Due to scammers, attempting to sell a Series X at cost is hard
You may recall I got an Xbox Series X last year. Since then I’ve been following along still with various people who search for where one can get one. About two weeks ago a note popped up that some were in stock over at GameStop. By the time I opened the page they were sold out. That was about 2 minutes and they remained out of stock with several reports of people managing to get them in the first minute.
TL;DR – the ongoing experience of trying to unload an unopened Xbox Series X + Elite controller at cost
I forgot to close the tab, and a couple of days later I was back at the machine and Chrome wanted an update. When it relaunched the tab refreshed and there was an Xbox bundle sitting in my window and available for order. I grabbed it as I had a few friends who expressed, in writing I might add, that they were interested.
As you know with these things you have about a minute to make a decision, and I wanted the Game Pass and gift cards, I didn’t really want a profit, figured I’d use my magic skills, grab what I could, and sell at cost to any of the friends who said they wanted one. Nope. Everyone backed out. Meh, whatever.
I’ll skip the FexEx debacle which they kept telling me I had to be at the house all freaking day to sign for it and then not updating until 7pm that it wasn’t going to be delivered not once, but twice.
So I attempt to sell it on Facebook Marketplace. My friends still have dibs, but nobody is biting. I took the $50 game card, subscription to the game service, dropped the price to what the hardware actually cost + tax (this is the Series X and the Pro controller). Due to the intricacies of Facebook Marketplace and inability to put cents in, it appears I’m making a fat fat profit of $0.03. I didn’t intend to make anything other than someone’s day.
So, even the scalpers think I’m a scammer.
So far I’ve been contacted by multiple people who somehow don’t see the “local pickup only” options and want to PayPal me to ship it to them. Yeah, I know. Not shipping hundreds of dollars of product at cost based on a Facebook contact and PayPal which will claw back money.
I’ve been asked for more glamor shots of a box, videos of a box, and specifically posed shots of a box to show that it exists that I start wondering if I’m just providing some sort of two factor box authentication to scammers, or were my pictures being used to scam people. Don’t know.
I start to wonder if I should just up the price on the listing as other listing seem to get interaction and people screaming that they’re making profit at the cost of our chilluns… and then drop it if the people actually show. Those ads seem to sell.
Me, I’m just looking to get that hot three cent profit.
So yeah kids, take it from Old Man Paul – unless you have signed contracts from friends that they’re going to pre-approve with the spouse a purchase in excess of $500 just walk away. It’ll end up becoming a thing.
