It was bound to happen this way. We saw it all before and it is just a case of history repeating itself. In just over a day after the much-hyped, much-awaited Sony PlayStation 3 launched, it has found its way to the Japanese grey market. During the first phase of the launch, Sony released just 100,000 of the next-generation consoles, which sold out within hours.
Used (just one-day-old) PS 3s are fetching those who were lucky to get hold of one up to four times the original value of the machine. The PS 3 with 60 GB hard drive that originally cost about $500 is now selling over $2,300.
Kotaku reports a kind of scam having taken place during the launch. Brian Ashcroft of Kotaku writes;
I witnessed homeless people waiting in line as well as a high number of Chinese customers.
Another Kotaku reader writes;
The first buyers of PS3 were largely elderly Chinese men and young Chinese women with shaky Japanese language skills. Opportunistic Japanese businessmen have the largest presence, hiring poor Chinese men and women to wait in line for a PS3.
We saw the Xbox 360 hitting eBay and other grey markets when the console launched last year. However, this looks more sinister than the Xbox 360 scam with the possible involvement of Japanese businessmen exploiting poor Chinese immigrant workers.
