Due to the pandemic, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox series of game consoles have looked like gold powder since their launch in November last year. But among all the scarce resources, the tech-savvy teenager Max Hayden saw only one opportunity. A high school student from Hopewell in downtown New Jersey bought and sold dozens of game consoles for up to $1,100 more than double the retail price of $500.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the 16-year-old earned $1.9 million by buying and reselling products that were hard to find due to the pandemic, including outdoor heaters and shopping malls that won with Pokémon. His profit is more than 110,000 US dollars. In fact, he is so successful that he now occupies a warehouse and pays two friends 15 dollars an hour to help him do business.
“Some call it retail arbitration,” said Max of Hopewell in downtown New Jersey. “I wrote a school essay on this subject.” However, he is certainly not the only one taking advantage of this situation. In her view, entrepreneurial types or distributors use the pandemic to accumulate small wealth by simply buying and reselling products that are currently hard to find.
The shortage of consoles is due to a documented shortage of semiconductors. It affects manufacturers of products such as TVs, mobile phones and cars, and continues to affect Sony and Microsoft’s ability to meet their elusive demand for game consoles.
The problem was originally caused by temporary delivery delays caused by factory closures during the outbreak. Although production is now normalized, the problem has recently reached a critical point due to the continuous surge in demand due to changes in habits caused by the pandemic.
As Mirabaud media and technology analyst Neil Campling told The Guardian earlier this year, “The chip is everything. This is a perfect storm of supply and demand factors. But there is basically a new level of demand that cannot be tracked. The world is in crisis, and the situation is getting worse.”
As reported in the April Game Bible, the semiconductor shortage may continue until 2023. 5 is the best-selling game console in American history: 2020 The annual global sales volume reached 4.5 million units, and another 3.3 million units were sold between January and March last year.
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