PS3 Speculator Holds On Too Long, Loses Everything

from the sell,-sell,-sell dept

There's a great episode of The Simpsons in which Homer decides to buy up pumpkins in the run up to Halloween, hoping to cash in on the inevitable spike in demand. At first, the value of his pumpkins starts to rise, but in his greed, he thinks he can make more money by holding onto them even longer, past Halloween. If you haven't seen the episode, you can probably imagine how it ends. Homer's experience has been shared by one Canadian who snapped up a pair of PS3s right after their initial release, hoping to profit from last-minute Christmas shoppers desperate to buy a box on eBay. Initially, it looked like the plan could work. As we noted here, PS3s did indeed go for nosebleed prices on eBay, at least initially. But as Christmas drew closer, the price started to level out -- the last minute surge in demand never materialized, and the speculators lost out. The speculator in this story could've made a tidy profit if he'd just flipped his boxes as soon as he got home, but his psychology was very reminiscent of traders during the last market bubble. They couldn't bear the thought of selling too early and then missing out on future profits. And as prices started to decline, they couldn't bring themselves to sell, knowing they could have gotten much more just a few days earlier. As for the two boxes he bought, they remain unopened in his closet, and unlike stocks, he can't even sell them at a loss to go against his taxes.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    holy_!, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:01pm

    so...

    Lesson learned, why not return them to the store?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Big Laz, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:26pm

      Re: so...

      Many stores won't take them back. Maybe the idiots that buy up multiple systems, trying to make a quick buck off other idiots, will be more apt to not buy multiple systems in the future........

      and maybe I'll win a tax free trip to the moon.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:33pm

        Re: Re: so...

        Maybe you two should read the article...

        But thanks for the insightful posts :)

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    James, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:03pm

    Repeat after me

    WAHHHHHHHH WAHHHHHHHH WAHHHHHHHH my pussy hurts :-p

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 5:20pm

      Re: Repeat after me

      I'm assuming you're just as intelligent as you're post makes you out to be.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Mike from Vegas, 5 Feb 2007 @ 7:53pm

      Re: Repeat after me

      James,
      I haven't heard (or in this case seen) the old "MY PUSSY HURTS" thingy since I moved from NY to Las Vegas 6 years ago- Made me smile

      Thanks!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:21pm

    is this even a news?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    OkieFromMuskogee, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:21pm

    Why can't he deduct the loss on his tax return?

    He CAN deduct his losses. The PS3's may not be stocks, but they most certainly are property held for investment purposes, meeting the definition of capital assets. When he sells them, his gain (or loss) goes on Schedule D of his form 1040. Simple as that.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:34pm

      Re: Why can't he deduct the loss on his tax return

      Do they use a 1040 in Canada?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 5:07pm

        Re: Re: Why can't he deduct the loss on his tax re

        No the Canadians use the 1040EH.

        Actually it is the T1 for non canadians

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:26pm

    serves the greedy bastard right!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:29pm

    Isn't the Canadian system a bit different than the US?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    misanthropic humanist, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:32pm

    long term investment

    You fools. He's waiting for them to become antiques.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Honest Abe, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:37pm

    What exactly is the point of this story? I know it's related to technology, but it really is pointless, considering the fact that any collectible or hot commodity of the time can be bought and sold in this fashion. This is like writing an article about how I hung on to my rare Beanie Babies in hopes that their prices would continue to skyrocket, and after the craze ended and the prices starting falling, they ended up in my closet where they remain to this day.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 5:15pm

    He should hold onto them, in the box, without being opened - they'll be worth a lot of money in about 50 years ... as collectors items and the kids say, "remember when we got PS3's for Christmas? Those were the days ..."

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 5:24pm

    More like, remember when we didn't get PS3's because they were too expensive?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Paul, 5 Feb 2007 @ 5:34pm

    So its obvious that not a lot of the people commenting actually read the story. The dude can't return them to the store, especially since he spent over a THOUSAND dollars for the second PS3. What a moron!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dam, 5 Feb 2007 @ 5:35pm

    Slow Day?

    Was it too cold for real news today? Why is a bad investment by a nutjob news?

    C'mon guys. Try a little harder.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 5:45pm

    tulip mania

    Just another example

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    nice, 5 Feb 2007 @ 6:05pm

    I would rather see sony rule the next generation systems, but they blew it :( GO Microsoft!!!!!!!!!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    rpgSE_com, 5 Feb 2007 @ 6:16pm

    return

    any major store would allow you to return them. All you have to say is that you got two of for xmas and you dont need 2 of them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    a, 5 Feb 2007 @ 6:47pm

    Big deal, I still own 100 shares of Lucent stock that I bought at $37. Should I have sold them at $85?

    I sure as hell don't need a smart ass web blogger to tell me that I should have.

    Would you advise all the people who own Google stock to sell now and take their profits?

    Its pretty easy to play Monday Morning Quarterback.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Kyros, 5 Feb 2007 @ 6:47pm

    re:return

    rpgSE_com - He spent 1000 dollars on the second one, he'd have a huge loss if he just returned them. It's not about returning them, it's about not losing a crapload of cash :)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 7:28pm

    I'd give him $20 for one. That'd recover a bit of his losses.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Confused, 5 Feb 2007 @ 7:31pm

    ?

    Slow News Day???

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    hoopty, 5 Feb 2007 @ 8:21pm

    Boo

    ....well Boo muthafuckin Hoo.... next time dont be greedy, lesson learned move on...........

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Effeminem, 5 Feb 2007 @ 9:00pm

    The whole premise of Slashdot is people being stupid with technology.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Sanguine Dream, 5 Feb 2007 @ 9:24pm

    Serves him right!

    This guy and other losers like him get no pity from me. They got greedy and got busted. However if he is smart he'll hold on to them for the next 10-15 years and can sell them on Ebay version 3.5.0.9. By that time the price of an unopened system could very well be worth what it is now, if not more. Even I may be tempted to buy an unopened PS3 10-15 years from now.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    ScytheNoire, 6 Feb 2007 @ 1:52am

    idiot

    The moron should've bought 6 Nintendo Wii's instead of PS3's, and he could have made a nice profit. Damn idiot didn't follow tech news, otherwise he would've known the PS3 would be dead on arrival.
    S
    erves him right for buying Sony crap. Hope they catch fire sitting in his closet and burn down his house. Never know with Sony products, they have a habit of spreading viruses or just exploding.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Cixelsid, 6 Feb 2007 @ 7:24am

    Dumbass

    Everybody know PS3 sux likes goldilocks.

    *Arms wide open*

    Let the flames... BEGIN!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Buzz, 6 Feb 2007 @ 10:06am

    LOL

    Yup. The Wii is still selling for a pretty penny. They're not quite going for $700 like before, but you can still profit because you cannot find them ANYWHERE. I work at Best Buy; we have stacks of unsold PS3s. It's embarrassing. :P

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.