I just came across this.
CEX are offering £600 for used PS5s and selling them for £750.
How do people feel about this?
CEX are offering £600 for used PS5s and selling them for £750.
How do people feel about this?
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So the used electronics stores, CEX, are acting as scalpers?
- Thread starter Ocarina_117
- Start date
This is CeX's entire business model. They're a franchised pawn shop.
Even worse is the number of those that will be laundering stolen goods or dirty money.
This is of course a natural and predictable outcropping of free market economics, if CeX didn't exist something else extremely similar would fill the niche, so as usual the root of the problem is Capitalism.
Even worse is the number of those that will be laundering stolen goods or dirty money.
This is of course a natural and predictable outcropping of free market economics, if CeX didn't exist something else extremely similar would fill the niche, so as usual the root of the problem is Capitalism.
They're paying owners above the RRP for a used system and then attempting to sell it for a profit, I don't really see the issue. They've basically always done this since they're just a more "upmarket" pawn shop, although it leaves them super vulnerable to people dumping stuff just before the price craters.
I remember a used media store near me was effectively offering a bounty on Wii systems back when it launched. At one point it got up to like $400 if you brought them one.
Thecnically yes. Sold some games and anime DVDs to finance my Switch, and one of the hottest one was Persona 3 FES for 45 euros. At best, you can give whatever you don't need and buy sweet deals and find rare games, at worst, is used by pickpocketers to sell stolen phones.
OP
OP
I was just a bit taken back, I'd never known them to pay over the odds for an item like this before.
Was it the same with the PS4 launch?
Was it the same with the PS4 launch?
It's pretty shitty to charge so much but it's also draining a lot of PS5s from scalpers, so it's kind of a good thing in a way? I mean, buying a console from CEX is gonna be much safer than buying one from eBay or Amazon and it's not like scalpers aren't selling PS5s for way more than £750 whenever possible either. I'm kinda optimistic that CEX selling PS5s at a set price will lower what scalpers are charging as a result.
Wait are you telling me that we live under capitalism?
Buying low and selling high is a core principle that underpins capitalism.
I'd put this pretty low down the list of the evils of capitalism. I don't like this but "having to wait or pay more for a video game system" is pretty minor.
Buying low and selling high is a core principle that underpins capitalism.
I'd put this pretty low down the list of the evils of capitalism. I don't like this but "having to wait or pay more for a video game system" is pretty minor.
IIRC yes, although the buy price was much closer to RRP since you could still get your hands on a PS4 at that point. NES Classic is probably a better more recent example. They want to get the latest "must buy" item in stock to take advantage of a safe chance to turn a profit, and it's the sort of thing people will also trade in their phones and other consoles to get (which they then also make a profit off).
They're also one of the few high street shops where you can just walk in and buy games for older consoles. They're a second hand shop, not a pawn shop. They merely buy and sell, don't offer loans or hold people's products.
As shitty as a company they can be I will always have some small gratitude for them as they sent me to E3 in 2006.
At the start of the lockdowns, you could sell them pretty much any recent VR headset for more than their RRP.
They were paying £300 for 64gb Oculus Quest 1 the day Quest 2 was revealed... for £300.
Nothing new, they were selling copies of Modern Warfare 2 a day or two before release for around £70-80 where I lived. Unsurprising to say the least.
They're currently selling pre-owned Switch's for £280 and the RRP for a new Switch is £279.99.
I sold my launch day Wii to CEX about a year after it came out for £100 over RRP. God knows what they sold it for. If an item is in demand, they'll pay over the odds to get stock in because they know they can shift it.
I remember when the Rathbone St branch managed to get a Dreamcast the day before the Japanese launch, and they put it up for £2000
I really don't know how CEX get away with everything they do. The amount of things you see in there that are clearly stolen goods alone is amazing, let alone the scalping they encourage.
Was CEX around that long? It only came here to Ireland I'd say maybe in the last....10 years or so?
I believe in the UK it started in the early 90s. I lived in Dublin in 2010 when the first Irish store opened, filled up with crap DVD's and stolen gear pretty quickly.
Some of the older branches date back to the 90s, and in looking it up I just learned a belter of a fact... one of the founders of CEX was Charlie Brooker.
Disgusting but expected all the same. Everything they sell looks like it's been dragged through Chernobyl backwards
They were buying Ring Fit Adventure for ~£100 and selling it for ~£150 back at the start of lockdown.
I remember beating The Order 1886 the day it came out and taking it to CEX and they offered me like £25 lmao. Fuck outta here.
Cash Generator doing the same? They're known dodgy businesses that sell on stolen goods, so not that surprising.
I keep saying this but the aftermarket price of the ps5 and XSX are proving Sony and MS underpriced these things. When you have sky high demand and low supply raise the price. They turn launch into a circus. Price the new consoles at $800 until January or February when your stock situation settles and make the money yourself instead of creating this crazy secondary market.
I'd say it's not quite the same because they're not buying from official outlets for the purposes of resale. These are systems that people have brought to them to sell, and most likely they will be from people who genuinely just don't want their system, rather than resellers, because their buy price is not good.
Many times I've traipsed round to my local store after I've identified a bulk theft in mine (hmv store manager) and the stolen stock is there on their back counter. More recently I got into a heated conversation with one of their staff, who refused to put a flag/note on a 'customers' account after I had gone round there on the Friday 2 hours after 3 boxsets were stolen and traded in and then again on the Sunday when now 6 boxsets (stolen only 50 minutes before) had been traded by the same 'customer'. I pointed out that if they continue to let the customer trade with them, CEX would lose out too because they'd have given the cash out but I'll get back my stock when the police get involved. He didn't care.
There was another staff member who was trying to be more helpful and empathetic at least but he just told her she didn't know what she was talking about. After continuing to make a loud public fuss about it in store, a supervisor turned up, intervened and agreed to at least remove the items from sale, awaiting the police to contact them.
In this instance the account holder was well known to police, the stock will be removed for evidence and eventually I'll likely get the stock passed back to me. It won't be in saleable condition though. More often than not the time & frustration in investigating the theft, reporting it and following it up is more costly than the value of goods stolen and the fact that many of these branches are effectively openly aiding and abetting the crimes, does wind me up.
It goes without saying that this doesn't apply to all their staff, who many I genuinely believe cannot feel comfortable having to interact with some of the clientele they do, let alone interject and refuse a trade but honestly on the corporate side, franchise owners and branch managers, they're as shady as fuck.
Cash Converters seem to sell them for cheaper (£39)
Online Shopping | Cash Converters
Buy Online with Confidence from Cash Converters.
Price doesn't exist in a vacuum though. How you price the console has a long term effect on perception. People still laugh at the PS3 launch price and the hubris of "arrogant Sony", but those puppies still sold out.
This is literally their business model man. You think they are going to sell them for cheaper than they bought them?
CEX charity
CEX charity
