
    • I pre-ordered a PS3... how do I auction it off when I don't even own it yet? I thought that was verboten on ebay.

  • Heh (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Iamthefallen ( 523816 ) * <Gmail name: Iamthefallen> on Tuesday October 10, 2006 @04:34PM (#16383189) Homepage Journal
    They waited this long to take pre-orders because they wanted to be sure that they weren't going to get burned like they did for the XBox 360 launch.

    Allow me to express some mild scepticism, but I predict shortages and many unfulfilled pre-orders.

  • This morning I received an email regarding pre-orders sometime after 10am GMT-6. I immediately called the six closest retail locations & they were ALL already out of pre-orders.

    Why not send the email out DAYS ahead of time?

    Oh well, I was just going to use the EBAY profits to fund my Wii.

  • A sufficient bunch of suckers apparently was born (Score:3, Insightful)

    by suv4x4 ( 956391 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2006 @04:44PM (#16383355)
    A sufficient bunch of suckers apparently was born for this.

    So, $1000 eBay auctions for PS3 pre-orders. How do I describe this.

    - it's a preorderm might not even happen
    - they are willing to be the guinea pigs to try out the first (possibly faulty) batch of PS3
    - how do you call something that's overpriced, and then overpriced again? But yea, that too.

    So keep it going. If I ever buy a PS3, it'll be in an year or so when I'll get it for less than its current retail price, with rich game selection, stable performance (all major software and hardware bugs fixed), and if it flops I might even just save myself the $500 or so, and just play with my xbox.

  • Thank You, Beta Testers (Score:5, Funny)

    by thatguywhoiam ( 524290 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2006 @04:50PM (#16383439)
    We are pleased that so many of you have volunteered your hard-earned time and money to be the first to work out all the kinks in this first generation of PlaysDISK READ ERROR

  • Rewards? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Daemonstar ( 84116 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2006 @04:58PM (#16383605)
    reaping the sweet rewards.
    Wait, so, standing in line in order to get something that you're just going to resell to get more money while the person behind you wants to buy the same item for her kids for Christmas, and then realizes her checkbook was empty and has to leave, is a reward?

    I guess on the bright side, it saved her lots of cash to buy other (hopefully less expensive) things for her kids.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Eccles ( 932 )
      Perhaps by doing this buying and selling, I can afford Xmas presents for *my* family?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by @madeus ( 24818 )
        Perhaps by doing this buying and selling, I can afford Xmas presents for *my* family?

        Or perhaps you could do an honest days work, instead of being a lazy weasel trying to make a fast buck at someone else's expense.

        But you should do what feels right.

        Just don't be surprised if Santa brings you coal this year, on account of him having your name listed under "Naug"^W "Cunts". YMMV.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Kris_J ( 10111 ) *
          Perhaps by doing this buying and selling, I can afford Xmas presents for *my* family?

          Or perhaps you could do an honest days work, instead of being a lazy weasel trying to make a fast buck at someone else's expense.
          What, you can't do both?

          I'm hoping to get enough extra copies of the Collector's Edition of the World of Warcraft expansion Burning Crusade to pay for everything I've spent on the game so far.

        • How is it being a weasel? If people are willing to pay more for one off eBay, they must think it's worth it. Are you scamming them by giving them what they want at a price they agree to? The fact that this even happens only shows that the manufacturers have set the price too low for the demand. I honestly don't understand the ill-will directed at the "pre-order then sell on eBay" crowd.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sokoban ( 142301 )
      "I guess on the bright side, it saved her lots of cash to buy other (hopefully less expensive) things for her kids."

      Like a Wii and a half dozen games?

    • Re:Rewards? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by chris_eineke ( 634570 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2006 @06:46PM (#16384933) Homepage Journal
      Oh, stop it already. That story of the mom in line to pick up a brand-spanking new console for her kid is a hasty generalization at best.

      Why don't you think of the hard working widower Dad that needs to work 12 hours a day to pay for his Son's cancer treatment and wants to make his son's life more cheerful by buying him a PS3 from eBay because that's the only place he can get his hands on one?

      Won't someone think of the fallacy?

  • Fraud? (Score:2, Redundant)

    by jgoemat ( 565882 )
    From both accounts I've read, it seems like stores might not be playing by the rules. Rumors that only 2 per store were for friends or family, with one store selling six to friends and family and another selling all of theirs... I think it would be fitting if Sony did an investigation and refused to give ANY to a store that had a problem like that. Many of the 'friends and family' are probably just making money on EBay...

