How Did You Buy Your PS3 Console: New or Used?

Kris Erickson • Apr 27, 2010 • Comments ()

When Sony's PS3 console first went on sale, it was so prohibitively expensive that for many gamers the only option was to buy a used one at a significant discount. But has that practice continued even after the $299 price drop? A recent poll found that nearly 33% of PS3 owners bought their PS3 console used. This was concluded by a very unscientific poll of 1000 owners of the console in Great Britain. In the UK they also have a scheme where you can get a new PS3 simply for signing up to a mobile phone contract. A whopping 26 per cent of British users said that they received their console using that method. A further 14 per cent of lucky owners got their machine as a gift, while 3 per cent of even luckier ducks won theirs for free in a contest.

According to the poll, only 24 per cent of owners admitted to paying full retail price for Sony's PS3 console.

Considering the number of respondents in the smallest category (contest winners), the poll would have had to have been roughly ten times larger in scope to be considered scientifically accurate, and even then it would only be valid for the UK.

Even so, it raises an interesting question. Is there still a brisk trade in used PS3 consoles, and if so, who is selling them and why? On the other hand, since Sony's build quality is considered fairly solid, we'd have no qualms about buying a used machine from a consumer standpoint. And we all know that the used game market is still going strong (despite efforts by the industry to discourage it).