With the PlayStation Portal, Sony has introduced a new gadget for the PS5. However, testers are not impressed. This does not prevent scalpers from buying the device everywhere and reselling it at a high price.
With the PlayStation Portal, Sony has introduced a new device for the PS5. However, the most important feature is also the biggest drawback: With the PlayStation Portal, you can only stream your games from a PS5, which requires a good internet connection and your own PS5.
Many testers explained that the device is too limited: The rather weak battery life and especially the strong limitation to a pure streaming device speak against the model.
Scalpers sell PlayStation Portal for double the price
What exactly do scalpers do? Some users seem to have come up with the idea of buying the new gadget everywhere to resell it at significantly higher prices. Eurogamer reports, for example, that you can now buy the device on eBay for more than 300 British pounds. That’s around 350 euros.
For comparison: The suggested retail price for the PlayStation Portal in Germany is 219 euros, which is about 100 euros lower.
Many of us may find this greedy behavior quite familiar. When the PS5 was released, the console was hardly available anywhere, so scalpers bought the few available units to resell them at high prices. Still, it is surprising that these people have chosen exactly this model.
Why is this action surprising? Scalpers usually rush to products that are only available in limited quantities to buy them and then resell them at inflated prices. However, the PlayStation Portal is a pure streaming device that serves a niche and is likely to play only a minor role in Germany.
Therefore, it may seem surprising to many that scalpers are now rushing to the PlayStation Portal and trying to sell it for exorbitant prices on eBay. Because without a PS5, the “Portal” is useless. Perhaps it is enough for many scalpers that “PlayStation” is in the product name.
What does the current situation look like? However, graphics cards and PS5 consoles are now widely available, so you no longer have to pay the high scalper prices. This leads to major problems among scalpers, who suddenly find that they cannot get rid of their purchased devices and are even willing to resort to desperate measures:
