Think The PlayStation 5 Is Expensive? This 20th Anniversary Edition PS4 Is Going For Almost $2,000

It seems we’re living in the mirror universe, as buying a PlayStation 5 today is somehow more expensive than it was at launch. If you’ve been keeping track, a one-two combo of the microprocessor shortage and the AI bubble has made hardware prices shoot up exponentially, resulting in graphic cards, motherboards, and other electronic components becoming ridiculously expensive. Of course, there are also geopolitical reasons at play, with trade wars and tariffs doing their bit to make these items more expensive to ship, and it has all trickled down to make game consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles more expensive. Sony’s current-gen console launched at $499.99 in late 2020 and currently sits at a retail price of $649.99 for the disc edition.

If you thought that was expensive, the 20th Anniversary Edition of the PlayStation 4 is currently going for almost $2,000 at Heritage Auctions. That’s almost three times the price for a previous-gen console as compared to the current-gen one, and almost four times the cost of the item’s original retail price. This massive inflation from the original retail price is due to several reasons, of which the primary one is that only 12,300 units of the 20th Anniversary Edition PS4 were ever distributed. While that’s reason enough, the main appeal for the limited edition console was that it came in the original grey color that the first ever PlayStation came in, along with old school red, yellow, and blue PS logo. So, just like the current PS5 price, a number of factors have attributed to this massive bid price, currently sitting at $1,937.50 with buyer’s premium.

This Limited Edition PS4 Costs Almost Three Times The Current Value Of A PS5

Apart from the fact that it invokes nostalgia and that it’s a limited edition console, it is the highest of only two such listings on VGA’s population report, with grade of VGA 95. But is that really enough to warrant such a massive valuation? Well, there are two more factors at play when it comes to this particular console. Firstly, it’s a Japanese edition, meaning its just that much rarer than those found in the U.S. As you already know, that’s enough for many collectors to automatically deem it more more valuable. However, the bigger factor is that this console was uncirculated, meaning it never actually hit store shelves for whatever reason.

There are plenty of reasons why it possibly remained uncirculated, even though only 12,300 units of the console were ever created. Perhaps this one was presented as a gift to someone at Sony, or was simply the promotional unit for the console’s launch. Either way, even this makes it more valuable than versions which eventually went in for retail distribution. While the console’s rarity and exclusivity surely plays into its final value, it’s undeniable that it makes us reminisce of simpler times, when all we had to worry about was if a bootleg game would make it past the iconic original PlayStation start-up theme. There’s no price on nostalgia, but if there was, I’d say it’s roughly $1,937.50.