PS3 availability

PhantomOG

Strolling through Costco last night and was surprised to see PS3's just sitting there on the shelf. Are these things readily available now? I think its hilarious that people were paying 2x msrp 2 weeks ago and now can get it so easily off the shelf.

Wouldn't mind having one just for the Blu-Ray player itself but I'll wait for the $600 price tag to drop a bit.

Gaara

I find it more humorous that a few weeks after pre orders they could be found selling for $5000+. I saw three go a few days ago for below retail.

Jared

PhantomOG

What time of year did the PS2 come out? I seem to remember the hyped up pricing/low availability time period lasted longer then.

bobman1235

The PS2s were significantly less expensive, so a lot more people wanted them for themselves. Most people who bought the PS3s were just buying them to turn a profit. After the initial batch of them selling in the thousands, a lot of folks couldn't get rid of them for more than ~100 over retail, so actually returned them to the stores for their money back. And now a lot of stores have those returns sitting on the shelves at retail or below. Pretty funny.

Demiurge

I'm not aware of anyone pre-Christmas who wasn't able to turn a $200+ profit on them.

bobman1235

I was basing that comment off of this article from right before Christmas, which was about people who couldn't turn more than a 10-20% profit returning their PS3s to stores.

Demiurge

When you list it for $2,000, with a reserve it's not going to sell. Gotta be realistic with the market. There's no way that they had to return their PS3s to the store because they couldn't make any money. Maybe not a cool grand, but they could have made a couple hunnies.

I know I did.

Anyhow, I agree with the point of this thread. The folks who had to have them are morons, IMO. Can't wait a whole month? :rolleyes:

PolkWannabie

... and as the saying goes ... a moron and his cash are soon parted ...

Gaara

If you look on ebay under advanced features you can see closed auctions. I am surprised to see they go back almost a month, plenty with little profit. For example item 170059545030 a premium ps3 retails for $599 + tax sold for 500 + 50 shipping on December 10th here. The reason I was looking was my cousin needed one for his son, and was unsure if his hookup at target would get one in time. I watched three auctions close, two below retail and one above. This was roughly a week before Christmas when I was looking.

Jared

vhabaygiurbm

Amazing...

Mjr7531

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/753/753859p1.html

You can only reign so long I suppose, Sony had it coming with their pretentiousness. The Circuit City by me had a broken Kiosk Unit and 6 more on the shelf (presumably working.)

mutelight

There was no way that I was willing to spend one cent more than retail. I truly cannot believe the people that spent anything over retail let alone multiple times. That absolutely blows my mind. I finally decided that I wanted one so I went to Best Buy grabbed one and paid $300 for it up front then put the rest of it on my Best Buy card which I will pay off over the next half a year. There is no way I could convince myself to drop $600 all at once.

BaggedLancer

I would never even pay retail for a ps3. I'll wait for someone I know to be in desperate need of cash and sell me it cheap.

scottvamp

I have had my hands on the PS3 the last week or so. I am simply holding off for a few big game titles to hit. First up is Motorstorm and then L.A.I.R.
Blu-Ray is not an issue for me right now. I am really enjoying what Direct TV HD has had to offer in the last several years. I am one of those that is unhappy with MY dvd market. I have not paid even close to retail for dvd's in a long time. Nearing 700 dvd's at the monent. If the PS3 would have used it processing power to upconvert then thats a whole different story.
I have a new Sony DVD player on the way from Best Buy and my next purchase will be a front projector with DVI or HDMI capabilities.
I am simply buying my time with the PS3 and the 360 V2. The older i get, the more patience a have.
Just like the slow start for Blu-Ray did not make it a doomed format.

Pablo

I bought one at Walmart a week before Christmas not realizing how available they were. I saw some going just below cost on e-bay. I took it back and got myself a Wii.

scottvamp

Just got an email from Ebgames. Get a $100 off PS3 with PS2 trade in. Just so happens, i have a spare unit just collecting dust.:D

noimposse

My brother in law works at the local Toys-r-us and he told me they cant get rid of ps3's. They are just sitting in the back not getting sold and its been that way for weeks.

Either people just figure they arent available yet or theyre just not going to be that big of a seller...

scottvamp

Not that big of a seller - they broke a million units in 6 weeks. Also as i said above are big reasons. Not bad for system that is not a $100 toy.

With that said, i scored a PS3 today and got the $100 trade in on my spare PS2. $529 out the door. This unit is gorgous and well packaged. I will give it a go this weekend. What is really cool also is the $70 in Blu-Ray disc rebates. That is about 10 bucks a DVD, not bad. Also forgot about the SACD and many other features including Dolby TrueHD.

A Saints win tomorrow, PS3, a new DVD player on the way and four days off work. I likey..................:D

bobman1235

So... they sold a million units in six weeks.... w hich is worse than what the PS2 did in THE SAME SIX WEEKS.

During December, Sony in particular turned in surprisingly strong sales — but not for its new PlayStation 3.

In a development that industry analysts said spoke to the strength of the video game market and the lure of low prices, the best-selling console during the holiday season in America was Sony's six-year-old PlayStation 2.

Americans bought 1.4 million PlayStation 2s during the period. That was more than the Xbox 360, which sold 1.1 million units; the Nintendo Wii, which sold 604,000; and the PlayStation 3, which sold 491,000.

The fact that people are still lining up outside of stores to grab a Wii, whereas almost every retailer has a few PS3s on the shelves speaks volumes.

scottvamp

Ya the PS2, that would be the highest selling game console of all time. I was one of them that purchased the slim in the last couple months. It fits in the palm of your hand. And still big titles to be released. At a buck 29, it can't be beat. I also bought the JoyTech 7 inch attachable mobile screen, it freaking rocks.:D

I am blown away by the PSP, but have no use for a portable "stuff".

