Tips On How To Secure A PlayStation 5

So guys, by now you all might have got an estimation of how difficult it is to actually secure a PlayStation 5. If you are not aware, then in a nutshell, it will take a few sleepless nights, endless refreshing certain websites and a whole lot of notification alerts and alarms.

It took me nearly a month and about 3 stock drops from major websites before I could secure one. So I thought I will post this article to help you guys to secure a PS5. Mostly, I will talk about UK but looking at the pattern, it seemed same in other countries as well, especially America, so see if these tips will help.

So, I missed the initial pre-order for PS5 as I just invested in some Apple products but looking at the positive reviews and the hype which the PS5 created, I wanted to be a part of the action! But it was too late. No stock anywhere, thanks to all the scalpers and their bots, PS5 consoles are being picked up within fractions of seconds as soon as they are made available and within a few more minutes, they are showing up on eBay for twice the price. Seriously, this scalping has been such an issue that there is a bill currently in the parliament for banning such activity!

And honestly, what chance do you have against a bot – a program which could buy a PS5 unit from a website within fraction of seconds which humans cant do. Seriously, we did create one at work for a good purpose, for downloading a product feed file from a website as the client did not have an automated export option. So our programmer wrote a bot in VB script which logs onto a PC, opens a browser, goes to manual export section and download a feed file and then closes the connection. This took our programer about 30 mins to write, so you can imagine how easy it is to all these scalpers and there is really no competing with a machine in terms of speed!

So all this and hundreds of thousands of genuine people wanting to buy one for their sons, boyfriends, husbands, etc. defiantly is not making it easier to get one.

So here are some PS5 hunting tips which really helped me along with my experience and I will also mention it the end where I secured one from.

First, you cannot manually keep up with a website in when their next stop drop is going to be. This is physically not possible. So the best thing is to follow people or bots who will do this for you.

Twitter is the best place for all this action. If you don’t have a Twitter account, you need to get one and then follow these accounts:

MSTV @MSTVTweets

PS5StockPING @PS5StockPingUK

hensteethRobot @hensteethbot

PS5 Stock UK @PS5StockAlertUK

PS5UPDATEUK @PS5UPDATEUK

You also need to constantly check these hashtags to see what the current trend is:

#ps5uk

#ps5ukstock

#ps5stockuk

#ps5restockuk

These twitter accounts and hashtags will give indication on when stock will go LIVE on websites. And mostly, they get a right estimate thanks to all those people who work as stock managers with major UK companies and leak information

So make sure to follow them, but just following this is not sufficient, you must make sure to turn notifications ON otherwise, you will miss stock alerts. On twitter, you go to an account, follow them and then click on this bell icon and choose “All Tweets”

And then on iOS devices, go to Settings – > Notifications – > Twitter and then choose everything including banner style as Persistent so it shows until you dismiss a notification and also choose show previews even on lock screen. Dont worry about battery drain, you need to do this so you dont miss any stock drop notifications.

Then a couple of Twitter account do LIVE stream on YouTube. MSTV is one of them and it really helps to keep this running on your PC. As when stock shows up, it sounds an alarm. This alarm is really loud and scares the heck out of you the first time but it will intimate you as soon as stock drops with minute delay so you can get onto that particular website and join their queue.

MSTV also runs a chat session on discord server, where you can join and chat with like minded people who are trying to secure a PS5 as well. But be warned, they can get a bit brutal there so not something if you are easily offended! But again, for me this is where I picked up a stock drop notification from before anywhere else.

Then the device, needless to say you need at least a computer or a tablet or a phone, but good thing is to have all of them on hand. For me the PC failed but iPad succeeded to load website correctly. So atleast have more than one device ready when the ball drops. Your family, wife, son, daughter also can help to improve your chances of securing one.

In UK, the main websites which you need to target are as follows:

Amazon.co.uk

Game.co.uk

argos.co.uk

smythstoys.co.uk

johnlewis.com

currys.co.uk

very.co.uk

shopto.net

studio.co.uk

ace.co.uk

Now, for all these websites or the ones which you trust, make sure you have an account created, along with all your billing and shipping address details stored as well as have CC information saved. Also make sure that you have signed it to all these websites or at least those which the twitter buzz is predicting stock drops.

And if they have an APP, download that, because, it makes it much simple to checkout on an APP. Which is how I secured mine. More on this will follow shortly

So now you are all set, you have notifications ready for stock drops and accounts and apps from all the major resellers. The next thing is to get on the website where there is a stock alert as quickly as possible. As soon as the notification rings or you get a tweet or a message for these twitter accounts, get onto the website as soon as possible. A single minute delay will push you back thousands in the queue. Seriously, I got within 20 seconds of seeing a notification and I was placed at 390 and within the next 2 minutes, when I checked from a different device, the position was already at 16000. This is just plain ridiculous! There are soo many trying to buy a PS5 along with scalper bots, its insane. And reduncency, job shortage, financial dip due to covid, all this doesn’t exist in the land of PS5. There really are soo many willing to shell out 350 or 450£ for a gaming console, despite the economic recession, its insane to think about it!

