Once again, scalpers are ruining the day of gamers looking to get their hands on the latest hardware, by reselling the PS Portal for insane prices.
Whenever there’s a new piece of gaming hardware out there, scalpers love to spoil the good time. Reselling was a major issue for those who wanted a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S in the first year of the console’s lifespan, and those same resellers never seemed to fully go away.
But now that the current-gen consoles are more readily available, scalpers have a new target: the PlayStation Portal.
Scalpers Reselling for Enormous Mark-Ups
It seems that a large percentage of the PS Portal stock went to scalpers, judging by the number of listings for the remote play device that have appeared online with huge mark-ups.
Despite the device retailing for $199.99, listings on eBay report that sales of $300 and above are already being completed.
What’s remarkable is that while the PS Portal did sell out on PlayStation Direct, there doesn’t actually seem to be a lot of hype around the device.
In fact, we personally believe the MSRP for the Portal is already quite pricy, given that the hardware is simply a way of streaming your PS5 to a handheld device.
To pay an additional $100 on top of that would be unthinkable – you’d almost be able to afford a second PS5 for that money!
Will More PS Portal Restocks Come Before Christmas?
Yes, the PS Portal is confirmed to restock before Christmas, which should be music to the ears of those considering purchasing the device through a reseller.
The PlayStation Portal page on PS Direct currently states ‘check back early December,’ which certainly suggests a restock is coming soon.
Even more optimistically, the UK page asks site visitors to check back on Wednesday, November 22, 2023. It is therefore very likely that stock will be coming back on that date, for all those looking to buy.
However, scalpers will definitely be looking to snatch up that stock, perhaps with even more gusto now that the device has proven capable of both selling out and re-sold.