Wednesday, November 22, 2006

PS 3conomics

Note: I try not to double up on posts unless my personal post is about MVNU. So if you have already read this, no need to read it again, it is the same.


So by now most of us have heard about the crazy events that took place last Friday (November 17, 2006) with the Release of the Sony PlayStation 3. There was the guy that ran into a pole, the guy that got shot, the several robberies and don't forget there were several PS 3s that were sold for over $2,000 on Ebay.

Well you may not have heard the less dramatic, but equally interesting acts that happened throughout the country, including here in out-of-the-way Mount Vernon, Ohio.

It began a few days ahead of the release when a group of MVNU students started scouting out the local Wal-Mart Supercenter. They found out that there were going to be 6 PS 3s and 4 vouchers for additional PS 3s that were guarenteed within 3 weeks. They found out that the longest anyone every waited for anything at our Wal-Mart had been 12 hours.

They spoke with professors and received semi-official excuses, they had friends promise to bring them food and they planned to show up about 24 hours prior to the 11/17/06 12:00AM release date.

Of the 10 people waiting in line, 7 were MVNU students; here is where it shifts from a stunt to capitalism at its best: one student paid another student $50 to shift from a voucher to an actual PS 3 because he heard the voucher was for a better hard drive (60 gig instead of a 20 gig). Another student paid 2 student $200 each to wait in line for him so he could get the PS 3s without missing class or sleep. Finally a man came in on Thursday evening, right before the release and saw that he would not be able to get one of the first systems and he gave one of our students $1,000 cash for their spot in line.

The other six PS 3 systems are expected to be sold on line and should continue to fetch a nice chunk of change for the students that put in the Wal-Mart all-nighter. What an interesting society we live in.

Current PS3 Ebay listings

PS3 Shooting

Sen. John Edwards is a line jumper

PS3 Theft



Craig Weston running into flagpole

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