So that’s it, get onto the queue as soon as possible, maybe from multiple devices and also ask your family to join the queue as well as it would increase your chances. Complete the checkout in the time allocated and be prepared to go for the least expensive bundles as the standalone consoles sell out first. Do not hit the refresh button or use the browser’s front/back buttons if a website is slow to load. You have to be a bit patient. And that’s all there is .. timing, patience and perseverance

And here’s how I secured one..

First drop was supposed to happen at 3AM so based on that i stayed awake until 4 and nothing happened and I over slept.. only to find out that Smythstoys dropped stock at 8AM!! So I missed that one.

Next one was game.co.uk. I was at my pc woking with all websites open and live stream going on in the background and heard the alarm go off. Straight went to Game.co.uk website and was pleased to find out I was in a queue with just 3 mins to be let in whilst checking messages from others on twitter saying they already are an hour away. I thought to myself, wow, is it that simple ?? Only few mins later to regret my words! The queue let me in to the website but it didnt load. I did not want to refresh as I might loose the place in the queue or worse, loose the session. I waited and waited and it was almost 20 mins later I was let in, that too into a broken version of the mobile site on my pc. Once I could locate the buy button, it wasn’t allowing me to buy and eventually, it kicked me out and placed back in the queue which was over an hour long. By then, I already read messages of stock selling out reported by other users. I was seriously gutted, despite being relatively quick, I couldn’t secure one. Retrospectively thinking, it could be the Chrome browser which I was using and regretted that I did not join the queue on my iPad as well. So that’s why guys, use more than one type of device – a pc, iphone + ipad was my winning combo!

Next drop was the website ShopTo.net. I ‘ve heard of them before but never bought anything from them. But looking at positive reviews from twitter users, I joined the queue straight after getting the notification. Shopto had a better queue management system than game and actually gave numbers, I was about 400 and it said I will be let into the website in 15 mins. As soon as I got my number, I refreshed and checked twitter and it already was up to 16000 – this is within really the next 2 minutes or so. I tried to join once more via my iPad and the queue was about 16,400 long! Wow!! So dont underestimate the value of a few seconds here guys!

After 20 mins, I was let in the website and the website was slow, but it actually loaded. And both the digital and disc versions were in stock, but they were not standalone units. ShopTo was forcing you to buy bundles. The disc version had Spiderman Miles Morales ultimate edition along with the game Pathway and an extra dual sense controller for 600£. Now, I already owned Miles Morales and in all my years of owing playstation, I never needed an additional controller. So, I really didnt want to pay 600£ for stuff whcih I dont need. Its almost how much you can pay a scalper on eBay to secure one. True, I can sell the unwanted things on the bundle, but with lockdown and postage costs, I really dont want to go around selling stuff.

So I let it go, I didnot end up paying nearly 150£ more for stuff which I do not need! But very decent website and queuing system. It let me in at the right time, gave me 10 mins to complete my order and even informed people who were queuing to give up if their queue number was more than 2000 as they did not have enough stock to fulfil after 2k. Very impressed by the website. Only thing, please sell all combinations and dont force people to choose bundles and pay extra for things we dont need!

And then third time was the charm for me. After a few false alerts later from Currys, Very and Amazon and a night out for possible Argos stock drop, I woke up in the morning and checked what the buzz was on discord server from the user MSTV. My pc was still running the live stream but headphones were connected and I saw some user casually mention Amazon UK stock drop. The message was from a user and not the account holders. I straight jumped onto the Amazon app from my iPhone. Went to PS5 product page and it said see all buying options. Usually, this is were third party sellers would list for exorbitant costs and I thought it will be the same, but was surprised to see the cost was 449£ and it said despatched and sold by Amazon. I quickly hit the buy button and paid within the next 10 seconds. And just then the siren from my pc rang intimating stock on Amazon. Followed quickly by all twitter notifications informing the same.

Out of curiosity, I went back again and tried to add it to the basket and it was giving an error! So you see, the main thing is to get in as soon as possible. Even if you are on a website, if there isn’t a proper queuing system, then there are still chances that you might not succeed. Ideally, the queuing system must be on a different server and they should let users in as much as the server can handle. That way, even if you get to the site, chances that it will crash will be less. But dont think everyone is geared up to make such changes in their server and system setup.

So, good luck to you guys. It really is a chore at the moment to secure one. But no mater what, please DO NOT buy from scalpers. It because of them that we are currently in this situation! So dont pay anything more than the sticker price. And do not trust twitter users who say they are selling for the retail price. Twitter doesnt cover you for payments like eBay does and you might end up loosing your hard earned cash. So whatever it is, do not buy from twitter users! If you are really desperate for a PS5 for that birthday or anniversary gift and if you cant secure one the right way, then do not go to scalpers. You really are better off putting that money in a envelope and marking it as “For PS5" and giving that as. a gift! So the recipient can buy it when proper stock is available.

So that’s my experience and I’m hoping that it will help you guys as well. I have to thank the twitter accounts once again for helping me secure a PS5. And the whole experience, even though was tiring and frustrating at times, I am going to cherish it as this is going to be history down the lane. And I can gladly say that I was a part of it!