Well considering a literal plethora of very well known gaming websites have reported that two days after release of the device Sony was sold out and literally thousands appeared on eBay, etc at as quoted in the articles, "Scalper" prices. When these sort of things happen it causes problems for the company as consumers can't get product and private unauthorized by Sony who own the intellectual property profiteer.
It's been a problem for quite sometime with video gaming hardware and damages the manufacturers image with both consumers and the authorized retailers. For example, lets say Best Buy run's flyer ad's, online ad's which cost money to do in advance and upon release of a given item. Resellers snap them up and as consumer want buy them Best Buy who HAD enough inventory to meet expectant demand now doesn't. That results in anger consumers, loss of potential customers to the company and damages reputation. Sometimes these retailers limit purchase numbers, two per customer. So a reseller has wife, kid, etc going in buying em' up all with intent for resale for profit.
BestBuy is not in the business of making external resellers money nor is Walmart, Target or in this case Sony to unauthorized resale. Now if I happen to go into BestBuy, purchase one, I get it home and the wife yells at me and I resell it thats one thing. If I am intentionally engaging in "arbitrage" towards profit, that's a different thing. It's considered a Predatory Business Practice legally if pursued. We'd a chain of game stores here with four five locations along with two in malls. They're employee's would go out out to other retailers when sales take place and get inventory. Walmart who is BRUTAL about this stuff filed Predatory Business Practice charges against the owners one of which was actually a former NY State Trooper. The State Attorney General was involved and all the stores closed never to re-open. No idea what damages etc were awarded but clearly it was all enough and perhaps law breaking that they never recovered.
So all that said and done, could be anything. Could be eBay restricting on velocity limits. Could be Sony going at eBay. Could be Sony going through the Fed to go at eBay. Amazon more than likely disallow the resale at word go not allowing the SKU to be listed against by third parties.
People often care cite First Sale Doctrine which actually as matter of law was about copyrighted works, the ability for a consumer or store to resell pre-owned product. Theory there is once a consumer buy a book the moment the transaction takes place it's no longer new, its pre-owned. "FSD" has been upheld in many courts as a defense to retail or online arbitrage however also not been the case in courts when it comes to what media calls "Scalping."
Now if you place yourself in some shoes... You've created lets say "Widget X" and pre-release reviews have it as the RAGE! You've BestBuy and Target, Walmart, Gamestop all placed orders under Consignment terms. You're manufacturing wheel met that demand as well as you're direct sales online demand. It releases and there are resellers all over it. The retail channel you're company manufactured orders for sells out quickly leaving consumers unable to buy there. You're own direct channel sells out quickly disallowing consumers to buy direct from you. Meantime online you're seeing the product sold for twice or more what the MSRP is. Consumers are yelling and placing blame upon you're authorized resellers and you're company. How ya' feel about that?
The reason Gamestop doesn't usher employees or their buyers over to Walmart for the Video Game title specials only to turn them around and resell for profit is a Predatory Conduct. If I bought 50 of you're widget X which has an MSRP of say $199 and I'm blasting em' out here on eBay for $450 resulting in angry consumers towards you're licensed entities WHO HAVE PAID YOU to be licensed how's that go? You're support lines are inundated with angry consumers whilst you're licensed retailers are begging you for more product as their consumers are screaming at them.
Its a mess. Now I'm not faulting you but thats the landscape. I know a fella whom anything Zelda, Mario etc comes out he snaps up a bunch of them and sits on them for years on end as they valuate. I mean who'd thunk Gameboy and Gameboy advance Pokemon Red's, Greens etc still sealed in original packaging perfect that someone would pay more for than similar weight of actual gold? But, there it is.
I don't even pretend to know the answers to these varied problems. To me "Reality spoken" manufacturers OUGHT have a channel whereby small sellers can become licensees and within acquisition controls be non-impactors on the big retailers and thus be benefit to say Sony or Nintendo or LG or even Apple or Samsung. Perhaps even in partnership with places such as Best Buy, aka: My ten units are there and next month my next 10 units are there and BestBuy make a little money at it. In other words, your authorized as a reseller paying MSRP so Sony lets say and BestBuy both get their due and all is well in salesville.
That'd make sense but when dealing with these super entities nothing tends make sense from the outside looking in. I'd call it even suspicious be frank with you. Here Sony knows they've a hot tomato going to the hit the market, they know that via the buzz in tech sites etc. They could well produce numbers that would flatten the market... That is to say, no reseller going to buy them as the quantities released make it readily available at MSRP to all takers and then some. The fact they dont is suspicious IMHO. They know not meeting demand sheds bad light on their company and licensed partners. They know that from a history of this stuff and yet, do it again. Why? Perhaps their recoding and fielding all the complaints from consumers and going to use that data to stop those third party resellers?
I don't know... Now if it were me, I'd not engage in it and here's why. I'd anticipate chargeback after chargeback these days and who knows maybe that's what the retailers encourage.
"I wanted buy it at Best Buy instead I paid $400!" Doesn't the manager turn around and tell them do a chargeback or Sony support reps citing same. Possible.
I know the entirety of it all has been a big problem, same with Video Cards for PC's whereby the BitCoin etc miners snap up the boards or resellers do. No idea how banks or card processors work those circumstances.
The fact media attaches the term "Scalping" to such things is really really worrisome. In the USA Scalping is not illegal for like Tickets to a play or band as matter of Federal law yet some states have laws on the books, fines, this/that, some even up into a year in jail.
I might not even surprised if Sony pull a fast one as the hearings over the Safe Shopping Act are underway with a, "Oh by the way... Look at this" as the Safe Shopping Act is all about protecting consumers, manufacturers and licensed entities. It's a nice company, they were the first to say, "Well if not bought at a licensed retailer we wont support any warranty" followed by consumers loosing their danged minds as PS/3's got so hot melt the crap solder they'd used (unleaded)... Followed by, "Ooops... We changed our minds."
