Sony's limited edition retro-themed PlayStation 4 went up for pre-order over the weekend. Considering the company only made 12,300 of these numbered collectors' items, it should come as little surprise that there were far more buyers than Sony had inventory to cover.
It should also come as little surprise that several of these pre-orders have since popped up on eBay. And while the auctions are fetching their respective owners a nice profit over the $499.99 that Sony charged for the system, don't be misled by some of the sensational headlines you might have seen that claim they're selling for $20K.
A quick check of sold listings on eBay reveals the average selling price of a 20th anniversary PS4 is anywhere between $1,500 and $2,000, give or take a few hundred bucks.
There is one auction that "sold" for $20,100 but if you look at the bid history, it's pretty clear that trolls / scammers with zero feedback artificially raised the price. The same can be said for the auction that finished at $15,100 as well as the one that went for $10,600.
Hopefully those sellers aren't foolish enough to fall for such an obvious scam.
Sony announced the limited edition console last week in celebration of the PlayStation's 20th anniversary. The retro-themed PS4 is designed to look as much like the original as possible and for console collectors, this will almost certainly be a must-have item.
The limited edition systems are scheduled to ship on December 22.