Is the story even true? The source is VGC, and a look at eBay UK shows several consoles above the official retail price and a few below on the first few pages. If I compare that with the PS5, the Pro is more of a normal picture on eBay.
I understand scalpers to be something different. It seems that a few people have gambled away their money here, just like with PSVR2. In my opinion, that doesn't make much sense. The console is already a product with a premium price, and scalpers are usually well informed about whether there is any demand at all and whether there is any profit to be made. A few minutes of research are enough to see how the PS4 Pro, with a much lower price, sold to know that the Pro was normally available to buy in the first few months. Hardly anyone needs the Pro at the moment. It makes more sense to see if and when GTA6 is coming out, and then to buy out some stock a few weeks beforehand.
As I said, I have no idea whether VGC made up the story to get a few clicks, or whether there are other sources, but I don't think the real scalpers are that stupid. It is enough to type PS5 Pro into YouTube to see that the price is currently too high for some and that there are no current games that really require a Pro. That will change next year, as fewer and fewer games run at 60 FPS or have a similarly poor image quality as FF7 Rebirth. Monster Hunter Wilds will probably already have clear advantages on Pro and increase demand. The right organized scalpers will certainly monitor the market and then strike as soon as demand increases. This was already clearly visible with the disc drive.
I understand scalpers to be something different. It seems that a few people have gambled away their money here, just like with PSVR2. In my opinion, that doesn't make much sense. The console is already a product with a premium price, and scalpers are usually well informed about whether there is any demand at all and whether there is any profit to be made. A few minutes of research are enough to see how the PS4 Pro, with a much lower price, sold to know that the Pro was normally available to buy in the first few months. Hardly anyone needs the Pro at the moment. It makes more sense to see if and when GTA6 is coming out, and then to buy out some stock a few weeks beforehand.
As I said, I have no idea whether VGC made up the story to get a few clicks, or whether there are other sources, but I don't think the real scalpers are that stupid. It is enough to type PS5 Pro into YouTube to see that the price is currently too high for some and that there are no current games that really require a Pro. That will change next year, as fewer and fewer games run at 60 FPS or have a similarly poor image quality as FF7 Rebirth. Monster Hunter Wilds will probably already have clear advantages on Pro and increase demand. The right organized scalpers will certainly monitor the market and then strike as soon as demand increases. This was already clearly visible with the disc drive.