Around 80,000 PS3s went on sale Saturday, and at least 5000 instantly showed up on Yahoo! Auctions. Netizens are expressing serious distaste for the Chinese-yakuza-homeless arbitrage conspiracy and are already working together to fight back. First, they started bidding ridiculously high figures to destroy all chances of a smoothly-functioning auction process.
Now, they have gone to the next level: putting in a 1 yen bid followed quickly by a monstrous billion yen bid from a different user name. The second bidder's ID gets erased at the last moment - leaving the 1 yen bid as the winner. This guy wanted 150,000 yen for his valiant and brilliant arbitrage efforts. He got 149,999 less than that.
Comments (5)
Of course who says the seller will honor the 1 Yen closing price? Why should they? The bidding was obviously fraudulent.
I can just see the people placing the bids now waving their sweaty little pink fists at the sellers from behind the comfort of their screens.
The smart sellers will be the ones who are willing to ship internationally.
Posted by Your Humble Janitor | November 14, 2006 10:11 PM
Posted on November 14, 2006 22:11
Did a search on "PS3 20GB" sorted price high > low, went through three pages of listings, only one person was willing to ship internationally.
Searching "PS3 Japan" on ebay revealed that some folks will indeed be cashing in. Good for them.
Posted by Your Humble Janitor | November 14, 2006 10:23 PM
Posted on November 14, 2006 22:23
And that 150,000 yen was the reserve price, which if not met frees the seller from having to complete the transaction.
Posted by Rory P. Wakekrest | November 15, 2006 10:11 AM
Posted on November 15, 2006 10:11
TEST
Posted by marxy | November 15, 2006 10:33 AM
Posted on November 15, 2006 10:33
I don't think these actions are anything more than just a form of harassment/prank. But the intention behind them is interesting.
Posted by marxy | November 15, 2006 10:45 AM
Posted on November 15, 2006 10:45