http://www.oregonlive.com/news/orego...030.xml&coll=7
Shoppers standing in line not for gift, but for gain
Profit - A Vancouver man hires helpers to buy PlayStations for resale
Thursday, November 16, 2006
JOSEPH ROSE
When Jorgan Cattin's ad popped up in the "Jobs" category of Craigslist early Sunday, he sounded more like a geek seeking companionship (fluency in Klingon optional).
The 20-year-old Vancouver college student and caterer is desperate to get his hands on a PlayStation 3. Limited supplies of the highly hyped, high-definition Sony gaming console go on sale Friday. Retail price: $600.
Cattin's ad said he was looking for someone to spend the week waiting in line with him outside a Portland Best Buy, starting Monday. "You will be provided food for the duration of the line wait and $100 cash," it promised.
But before you cheer for or roll your eyes at Cattin's video game fanaticism, consider this: The only reason he wants a PS3 is to flip it for a profit on eBay for $2,000 to $2,500 or beyond.
He's no nerd. "I'm an entrepreneur," Cattin said.
Of course, that's probably not how the droves of parents and video game enthusiasts denied a PS3 will describe him this Christmas. Indeed, one Portland sociologist says online profiteers such as Cattin are partly to blame for a creeping holiday cynicism.
The Best Buy near Portland International Airport will have 26 PS3's -- one per customer -- when the doors open at 8 a.m. Friday.
Cattin, who was first in a bundled-up line of about 25 people outside the store Wednesday, hired enough people from Craigslist to buy five.
He wasn't the only one who was more interested in old-fashioned cash than the console's snazzy Blu-Ray gaming technology.
Nineteen other people waited under damp sleeping bags and umbrellas behind Cattin and his crew. All said they planned to resell the machines they buy for profit.
This is the Christmas that eBay has created. And it transcends the next generation of game consoles.
In September, parents nationwide were dismayed to find shelves bare of T.M.X. Elmo when they went on sale. Within 24 hours, 20,000 of the $39.99 dolls were on eBay, where they sold for up to $355.
But analysts expect the PS3 to be this season's holy-grail gift, mostly because of the expected shortages.
Over the weekend, Cattin saw bids as high as $3,500 for the system on eBay auctions.
"I was sincere when I posted my ad on Craigslist," Cattin said. "I was just looking for someone to wait for me until a friend of mine could join me Thursday night."
Then, his e-mail box flooded with people hoping to get the gig. As if someone hit the start button in Cattin's head, he realized that hiring more people to buy PS3s would mean more profit. He upped the ante to $200.
Before the waiting started on Monday, he required his four "employees" to sign contracts, promising that they would not run off with the PS3's they buy for him.
One could say that Cattin is an innovator, doing nothing different from Phil Knight selling Nikes out of his trunk.
But the scene outside Best Buy disturbs Randy Blazak, a Portland State University sociologist.
For one thing, he said, camping out to buy tickets for a rock concert or a movie or the release of a hyped product used to bring people together for a common cultural event. "But here, the marketplace is corrupting the cultural experience," Blazak said.
What's more, Blazak said, a parent forced to pay four times the retail price for a must-have holiday gift will only grow more cynical about the season of giving. "Fortunately, I think we will eventually see some kind of movement against elaborate gift-giving," he said.
Huddled under a blanket, Andrea Faciane, one of the five people Cattin hired, said she had no qualms about buying a PS3 that could go to someone who really wanted it. "If they really wanted it that bad," she said, "they'd be out here waiting."
Wednesday morning, Howard Stern had some fun with Cattin's ad on his national radio show. And after a local television station erroneously reported that Cattin had hired everyone in line to buy PS3s for him, he hired guards with a private security firm to escort him and his booty Friday morning.
"They will follow me out to my car," he said, "and then follow me home."
Yes, he admitted, that will cut into the profits.
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