It seems uncertain, which was the bigger surprise the launch of the Sony PlayStation 3 and subsequent immediate sellout of the mere four hundred thousand game consoles that were for sale or how fast they began to appear on Ebay. There were so many up for sale on Ebay it became evident that many people lined up for hours to buy one just to make a quick profit. The folks at Ebay seemed to be uncomfortable with this and posted many unusual rules for those who were selling PS3 consoles on their site. They demanded proof on the site, by the use of pictures used to sell the machine, showing the item to be authentic by saying a photo with the listing must show the preorder receipt. It also was not permitted to be a buy it now sale, or a one day nor could it be paid for in any manner other than through paypal.

As well they would only allow sellers with a minimum ninety eight percent positive feedback rating to list them. Ebay was being very cautious to ensure that at no time were people listing fraudulent PS3 game consoles. They were trying their best to allow only those who had already proven themselves to be good sellers to be the only ones selling.

Despite these restrictions the morning after the Sony PlayStation 3 game system went up for sale there were over three thousand of them listed. Due to the scarcity of these game consoles people who bought them for five or six hundred dollars were able to sell them for thousands. Supply and demand was working. Those able to buy even just one console were making a huge profit. In the beginning they were garnering bids for between five and fifteen thousand dollars. Yes, there was a fifteen thousand dollar bid on a PS3! Most of the bids were real although some were identified as fakes and removed.

Within two days the number listed had risen to twenty nine thousand, nearly seven percent of those sold in the United States. Now that there are so many machines on Ebay to choose from the prices are coming down. A PS3 game console with a twenty gigabyte hard drive is being bid up to around eight hundred dollars now. The ones with the bigger disc, the sixty gigabyte models, are going for a just over a thousand.

Of course this frenzy of buying will calm down when Sony ships more game consoles, but everyone thinks they may not get many more out in time for Christmas shopping despite the company claiming they will ship another million before the end of the year. If not many more will sell on Ebay as Christmas gifts this year