The scalpers are back at it again and this time, they’re trying to sell PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary Edition pre-orders on eBay for over $10,000. Keep in mind that this isn’t even the console itself but rather a pre-order ticket to say that the console is secured.
Sony previously announced the PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection which includes a variety of PS1-themed accessories and consoles. The limited edition PS5 Pro console in this collection is the big ticket item – only 12,300 of these consoles were made globally. Now it’s currently being flogged online by scalpers for ridiculous prices. A quick glance at eBay will bring up dozens of PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary consoles (rather, the pre-order tickets) selling for thousands of dollars – well above Sony’s asking price of $999.
As of writing, one listing currently has it bidding for a whopping $12,289. If you had to directly convert this to rands, you’d be spending over R200,000 which is absolutely insane (and disgusting on the scalper’s part). Other listings by scalpers are less expensive but still bidding for around $4-5k, more than five times its asking price. Online platforms like eBay are quickly putting up disclaimer warning buyers about potential scalpers.
The best advice we can give is to simply ignore the obvious attempts at scalping. We’ve seen this debacle happen before with the launch of the PS5 back in 2020 when chance-takers were also trying to sell the console for well above its retail price. The worst thing is many fell for it due to the high demand and limited availability of PS5s at the time due to chip shortages.
As for local pre-orders for the standard PS5 Pro, South African buyers will have to wait a little while longer as pre-orders did not open up locally yesterday at the same time as the rest of the world. According to PlayStation South Africa’s social media pages, the console has yet to receive its ICASA and NRCS clearance. Local pricing has yet to be confirmed.
