What the hell is wrong with people?

Are Playstation 3’s really worth all this?

I remember similar incidents happening last year right after Thanskgiving. Standing in line the night before to get a good deal or be one of the first to purchase something I have no problem with. But I simply do not understand the mania that overtakes some people on the latest technology gizmo or ‘deal of the century’ that they would push, shove, trample, and in some cases commit a crime in order to have a ‘hot item.’

13 Responses to "What the hell is wrong with people?"

geezer says:

November 18, 2006 at 8:26 pm

After a year and a half working at WalMart, you experience some of the most interesting human behavior imaginable. And that doesn’t even include the oh-so-aptly-named “Black Friday.”

At our store, the PS3 crew were sweethearts; no trouble at all inside or outside. One guy had left behind some killer Pork Adobo–awesome stuff. The Nintendo Wii gang was lined up tonite as I left and looked pretty tame, too. I wished them all good luck, wagged my finger and said “No rioting, now,” and got back good-natured laughs.
benning says:

November 18, 2006 at 8:53 pm

Hiya, geezer! I work at Wal-Mart, too. The line was moved to the Garden Shop, after being lined up inside the store for a while. They were quiet and pleasant. I have no idea why anyone would wait for a game system, but there you are.

I’m at #1712. So far, no rioting at all! LOL
Mwalimu Daudi says:

November 18, 2006 at 10:01 pm

I don’t understand why some people believe Michael Moore has an IQ above room temperatue – at the North Pole. Nor why some think Paris Hilton has more to offer the world than her video where she does the (Deleted-Kenneth Lay.) with her ex-boyfriend. Nor why the New York Times is not called The Newspaper of Birdcage Liners. Nor why control of the US Senate turned on the word macaca – a word folks got plenty mad over even if they were never found out what it meant. Nor do I understand the public’s love affair with NPR, 60s fashions, Katie Couric (a living blonde joke), Cabbage-Patch Dolls, Desperate Housewives, Terrell Owens, pet rocks, Sheryl Crow (a singing pet rock), and Tickle-Me Elmo.

But remember – this is a nation that complains endlessly about negative political campaigns and then just voted those who ran the filthiest ones into control of Congress. In other words, with advertising you can sell anyone anything – even something they don’t really want.
gahrie says:

November 18, 2006 at 10:48 pm

The truly espicable thing about the game console wars is the fact that these shortages are artificailly created.

Or do you actually think it’s a coincidence that every time a new console is released it is during the christmas shopping season and that there is a shortage of consoles available?
Big Bang Hunter says:

November 19, 2006 at 12:09 am

gahrie – While it is definately true that all consumer large scale introductions, particularly in the gamebox market are proceeded with super-hype advertising blitz’s ext, this time it went way beyound that. Most people are unaware of the dog eat dog nature of these types of markets. The companies have a ton of money invested and generally have to sell quite a few units before they even begin to recoup their money. In this case Sony is having problems with the super blue diamond DVD drives, to the point where they could only manage 400,000 units, which is a fraction of what they’d normally provide at introduction, and it’s not fixed yet. If they don’t get it straightened out in time for Christmas, they stamd to take a real bath, at least until they start producing in good quantities, because the competition is going to hit the market soon.

– As far as some of the rioting goes, a lot of that is driven by the rediculous prices driven by the shortfall, with people who are gaming nutz willing to pay $5000 to $8000 on ebay. Yes, some people are that crazy about video games, and have to have the latest and greatest as soon as possible. Total fruit-o-the-loons.

– Bang
Lorica says:

November 19, 2006 at 12:13 am

I agree gahrie, I understand they only sent 400,000 originally, and are trying to get more over here before Christmas. I guess they suddenly realized that some in American can be easily duped and will pay almost anything for this product. I bet Sony is just kicking themselves for not charging 1000.00 instead of 600.00 for this thing. Especially since people are buying them for 3000.00. – Lorica
Lorica says:

November 19, 2006 at 12:21 am

Thinking about this abit more. Good Lord I could have a very top of the line PC for that 3000.00 – 8000.00. Also, as goes with most electronics, the price will be half the original by this time next year. Democrat Voters, who can figure them out. Just Kidding. – Lorica
sanity says:

November 19, 2006 at 3:03 am

Bang is right.

These people doing this could very well wait a few months and save hundreds of dollars as the price drops.

Instead what is happening is these people are waiting a day or two in line to pay $600 to turn around and throw it up on ebay for thousands.

A tent city formed early in the week on a sidewalk outside a Best Buy store in the city of San Jose in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Outside a Best Buy store in Rockville, a horde of campers created a roster and numbered their hands, according to Woody Hill, who was fourth in the line.

