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Beating Scalpers

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Prabhjot Singh edited this page Sep 28, 2021 · 7 revisions

Now that I've secured everything I wanted: a new PC build and 3 PS5's (from AntOnline, Gamestop and apparently Dell), I'm going to share what I've learned throughout the arduous process and give you some tips on how to get what you want before scalpers do.

Update (3/20/21)

This is an update to reiterate things that you must do and add a few more advanced tips to help you secure what you need. Before reading this, I recommend you read my original post as I'll be building upon some of the things discussed there.

  1. The number 1 resource is Twitter. But not just Twitter. It's the TweetDeck! I've had 4 columns running with the Home Feed, one search feed to match anything with "XboxSeriesX", another search feed to match anything with "PS5" in it, and then an Activity feed which brings in recommend based on who I follow and Tweets I interact with. This is not an unfair tool. This is literally a Twitter feature. In terms of the Home Feed, you need be following anywhere from 30-60 people. To get you started, I've made a list of some of the best handles for restock alerts. Say if you wanted a GamerStation3000 and you want to find more accounts to follow, you could just search on Twitter for "GamerStation3000." and follow all of them if they have more than a few thousand followers. However, do not attempt to purchase anything from them. Some build up following by giving out good information with the end game of scamming people. Start from there, and then just start digging through replies, comments, and find people they endorse who have other big followings. I recommend 30-60 because people go to sleep at different times (different time zones) and not everyone tracks the same sites. You also want to be following those smaller accounts (with a few thousand followers) because they sometimes track lesser known sites and niche markets. Same goes for those search feeds, some normal user might give out a good piece of information. When you 3 or 4 columns, your feed is a lot more giving if there's lot of useless information going out. The TweetDeck alone can give you at a significant advantage over others.

  1. Stop using desktop websites if there is a Mobile app available. Your effort needs to be focused on the app, not the website. If you have both, great, but if you need to split your focus, I'd say it's not worth it. For example, the PlayStation Direct queue is a great time to use both because you don't need to split your focus/attention efforts; it's just sitting in a queue. A lot of these big retailers, such as Amazon and Newegg, built a lot of infrastructure for their websites before mobile apps took off. And like in any cooperate world, they're dealing with a lot of legacy code (source code that is no longer supported and usually not legible when a new programmer comes into read it/try and fix it) that's inefficient and is not up to date. It would cost them too much money for them to rebuild everything completely. When they need to build a new app, by virtue, the only way to build these apps is with a newer technology. This isn't accurate at all in terms of technology or how things necessarily work, but here's an analogy: Let's just say Walmart's crappy website is built entirely off of Java 4 from way back. You can't build an Android app using Java 4. The SDK (software development kit) usually has a minimum support version of like Java 8 or 11. So you build it in Java 8 and end up with an app that has all of the optimizations that support things like HTTP/2.0. Which leads to faster requests. There could also be different backend components between the app and the website, which leads to even greater increases in performance/scalability. Giant cooperate entities that aren't Facebook, Twitter (who rebuilt their entire backend in Scala for scalability aka so their site doesn't constantly crash with insane traffic), etc. lack any cohesion. It would make sense that all devices pull from the same resources, but it's not the case. Newegg has even admitted that their app was faster.

  2. For those who still prefer to use both a website and an app, and have just enough technical ability to know what a Virtual Machine is, go and download a version of Android. Use VMWare Workstation or VirtualBox. These are trusted tools in the IT World. Most of us need to develop in Linux, but we only have a Windows PC and don't want to have to dual boot the computer. This is one of the things we use to get around that. Fire up the application and you'll have different operating system running like a program in seconds. Think of it like running a mini computer within your own computer. Super easy to setup. Now, by using your computer AS A PHONE with access to the Google Play Store, you can download those retail apps and avoid the website. Splitting your time between a computer and a phone, is not worth IMO. But this method would make it worth it because it's like having two phones/mobile devices.

Original (12/8/20)

  1. You need an alert system when something goes in stock. Online alerts, Twitter, store notifications work but aren't as effective due to the delay and long intervals between checks. You need an alert system that's running locally (on your machine), allowing you the freedom of setting your own intervals. I have written my own program, but you can also use Distill (really good but requires setup). There is also Octoshop, an extension that checks for price changes and compares with other stores. That's how I got good deals. If you don't want to use local alerts, then StockDrops is your best bet. Just know that it's also being used by over 50K other people.

  2. Expanding on Distill Web Monitor, it has the ability to run locally on your computer so you can set whichever interval you want. It essentially opens a tab for whatever you're tracking and check for changes in the elements you marked for it to check and gives you an alert when coming is changed. All you need is the free version, which will let you run it on two computers and alert jobs will sync between both if you have an account. I run all jobs on my server and it alerts me on my main computer. Import (copy and paste) my Distill.json into Distill so you don't have to set up jobs yourself and serves as an example. You will still need to setup actions (things to do when it detects a change) yourself. I personally have it play a custom sound and have it open the store page in a new tab. Distill is best used when you're away from the computer (like sleeping) and you don't want to miss random overnight drops.

  3. PS5: The most popular item on the planet right now. There's more PS5's on the reseller market than activated PS5's being played and I somehow managed to snag two bundles. This one gives you a lot more opportunities to buy it from retailers but makes it really hard to do so since EVERYBODY is going for it. Moreover, you can predict which store is going to do a drop so you can be ready and you HAVE to be ready (see 4). The best chances you'll have is from random drops (that's how I got my two). The ultimate resource for this is https://www.nowinstock.net/videogaming/consoles/sonyps5/. Not the timers (see 1) but the comment section. Everyone who REALLY wants a PS5 is posting in the comments. Aside from the random BS, the information on there is GOLD. Whenever a drop happens, people will call it out and I've had an attempt to grab one every time. Leave the comments open on a monitor and glance every to it once in a while. You might also want to get an extension called "Disqus Auto Expander" which will keep you from manually having to click "load more comments". You can pop out the comments so you don't have to load the whole page by going to this page.
    a. Walmart announces their drops which means everybody is prepared to grab one. PlayStation Direct usually drops once per day at the top of a random hour but it has a queue which sometimes tends to be random. AntOnline and other lesser known retailers have random drops and are probably your best chance at grabbing one. The comments will help with this.

  4. These tips are half the battle, assume everybody knows these already. They can only get you there but you still need to fight hundreds or even thousands of people mashing "add to cart" and "checkout" buttons to get what you want.
    a. If you know there's a chance of a drop, make an account with the drop and pre-fill your information (shipping address, payment information) BEFORE the drop. Every second of typing is someone else completing their order.
    b. Use your browser's incognito mode or your phone to make your purchases. Pages tend to load quicker than a normal browser window thanks to simplified pages for mobile and less extensions having to load in incognito. Kohl's website once showed "Not in stock" on a web browser while the mobile page allowed me to add it to cart. Use phone with your data plan if possible for checkout while you refresh on your computer.
    c. Use Apple Pay or PayPal if possible!! It makes the checkout process much quicker and even fills information in for you. Plus, credit card companies can sometimes decline large transactions. It cost me a PS5. (P.S. don't use debit)
    d. During drop times, you can get an extension to automatically refresh for you. Make sure it allows you to set a random time intervals though or else you might get IP banned for refreshing too quickly . I used "Easy Auto Refresh" for chrome, but that has since been flagged as malware so try "Smart Auto Refresh" instead.

Need more help? Add me on discord: Prince#0584 or Steam.
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Good luck! :)

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