SANFORD, Fla. — The rush is on for many this week to buy their last minute Christmas and holiday gifts.

What You Need To Know

  • New video game consoles are nearly impossible to find

  • Older models are selling in palce of new consoles

  • Retro games have seen a resurgence

A traditional holiday staple is the new video game consoles, but new this year will have a new meaning to many.

New consoles like the highly coveted PS 5 or Xbox Series X and S models are near impossible to get. Older games, however, are obtainableb but prices for some older games are seeing price increases like the used car market saw this year, as well.

Inside the Cybertron Video Games store in Sanford, the register seems to be constantly beeping. Nearly every inch of the shop is full. But there is a glaring space behind Sean McMahon’sb who is behind the counter. It’s where a PS 5 should be.

“We’ve only had like maybe six since they have come out," Cybertron Video Games associate Sean McMahon explains. "It has almost been over a year now.”

Before the pandemic, the video game shop would get close to a 100 of the newly released consoles a year.

This winter, it’s not just the new consoles that are tough to get a hand on. Miguel Austin had been searching for nearly two weeks just to find a replacement piece for one of his controllers.

“For 5 bucks only," Austin says, excited as if he won a lottery after finding one at the store. "They are on Ebay for like $10, $15, all the way up to $30, so yes it makes a lot of sense to come to a place like this.”

With practically no shot of finding one of the hot new consoles for Christmas, it’s the previous years model like a PS4 that is a hot seller once again.

“People are just looking," McMahon says from the used console counter. "They are hungry for anything they can get their hands on, and so they are just like buying whatever they can do that is closest to the new thing.”

Sean says that sales wise only about 30% of the store’s business is for new games or new products. These days the real money is in the old stuff selling like new again. With the continued struggles of finding a new console for the last two years, it’s retro games, ones that have been around for 10 plus years that have seen a resurgence and so have their prices. An increase of about 20-25%.

As for new games, those sales seem to be holding steady.

“I have had people come in and buy games specifically just to be able to be ready for when they get the console,” McMahon says.

New games for the hard to get new consoles are in-stock and selling, but when they can be played remains a mystery.

Sony originally forecast to make 16 million new PS5 consoles from April 2021 to March 22, but Sony now says it will produce just under 15 million. According to Cybertron Video Games, a new PS 5 sticker MSPR is $500 new. On-line sellers are fetching more than $1000.