ND13

scottvamp wrote:

Also forgot about the SACD and many other features including Dolby TrueHD.

COOOL!!!, I haven't studied up a whole lot on every feature of the PS3. It's nice to know that it'll do SACDs, as I haven't that format capability, til now.:cool:

Sansui

My son noticed a sign at Walmart in the electornic section today (at the main isle) today. He mentioned that it looks like Walmart is trying to make a "false hype" with the PS3. The sign looked like it had been there awhile. It basically said, "PS3 available! Limit 1 per customer".

mutelight

Sansui wrote:

My son noticed a sign at Walmart in the electornic section today (at the main isle) today. He mentioned that it looks like Walmart is trying to make a "false hype" with the PS3. The sign looked like it had been there awhile. It basically said, "PS3 available! Limit 1 per customer".

No actually, I think they are just trying to tell people that they are in stock. I have also seen that sign and next to it there is another sign saying that Wiis are out of stock.

scottvamp

I fired up the PS3 today. It was a beeach to get the unit on a screen and the internet. But i managed to get it going. Loaded the latest firmware, it took about a half hour. 3 so far. I will try to go wireless soon.
Then i plugged it up to my HD Tosh 65", and everything is sharp as hell. The PS2 games looked better, the Blu-Ray demo disc i have worked great and my standard dvd's look better than ever. I believe my Tosh upconverts everything to 1080i anyway.
So far so good..............................................................:cool:

mutelight

scottvamp wrote:

I fired up the PS3 today. It was a beeach to get the unit on a screen and the internet. But i managed to get it going. Loaded the latest firmware, it took about a half hour. 3 so far. I will try to go wireless soon.
Then i plugged it up to my HD Tosh 65", and everything is sharp as hell. The PS2 games looked better, the Blu-Ray demo disc i have worked great and my standard dvd's look better than ever. I believe my Tosh upconverts everything to 1080i anyway.
So far so good..............................................................:cool:

I had a hell of a time getting mine up and running but once was all said and done I have to say it is a very sleek console. I just downloaded the latest 300 trailer and it looked phenomenal. If you don't own Resistance you owe it to yourself to buy it or at least rent it.

Sansui

mutelight wrote:

No actually, I think they are just trying to tell people that they are in stock. I have also seen that sign and next to it there is another sign saying that Wiis are out of stock.

I think that was my son's point. They're in stock (ie: not selling). He "keeps up" on stuff like that.

scottvamp

mutelight wrote:

I had a hell of a time getting mine up and running but once was all said and done I have to say it is a very sleek console. I just downloaded the latest 300 trailer and it looked phenomenal. If you don't own Resistance you owe it to yourself to buy it or at least rent it.

Thanks, i'm going at least rent Resistance, not a big first shooter person. I have to set up for wireless on the internet. I need to find a wireless reciever that works with the PS3. It is a very sleek console and with the firmware upgrades, i sure Sony will take care of anything that comes up........

cheddar

Some of you just can't wait to put the nail in the ps3's coffin. There are some consoles finally available at retail after Christmas and it must be 'cause they can't move them.

Lol, if they're sitting in the back of TRU then the manager should get some stockboy to stack them out front :rolleyes:. If they're gonna hide them in the back, what do they expect? People just assume the wiis and the ps3s will be sold out.

It could also vary by location. I had to drive 50 miles to a wally superstore before I got one - the last one - that was jammed into the kiosk storage area. It took two employees to figure out how to work the box free without breaking the glass door.

I'm toying with the blu-ray stuff now so I'll post impressions in the electronics section since I don't have any games to play...yet...;).

howie777

PS3s are widely available by me. Just about every store has them in stock and highly visable. Best Buy had a table set up right in front of the store one Sunday after an ad. No one lined up outside the store, and Best buy still has a bunch left after 2 weeks. This is how things are looking at a lot of locations in the US, not just by me (western Michigan). This is why people are saying its dead. I also hear they are starting to loose exclusive titles due to the poor sales of the sytem itself (unconfirmed rumor so who knows). The Wii's are out every where and have actually SOLD Millions of cousels all ready where sony has only SHIPPED one million and are not sold out. This is why people are leary of PS3 right now. They need some killer titles to get the blood flowing in that system. I personally will wait and see, mainly due to the lack of titles and the cost. I'd hate to buy a $600 system only to see it die like Neo Geo, dreamcast and others.

I won't say its dead just yet, but its dying right now. But they have a couple titles on the way people are excited about, so who knows. Competition is good, and there are PS only titles I like so hopefully it will come around.

Howie

cheddar

No doubt the wii is selling well. But they are defintely different games for different audiences. The wii is all about the nunchucks. The ps3 is all about the graphics and as yet untapped capacity. Dying is a pretty strong word to use only a few months after launch. The vast majority of their production so far is not sitting on shelves but already in people's homes since they were only going to make at most 2 million by the end of 2006 and this site -

http://www.vgcharts.org/

already has a million and a half sold.

Wait for solid numbers to come out. And you'll get the real story. I'd say it will take until next Christmas to see how things are really shaking out.

scottvamp

Guitar Hero II sold almost a many units as Gears of War (the all MS must own) GHII requires an "$80" controller. PS2 rules all............. Waaaaaaa!!!!!


Just rented Ridge Racer 7. Game play and graphics are solid. Resistance seems hard to come by. Scored the Blu-Ray remote and the BlueTooth kicks A$$ on it. Also got the PS2 memory card adapter and it worked awesome. Stored my saved games right to the hard drive. Not a single problem, but that internal keyboard is a beach. I guess since i never text message, its seems hard to me.

Cheddar, did ya get the firmware updates all in?