European and North American buyers eager to get their hands on Sony’s PlayStation 3 are turning to eBay after the first consoles started selling in Japan on 11 November.

Sony kicked off the sales of its new games console on Saturday, offering 100,000 units for sale in Japan. The 20GB and 60GB models retail for about $425 and $510 respectively.

Several of the units are being offered on eBay and are selling for up to $1,500. Local media reports claimed that units were selling on Japanese sites for about twice the retail price.

At the time of going to press, about 100 auctions were offering PlayStation 3 units for sale.

Buyers will have to cope with the Japanese systems supporting a local version of the NTSC standard that is incompatible with the US NTSC and European Pal television standards. The power supply poses another challenge.

Posted: 11|15|06 at 8:09 am. Filed under: Auction News.