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Wii Takes Over eBay

"November 22, 2006 - While eBay auctions of the PlayStation 3 have reached record-breaking highs for a video game console, the real surprise for the online auction site was the unexpected success of the Nintendo Wii.

Red Herring is reporting that by Tuesday afternoon, eBay users had already purchased more than 14,400 Wiis since the console's launch on Sunday. While the $430 average that sellers have been receiving for console may not seem like that much compared to the multi-thousand dollar price point of the PS3, it is a 72% markup over the retail price of $249.99.

As of Tuesday afternoon, eBay had racked up about 11,300 PS3 units sold, far behind the sales of the Wii despite the fact that it has been on the market for less time. Of course, there are far fewer PS3 units available for purchase due to the system's rarity, so that may have something to do with the higher sales of Nintendo's new console."

Micah Seff

$430, that's kind of dumb to pay. I mean second shipments are coming, and some stores are getting shipments every day. Why pay that kind of markup?

Prices are already dropping on eBay. The console by itself seems to be averaging about $350 + shipping, but I've seen auctions ending as low as $310 + shipping. I think most of the fanboy demand has dropped off, and a lot of people are realizing that new shipments are likely to be coming in soon.

It's really funny to see a bunch of auctions with starting bids of $350 and $400 (let alone $600) close with nobody bidding. So much for the scalpers.

I've even seen auctions for Zelda closing at $49.99, which is the same as the list price, if I recall. Assuming they paid sales tax on it, those scalpers are actually taking a loss...

Hey. How long do you think it will be until I can see copies of TP and Red Steel at my local stores? They are supposedly "Sold-Out", which if I got a Wii for Christmas, and I couldn't get TP, I would be quite upset.

Actually, it looks like the eBay prices are going up again, mostly because there are fewer Wii auctions now. As late as this afternoon it seemed like there were a bunch of auctions ending within a given minute, but now there aren't as many. So perhaps the smarter scalpers who waited to list their Wiis after the first flood will make a little more money.