Woman Orders PS5 from private reseller, receives bottled water instead

Imagine you’ve finally found a PlayStation 5 at a reasonable price point from a private reseller, only receive its weight in water in the mail. While even hardcore hydro homies would probably not derive great enjoyment from that package at a price point of 65,000 yen (approximately €507/$572/£433), a Japanese buyer was understandably not pleased either, contacting the seller and demanding their console to be delivered. 

According to FNN who first reported the news, the reseller ghosted her upon that request and the buyer found herself forced to contact the police. The police investigated the case and found a 41-year-old woman from Shiga, Japan, to have sent the wet surprise. She is now facing fraud charges.

While that nefarious deed doesn’t seem to be very well-thought-out, wait until you hear her excuse. According to a translation from Kotaku, the alleged fraudster defended herself stating that she had shipped the package, but didn’t remember what was in it, denying the intent to mislead the buyer. 

While we’ve known about decreasing amounts of fresh and drinkable water, with most of it locked up in glaciers, ice caps, atmosphere and soil, we aren’t exactly living in Kevin Costner’s Waterworld yet, during which it might be mildly plausible to have shipped water bottles via courier, right?

Since the launch date of the PlayStation 5 in November 2020, last we’ve heard, the console has sold approximately 13.4 million units, but not due to a lack of interested buyers. Due to a shortage of graphic chips, the supply had severely lacked behind demand for the first year of the console’s life cycle. With scarcity, buying and reselling the console at a higher price point became a lucrative business that has plagued consumers who are trying to snatch one from their regular retailer. Worse yet, it’s unlikely that the situation will resolve in 2022.

According to Sony Chief Financial Officer, Hiroki Totoki who shared that “supply wouldn’t be able to catch up to demand”. We advise you to stay smart with your Christmas money and only buy consoles either from retailers or major resellers and refrain from trying to find a deal with private sellers. With a wide range of new games still releasing a PlayStation 4 version, you will likely get through 2022 without too much trouble anyway.