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Many use PS3 for profit, not play(Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Nov. 25--WALTERBORO -- Forget about role-playing as sleazy hit men, NFL quarterbacks and World War II sharpshooters. Right now, the demand for the new PlayStation 3 gaming systems has longtime gamers trading in this year's holy grail of gaming machines to play a new role: entrepreneur. The object is to make as much profit as you can before everyone else has one and the demand dries up. It sounds simple but seemingly everyone who bought one of the first 320,000 or so machines released last week had the same idea. The Internet auction site eBay is flooded with offers to sell the systems. Sales offers range from anywhere between $800 (23 bids) and $1 million (no bids). Local gamers who spent hours in line to buy the PS3s are willing to put off playing for a few more months to catch a bit of the action. "I don't need to have one now," said Zach Lindsay, 20, of Charleston. "I'd really like to keep this one, but I have to sell it to make a bit of money." Lindsay camped outside of a Best Buy for about 48 hours last week to get his hands on two PS3s for a total of $1,260. He sold one on eBay for $1,200 and is hoping for at least another $1,200 for the other. The full-time student at Trident Tech hopes to earn enough money to pay for an acre in Cottageville that he has his eyes on. Maybe he'll buy a PS3 for himself in a few months when all the hype dies out. That's Travis Tinsley's plan. The Charleston resident waited for 70 hours outside of a Wal-Mart to get two PS3s at $635 apiece. He already has an Xbox 360 and a Nintendo Wii, but he's willing to wait before he plays PS3. He sold one this weekend for about $1,100. "I'm just capitalizing right now," Tinsley said. Kenneth Mazurek is a North Charleston firefighter who hopes to put his earnings from two PS3s toward the 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang he's rebuilding. He's another longtime gamer who's willing to wait. "If I can sell it for five times what it's worth or seven times what it's worth, then sure," he said. The trouble is the market appears to be a bit saturated. After peaking for as much $25,000 on eBay, many of the machines now are going for anywhere from $900 to $1,300. Several local gamers say they'll probably hold onto their machines for a little longer until the initial supply runs out. If they can sell after that point and before Sony releases another estimated 700,000, then ca-ching. "It'll probably jump up again before Christmas," Mazurek said of the price. Trey Gilbert of Charleston said he thinks the market is deader than a "Resident Evil" zombie. Gilbert, who plays a bit of "Halo" now and again, stood in line for 12 1/2 hours outside of the North Charleston Wal-Mart just to make a profit that he could funnel into his pressure-washing business. He's sure he can make his money back, "but I lost the 12 1/2 I stood in line." Gilbert wasn't the only entrepreneur trying to make a profit off of the game. Brandon Hiott, a 29-year-old real estate investor from Walterboro, bought the game "just to have a good Christmas," he said. "I don't play them at all." To see more of The Post and Courier, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.charleston.net. Copyright (c) 2006, The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |