Special PS4 Sells For $20,000… and £20

At least one eBay seller has sold a limited edition PS1-style Playstation 4 for more than $20,000. In contrast, a few lucky Brits got hold of one for less than £20 ($32).

The special PS4, launched to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original PlayStation, has the same tech specs as the normal model. The difference is that the casing, the controller and a bundled camera are all the same gray as the original casing, plus the packing is different.

In total Sony is selling 12,300 of the special edition, a reference to the original Playstation launch date of December 3, 1994. With that number in circulation, you wouldn’t think people would want or need to pay drastically above the $500 retail price to pick one up from somebody looking for a quick profit, but that’s not turned out to be the case.

CNET has spotted at least two eBay sales at spectacular prices: one for $15,100 and another for $20,100. That’s unsurprisingly prompted a good few folks to decide they can live without their grey PS4 after all. While that’s brought the going rate down, bids already placed suggests sellers right now can reasonably expect to fetch between $1,500 to $2,000 in eBay auctions.

That’s a big profit for anyone, but an even bigger one for a very select few in the United Kingdom. There Sony launched a “pop-up shop” that took the anniversary-themed pricing a step further: the first 94 customers were allowed to buy the console for £19.94.

A further 100 will be available to buy in person at the standard price before the rest of the UK’s allocation goes on sale online.