If you really want a ps5, then I’d recommend buying one off StockX. The seller sends it to StockX, StockX verifies it as an unopened ps5, and then StockX ships

If you really want a ps5, then I’d recommend buying one off StockX. The seller sends it to StockX, StockX verifies it as an unopened ps5, and then StockX ships it to you. They’ve been doing this with sneakers and such for a while, and their bid/ask market is entirely transparent. Some would probably say this is only encouraging scalpers, and while this may be true, scalping wouldn’t be an issue if there wasn’t first a supply issue. The scalpers are actually providing a service here: enabling those who want the product the most to get it first. Why should the blind luck of pressing “add to cart” at the exact right moment between inventory filling up and servers coming back online determine who gets a product and who doesn’t? It makes me wonder how many other areas in life could be “scalped” — how many products have scarcity that only need a reseller marketplace to ensure a variable pricing that takes into account 1) that demand is not actually an aggregate, and 2) that disposable income is not an average. Granted, a haggling-driven economy is onerous, as anyone who has lived in a developing country can attest to. But what if haggling weren’t onerous? What if every purchase on Amazon was a bid/ask market? If you want the product now, then bid at the lowest ask. If you are okay with waiting, then put in a low bid and hope for the best. I’m trying to think of a good reason that prices should be fixed, but the only reason I can think of it that verbal haggling is inefficient and that digital markets are not trivial to build. I’m probably just trying to assuage my guilt over paying scalpers, but I think there is probably a unicorn of a startup somewhere in here.