  • Wow... $1600!!! (Score:2, Redundant)

    by Warlock7 ( 531656 )
    This one [ebay.com] went for $1600...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pembo13 ( 770295 )
      hhaha, talk about suckered
    • " am only accepting PAYPAL for this auction and payment MUST be made within 3 days of auction end.

      What kind of brain-dead idiot would agree to terms like that for a product that:

      1. Might not ship from the factory when estimated

      2. Might not be shipped to EB Games in the estimated numbers

      3. Might not be provided to the client who prepaid ("Oops! We got a defective! Sorry buddy, you get the first one next time!")

      I can see asking for a deposit. Say, oh, $100. But whoever bought this out deserves to
  • Okay. I've bought LOTS of Sony stuff. Thousands of dollars worth.

    Trinitron Tube'd TV's
    Disk- and Walk-men
    Standalone home theatre speakers
    nifty AV receivers
    a Laptop
    A Camcorder.
    several pairs of headphones
    countless Sony branded movies and albums, I'm sure.

    And I'll never buy another Sony product again. Why?

    Rootkits
    Proprietary Media - MD, DAT, Memory Sticks, little odd writeable DVD's for their camcorders, PSP's oddball media, Beta, and now BluRay. I'm sick sick sick of the intentional fracturing of the market at the expense of the customer.
    A Laptop installed with XP that _couldn't_ take SP2 due to a crappy memory controller.
    Decisions for music players that just flat seemed STUPID (ATRAC?)
    The fact they're betting the company on this one, expensive, item that has a cobbled together controller at a price I don't care to spend, forcing a media format I do not want.

    Coupled with my moving away from physical media for entertainment purposes (I'll probable not get either competing format. I shifted from record and 8track to cassette, then CD's, from VHS to laserdisk to DVD.) I'm tired of re-buying the White Album, catch my drift?

    Are you guys really falling all over yourselves for this company? Haven't they screwed you enough? (And by you, I mean the Customer)

    Sony is an example of a machine that's gotten so large, it cannot move without standing on itself. I see no reason my money should reward it for its actions.

    • I agree with most of what you said. I hate that any company uses proprietary stuff but lets leave PSP's media out of this. The PSP is a handheld game console and it's expected to use proprietary media. It's not like Nintendo is making handhelds that use regular dvd's, nor should they be expected to. For things like digital cameras we only need one standard. All cameras could use the same cards and then we wouldn't need 15-n-1 card readers anymore. But when I buy a game system I expect to have to use whateve

    • Re:I'll be your token troll for this thread (Score:5, Insightful)

      by oGMo ( 379 ) on Wednesday October 11, 2006 @01:05AM (#16388677)
      Are you guys really falling all over yourselves for this company? Haven't they screwed you enough? (And by you, I mean the Customer)

      On the contrary. SCE has delivered two solid platforms already, each with thousands of games, hundreds of those being of excellent quality. Too many to play, too many to choose from. This isn't what I call "screwing over".

      Does Sony/BMG do stupid stuff? Yes. Does Sony Pictures do stupid stuff? They're MPAA---yes. Does Sony Computer Entertainment do stupid stuff? Probably, but less so. What they have done is deliver a solid platform with a solid library. Have they secretly funded organizations to undermine the Linux community? No. So, yes, I'm "voting" with my dollar; I may "vote no" to Sony/BMG, I may "vote no" to Sony Pictures, but I will "vote yes" to SCE. May they set an example for the rest of the company.

  • Here [ebay.com]'s a good one...

  • How about some REAL discussion? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 10, 2006 @06:57PM (#16385065)
    I don't care if you're not going to buy the ps3. I also don't care if you're going to use the hypothetical money you set aside for a ps3, to now buy a Wii. I don't care that you feel so persecuted by one company that you take every chance you get to tell everyone about your Sony boycott.


    ...The mere mention of the word "rootkit" should not mean you automatically get modded "funny".

    Slashdots games section is next only to Gamefaqs when it comes to trollish/childish behaviour. And now since I'm adding nothing to this discussion, I'll leave to start my own boycott.

  • eBay has a fairly clear policy [ebay.com] regarding pre-sale auctions...I'd imagine any PS3 listing that get pulled probably don't satisfy their requirements.

    From the eBay rules site:
    Pre-sale listings are those that describe items for sale that are not in the control or possession of the seller at the time of the listing. These listings generally consist of items that are sold in advance of a delivery date to the public.

    eBay permits Pre-sale listings only on a limited basis. The seller must guarantee that t

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