Read more at:
Buying a used console is usually a good way to save yourself some money. However, that isn’t really the case at GameStop anymore, at least not if you’re shopping for Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro. That’s because the retailer recently raised its pre-owned prices, increasing the sticker price for a used PS5 Pro to $1,399.99 in October 2026, and that’s only if it’s a digital edition. GameStop also upped the price for a used PS5 Pro with a disc drive to $1,499.99.
The pricing here is especially baffling when you think about the fact a brand-new PS5 Pro from Sony is still only $899.99. Of course, the console would actually have to be in stock for you to buy it, which is just another part of the problem altogether as Sony struggles to meet demand for the device it launched in 2024. Further, GameStop is aware of the price discrepency. A supposed employee shared a purported internal memo about the price hike on Reddit, according to PushSquare. The reported memo tells staff that the pre-owned console will cost more than the new one, and that the decision to make it this way was intentional.
Why have used PS5 Pro prices soared this high?
Six months ago, a used PS5 Pro at GameStop cost $807.49, which is what the retailer was charging when we recommended that PlayStation fans not wait to buy a PS5 in April 2026. Used prices were already starting to creep up after Sony announced a price increase at the time, and now we’ve seen the biggest jump with the used PS5 Pros, which rose more than $600 since then.
As for the exact reasons why, some of it has to do with Sony’s pricing. The PS5 Pro launched at $699.99 in November 2024, however it rose to $749.99 in August 2025, and then jumped another $150 to $899.99 in April 2026, with Sony blaming the “global economic landscape” for the increase. The biggest drive behind that problem, of course, is that AI companies are buying up chips and memory to power data centers, pushing up prices for pretty much every kind of electronics.
At the new price of a used PS5 Pro, you’re not far off from the roughly $1,500 it would cost to build a gaming PC with hardware that’s roughly equivalent to the PS5 Pro. Of course, you wouldn’t be able to play “Grand Theft Auto 6” when it arrives in November 2026, as it’s only releasing on consoles to start. And some believe that might another big part of what is driving the demand so high.
Buying used is the only option for many
The situation isn’t helped by the fact that new PS5 Pros have become almost impossible to find at any price or selling condition. Sony’s store often lists the device as unavailable, while inventory at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and GameStop is sold out as well. Some folks have gotten desperate enough to bite, though, with one user even posting in the PS5 Pro subreddit that they were so tired of missing restock alerts that they ended up buying a used one even though it was barely cheaper than a new one at the time.
Of course, the reaction to GameStop’s new prices is pretty much what you’d probably expect from such a dramatic hike. Some users are posting about how “no game is worth $1400,” in relation to “GTA 6’s” upcoming release exclusively for Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5 at launch. That’s a matter of opinion, of course, and for some, it just might be worth the extra asking price for the game, which spent more than a decade in development. If we were to recommend anything, we’d suggest just grabbing the base PS5 right now, as it appeared to run the game just fine in the extended look “GTA 6” developer Rockstar showcased earlier this year.
