Scalpers Hoarding PS5 Disk Drives Days Before Pro's Launch

Key Takeaways

Scalpers are now reselling the console’s external disk drive to rip off gamers who are buying a PS5 Pro.
Listings in the US range around $40-$50 above the normal price, with other markets going above $100.
Luckily, once the hype around the Pro calms down, prices and retail stocks should return to normal.

It appears that scalpers are at it again. This time, they’re trying to take advantage of PlayStation 5 Pro buyers by scalping not just the console but also the external disk drive that Pro users must purchase at an additional cost to play physical disks.

As we learned at the reveal of the PS5 Pro, despite the console costing a whopping $699, more than any other Sony console without inflation, it doesn’t ship with a drive to read game disks, a popular decision for consoles like the PS5 Slim and Xbox Series S.

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Instead, Sony ships the drive at an extra $79 price point, which, in addition to a separately purchased vertical stand, means an average consumer could pay above $800 for the console experience alone.

So, now that the Pro console is just around the corner—released in about two days—the external drive is unavailable at almost every major retailer. The most egregious resellers post listings online on sites like eBay at a pronounced markup compared to the original price.

Upsell Prices Are At Least 50% Over The Original Cost

A screenshotted picture of someone reselling a PS5 disk drive on eBay.

As seen in the eBay listing above, the standard price for resold drives is around $40 above the original $79.99 asking price. Others may be boosting the price up to $150 US dollars, and some listings in places like the UK even have listings blasted above the $200 range.

Like the release of the PS5, where prices of the $500 console went into the thousands, there appears to be almost uninterrupted chaos, with listings going to various price ranges depending on how desperate the scalpers believe gamers to be.

Luckily, unlike the PS5’s initial launch, where a hot ticket commodity was finally hitting the market, the disk drive is of much lesser importance, and those who purchased a PS5 Pro can still play games virtually uninterrupted through their digital library.

The Fight Against Scalpers

You should keep in mind that Sony can definitely do something to help limit the massive amount of reselling of its products, such as implementing an online queue system like Valve did with the Steam Deck.

Although Sony has already used techniques like this, such as curbing the reselling of the special edition PS5 Pro in Japan, a major retailer other than Valve has yet to do something drastic like this in Western territories to combat scammers.

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Considering the PS5’s drive can play PS4 disks, which are now selling at prices often lower than the store equivalent, having options for physical media is still crucial, especially for those just now purchasing a next-gen console and who have a library of already purchased titles.

Sadly, for those who purchased a PS5 Pro and are keen to use the console to access their library of disks, it still seems like they’ll have to wait, at least for a little bit, before getting it from a verified source.