Special Editions of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 are already listed on eBay for over $300, thanks once again to scalpers proving that they are terrible human beings. The second round of preorders for the special edition went live yesterday, and users all over Twitter quickly began reporting an inability to complete their purchases. Website issues, long wait times, and limited stock were all mentioned as contributing factors.
To add insult to injury, preorders of the special edition were up on eBay within hours. The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Special Edition retails for $89.99, yet scalpers are pricing it up to $350. For those keeping score at home, that’s nearly four times the original price.
While the act of scalping (buying in-demand goods and reselling them for a large profit) has been around for decades, the ill will between scalpers and gamers reached a fever pitch back in 2020 with the release of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X|S consoles. Due to restrictions around the COVID-19 pandemic, sales of the consoles were conducted almost exclusively online, playing into the hands of scalpers using bots to automatically buy available stock.
For well over a year after the consoles launched, the only consistent place the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X|S consoles could be found for sale was on sites like eBay and Mercari. Even worse, the price tags were hundreds, sometimes even thousands of dollars above the retail listing.
Many frustrated Xenoblade fans took to Twitter to urge one another not to buy from scalpers, regardless of how much they may want the special edition. “Please, DO NOT BUY FROM SCALPERS UNDER ANY CONDITION,” tweeted one such user. “It’ll be a win for them and a loss for gamers.”