Hill said he planned to sell his newly acquired console on eBay or Craigslist for more than quadruple the purchase price.

“If I were going to keep it I’d still line up but I’m going to turn it round and sell it straight away,” Hill said.

“It’ll make a good Christmas present for someone, and there’s only so many out there.”

Link

Yeah right buddy. You all heart thinking about helping someone with a nice Christmas present. It is all about money.

Gamers, profiteers stake out US stores for Sony’s PlayStation 3

“I’m hoping it will Google,” he added, envisioning a price surge on par with Google stock after the Internet search engine went public. “Then I’ll buy a 4,000-dollar TV.”

A man who gave his name only as “Shawn W.” — because he had taken sick leave from his technology job — was among the more than 150 people who waited in teeming rain Thursday outside a Circuit City store in the Washington suburb of Rockville, Maryland.

“I’ll be selling it,” he said. “I’m not going to risk opening it and falling in love with it.”

“I would say that 90 percent of the line is people who want to buy it just to sell it straight away on eBay.”

Bidding for PlayStation 3 consoles at Internet auction site eBay drove prices to the 2,000-dollar range on Thursday. Rumours abounded of people offering as much as 10,000 dollars for consoles.

Link

It isn;t worth it.

Sad thing is, a neighbor of ours who was wheel chair bound died last year. I used to get calls in the middle of the night to come over and pick him up and put him back in his chair because he had fallen out. I don’t mind, I was always wanting to help. He ended up in the hospital and we were asked by him to take care of his apartment, I delivered him his mail, but could see he was giving up and died a short time later.

His best friend hwho was taking care of his estate we helped move his belongings before because it looked like he was going to be evicted for not paying rent (he was in the hospital at the time) and we were storing things in case they had maintenance come in and clear out his apartment. We had hope he was going to get better.

One of the things we were given because of the help we provided (and we weren’t expecting anything nor did we ask for anything, it was just something we NEEDED to do to help), was a playstation 2.

Two weeks later I was taking the trash out to the dupster and someone threw away a PS2 box, so I opened it up to see if perhaps there was an extra part or something and to my suprise it was a complete PS2 inside. It wouldn’t play at first but after a good cleaning it worked fine. We ended up giviong it to a friend of our who has 2 ADHD boys so they have something to play also.

Long winded, sorry, its 3 am, but I guess the moral of this story is that I didn’t have to pay 150, 300 or 600 for a game system, all it cost me was a bit of kindness, and I am willing to give as much of that as I can. Even with good fortune of finding another one, I passed along to someone else to let it brighten their day.

Money may buy you the latest and greatest, but it doesn’t give you the memories and thoughts of fulfillment.

Take it for what its worth, but at least stop and ponder that for a moment.
Drewsmom says:

November 19, 2006 at 11:06 am

My 15 year old stated he wanted one of these for Christmas, I told him he’d have to sell his Playstation2 and XBox and use some of his Christmas money if he wants a $600 gamebox.
My question, where do these people get the money to rush out, line up and riot to get this new Sony console? I thought we had so much poverty in our country, nobody has health care, we are in dire straights but from the looks of it good times are here again, but my son still needs to use his own money and I’ll chip in a little I guess.
david foster says:

November 19, 2006 at 11:25 am

“these shortages are artificailly created”…created by Sony’s inability to do manufacturing planning properly, which resulted in component shortages, which in turn resulted in Sony spending a lot of money shipping games by priority air freight instead of sea container. Meanwhile, what Sony gets for the game sustem is less than their production cost (their intent being to make it up on the individual games)

They probably should have called the first month’s production the “special edition,” put a nice label on it, and doubled the price.
Little Miss Chatterbox says:

November 19, 2006 at 2:26 pm

Yah, I will never get this phenomenon at all. Why not wait a couple of months to not have to fight over it and to get it cheaper?
Lorica says:

November 19, 2006 at 3:45 pm

LOL I Know LMC. A very long time ago a friend of mine just had to have the Toshiba 27 inch TV for 999.00. I told him he was nuts, and that he should wait a year. He went and bought one on credit and struggled to make the payments for the next year. It was almost 100.00 a month. Prices on electronics always drop a couple of years after they come out. Next year the PS3 will be 400.00 hide and watch. – Lorica
Melissa In Texas says:

November 20, 2006 at 12:52 am

One of the problems with these gaming consoles (besides the price) is that they very seldom work the way they are supposed to when they first come off the line. There are almost always glitches and issues with the systems. Not only would I wait for the price to drop, but I would wait for the company to rectify the inevitable glitches.
I simply looked my son in the eye and told him not to even think about it!

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