The best sign that stock is now less of a problem (pic: Metro.co.uk)

As the stock situation improves, scalpers are losing interest in the PS5 but it’s still going to be difficult to get this Christmas.

If you want to buy a PlayStation 5 this winter, you’ll probably be able to get hold of one relatively easily, but still not without shopping around, pre-ordering, or buying it as part of an expensive bundle.

At time of writing the console can only be bought ‘by invitation’ at Amazon and GAME is only selling bundles, but if you really want one it’s not nearly as difficult as in 2021 or 2020. Most importantly, you shouldn’t have to pay anything extra for the console.

So-called scalpers have made a fortune from the PlayStation 5, buying them up using bots, that can purchase them before ordinary customers even realise they’ve gone on sale, and then selling them on places like eBay for a major profit.

That will still be happening this year, but the going rate on eBay currently seems to be around £550, rather than the £480 it’s supposed to cost. That’s still a mark-up but much less than the prices at launch.

Prices may well increase the closer we get to Christmas, though, as people realise they haven’t planned ahead and getting a PlayStation 5 isn’t as simple as just walking into a shop or going on Amazon.

Anti-bot software company Netacea keeps a close eye on such things and according to them the PlayStation 5 is now only the fourth most popular product for scalpers this year, the first time it’s been out of the top three since launch.

The number one most scalped item is the Adidas Yeezy Slide ‘Bone’, with two of the other top items being trainers – which are usually scalper’s number one choice of product.

We’re not sure what Panini Donruss Optic Football Trading Cards are, exactly, but when they say football, we think they mean American football.

None of these items are impossible to get at retail, so for everything it’s really just a case of doing some research and buying early, in order to avoid filling the pockets of scalpers.

‘The PlayStation 5 dropped one place this quarter to fourth. This is the first time it has not made the top three in our Index, a reflection of the slight reduction in bots targeting the console due to stock increases. However, its resale value has remained stable, with only a 2% drop since last quarter,’ said Netacea in their report.

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MORE : PS5 anti-scalper tech in Japan is as simple as it gets

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MORE : Scalper group defends use of PS5 bots and says: ‘We do a lot for charity’

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As the stock situation improves, scalpers are losing interest in the PS5 but it’s still going to be difficult to get this Christmas.