£800 being offered for PlayStations

December 2000

Sony’s new PlayStations are in such demand that people are offering up to £800 for them, according to Wexford-based retailers.

The few hundred PS2s that have come to shops throughout the county since being launched in Ireland several weeks ago are already accounted for, such is the demand for the new generation games console.

But a Wexford-based retailer said he had recently been offered £800 by a visitor from England, where the PS2s are in equally short supply.

‘I told him I couldn’t provide him with one because all ours were pre-sold,’ said the retailer, who asked not to be identified.

‘We’ve never seen demand like it. There isn’t a day goes by without at least a dozen people asking for one. Unfortunately, we have to tell them all the same thing,’ he added.

The regular price of the PS2 is £379. People wanting to buy the consoles, which offer state of the art graphics and which act as DVD players as well, have even started to place ‘item wanted’ adverts on the internet and in magazines like ‘Buy and Sell’.