A Japanese store is fighting back against PS5 scalpers by engraving the full names of potential buyers onto PS5 boxes.
As reported by GamesRadar, Twitter user aevanko (also known as YouTuber Gaijin Hunter) retweeted a photo by Japanese user kaz_kun about the drastic measures taken by a retailer to ensure that scalpers don't buy PS5s in bulk. He explained that the store will "write your full name on the box at [the] time of purchase."
Kaz_kun clarified in a reply under the original tweet that, according to Twitter's built-in Google Translate tool, "it seems that the name is written with both felt-tip pens and ballpoint pens. With a ballpoint pen, it seems the name will remain..." This means that once your name is written on the PS5 box, your name will remain visible even if you remove the ink, since the grooves from the ballpoint pen are dented on the cardboard box. The indent on the PS5 box is not a huge deal if you're buying the console only for yourself, a friend, or a family member, but that little detail would make reselling it extremely difficult for scalpers - particularly if they want to avoid their full name being associated with scalping.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic dealt a significant blow to the supply chain and manufacturing of the PS5 since its launch back in November, causing shortages that gave scalpers an unfair advantage over everyone else. While the console is still very hard to come by, leading resale site StockX reported last month that they've been reselling the PS5 for around 30% less than they were at the time of its launch.
In Japanese retailer Nojima Denki's case, writing the real names of customers on the PS5 boxes is a genius way to deter scalpers and make purchasing the console fairer for everybody. It's possible that name engravement is a more effective method than per-customer purchase limits, considering scalpers tend to use duplicate accounts, bots and other tools to work around them.