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The limited-edition PlayStation 4 designed to commemorate 20 years of Sony’s game console has become a big hit on eBay.
Over the weekend, one eBay seller manged to sell Sony’s PlayStation 4 20th Anniversary Edition
for $20,100 after 34 bids, while a second eBay seller was able to sell the console for $15,100 after 106 bids, listings on the online auction site confirm. The limited-edition console, which quickly sold out after preorders started in the US on Saturday, retails for $500 in the US and £399 in the UK.
Sony announced last Wednesday it would sell 12,300 units of the special PS4 bundle, which sports the grey finish of the original PlayStation and its classic logo. Sony chose to sell 12,300 units to match the launch date of the original PlayStation, December 3, 1994, or 12/3. The PS4 DualShock controller is also grey as part of the anniversary bundle, and the whole thing comes in a special box.
The original PlayStation has a long and storied history. The name “Play Station” was originally tied to a collaboration between Sony and Nintendo in the ’80s while the two companies developed a new CD-ROM format, but Sony backed out. Sony’s Ken Kutaragi, later dubbed the “father of the PlayStation,” managed to persuade Sony that gaming was not a fad.
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Sony launched the PlayStation into a crowded console market, filled with the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo and countless other gaming products — including the ill-fated 3DO. The PlayStation eventually went head-to-head with Sega’s Saturn and the Nintendo 64. Still, Sony was able to break from the pack, and during its run the PlayStation reached a cumulative 100 million shipments worldwide.
Nostalgia might have prompted the limited-edition hardware to fetch so much on eBay — the standard black PS4 costs $400 and is available from several retailers. However, since the anniversary console generated those bids over the weekend, things have calmed down a bit. As of this writing, interested buyers can take the top bid for a PlayStation 4 20th Anniversary Edition for around $1,500. It should be noted several of the limited-edition consoles for sale on the online auction site still have a hours to go and the last few minutes tend to cause a flurry of activity and push prices higher.
Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
