PS3 Speculator Holds On Too Long, Loses Everything

from the sell,-sell,-sell dept

Mon, Feb 5th 2007 3:45pm — Joseph Weisenthal

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.

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33 Comments

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holy_!, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:01pm

so...
Lesson learned, why not return them to the store?
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James, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:03pm

Repeat after me
WAHHHHHHHH WAHHHHHHHH WAHHHHHHHH my pussy hurts :-p
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:21pm

is this even a news?
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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.
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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.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:26pm

serves the greedy bastard right!
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:29pm

Isn't the Canadian system a bit different than the US?
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misanthropic humanist, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:32pm

long term investment
You fools. He's waiting for them to become antiques.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 4:33pm

Re: Re: so...
Maybe you two should read the article...

But thanks for the insightful posts :)
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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?
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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.
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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
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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 ..."
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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.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 5:24pm

More like, remember when we didn't get PS3's because they were too expensive?
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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!
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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.
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 5:45pm

tulip mania
Just another example
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nice, 5 Feb 2007 @ 6:05pm

I would rather see sony rule the next generation systems, but they blew it :( GO Microsoft!!!!!!!!!!
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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.
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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.
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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 :)
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Feb 2007 @ 7:28pm

I'd give him $20 for one. That'd recover a bit of his losses.
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Confused, 5 Feb 2007 @ 7:31pm

?
Slow News Day???
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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!
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hoopty, 5 Feb 2007 @ 8:21pm

Boo
....well Boo muthafuckin Hoo.... next time dont be greedy, lesson learned move on...........
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sendeth, 5 Feb 2007 @ 8:26pm

honest abe
HAHAHA!!!! ABE HAS BEENIE BABIES IN HIS CLOSET!!! EVERYONE POINT AND LAUGH!!!
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Sean, 5 Feb 2007 @ 8:29pm

Re:
Um...the point was that someone was being stupid with technology?
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Effeminem, 5 Feb 2007 @ 9:00pm

The whole premise of Slashdot is people being stupid with technology.
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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.
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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.
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Cixelsid, 6 Feb 2007 @ 7:24am

Dumbass
Everybody know PS3 sux likes goldilocks.

*Arms wide open*

Let the flames... BEGIN!
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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
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