Second-hand Playstation 5's are already on-sale at higher retail values than new ones, such is the demand for them.
That is according to Ralph Riegel of the Irish Independent, who said a very 'hectic' shopping period is on the way due to a shortage of supplies.
He told The Pat Kenny Show this is because of a combination of factors.
"We're all aware of the fact that the global supply chains have been hit by the pandemic, and they're been quite slow to recover from that," he said.
"Compounding that is the fact that there's also a shortage of computer processing chips - which had affected everything really from car production right through to some of the most popular computer games, and in particular the Playstation 5.
"What's happened is a lot of the top-end electronic games are in relatively short supply, and added to that fact is that there's enormous demand for these top-end products."
'Impact for the toy sector'
He said people's shopping habits have also changed, putting more pressure on retailers.
"During the pandemic, people were doing their shopping quite early because they were afraid that there could be a lockdown," he said.
"Whereas what's happening this year is we've reverted to a more traditional model, which is where the Christmas shopping is really done over the six to eight weeks before Christmas.
"That has a particular impact for the toy sector: 40% of toys are sold in Ireland in that critical Christmas window.
"So it does exert an awful lot of pressure on retailers, and the difficulty is getting supply".
Taking Sony's Playstation 5 as a particular example, he said: "Illustrating the scale of the problem is a lot of scalpers realise that there's such enormous demand for this product - in particular the special editions of it - had bought multiple models of it and it is possible to buy the Playstation 5 second-hand for more than what you should be paying for it brand new in a shop".
'Difficult for some families'
Ralph said there will not be an overall shortage, but certain sectors will feel it more than others.
"There are more stocks en route to global markets," he said.
"No one is saying is that there's going to a shortage of toys this Christmas, but what there certainly is is it's going to be difficult for some families to buy specific, special edition models because of the demand.
"It's not just in the electronic toys - if you look across the broad spectrum of the toy market, very specific toys are going to be in enormous demand this year.
"Really what you're going to see across, not just the toy sector but I think every aspect of Irish retail, is a very intense very hectic six week shopping period from Black Friday all the way into Christmas Eve," he added.
