Speaking with Sky News last month in a story that’s suddenly gained traction in the last few days, a PS5 and Xbox Series X|S console scalper has offered a justification for his business.
Jack Bayliss of Aftermarket Arbitrage runs a subscription service where members reportedly pay him £30 a month to be informed of new restocks of valuable goods – including those consoles. They then help other people by buying desirable items in bulk and re-selling them at higher prices – doing so often before the rest of the public have a chance to buy them at retail price.
Bayliss claims he is aware that some families can’t buy them because of businesses like his, but he sees that as OK as to him these are luxury products and not necessities and so those who can afford them retail shouldn’t have a problem spending more:
“To me, owning the PS5 or an Xbox isn’t a necessity, it’s a luxury, okay? If you can afford to spend £450, spending the extra £100 should be pretty marginal, if you’ve got cash ready to splash on that. Yes, some families are gonna have to pay another £100, but what you don’t think about is our members.”
He goes on to say those members, many of whom are young and are “being entrepreneurs” by doing this, can make a good month’s salary in a couple of days. Some subscribers have been scalping enough consoles to pay off gambling debts and buy their wives new cars:
“We’ve had people who’ve been able to renovate their house, they bought the kids a climbing frame, they bought the wives new cars, they bought themselves new cars. We’ve then had one of our members, he was £20,000 in gambling debt. And we’ve took him on. He’s been with us for a year, he’s now in the clear, and he’s made, I think, he’s made a significant amount of money.”
Multiple countries have been working on bills to stop bot-driven scalping in recent years with the UK bringing forward one last year while the U.S. introduced one in December.
Bayliss though claims that 95% of his subscribers don’t use bots, suggesting that even if legislation is passed it won’t necessarily stop scalping from being a large problem.
