Manually searching for PlayStation 5 stocks on different websites is hard to do and it may take some time as thousands of people are also trying to find available units online and in store. However, buyers are also competing against PS5 stock checker bots that instantly scrapes websites for any availability and automatically count them.
A Twitch channel called killercam1020 runs a stock checker for PS5 and Xbox Series X. The channel is run by Cam Ritz and uses a program called Streetmerchant to monitor the PS5 and Xbox Series X stocks at various retailers such as Amazon, GameStop, Best Buy, NewEgg, and Walmart. Unfortunately, it is currently disappointing to watch the stream as hundreds of instant updates from online retailers show "OUT OF STOCK."
Ritz who already got hold of a unit after pre-orders went live back in September said he would add more retailers to his list to further increase the chance of finding a console. Ritz said some viewers watching his stream have snagged consoles. "I made this to help others out, to be honest," Ritz told Polygon via direct message in Twitter. He also said that one person was able to snag a unit from Sam's Club while few people got Xbox Series X units from GameStop.
Aside from his own stream, Ritz has also been monitoring Twitter user Wario64 who notifies his followers frequently for availability of PS5 and Xbox Series X from various retailers.
Meanwhile, apart from thousands of buyers and bots, numerous resellers also hope to make profit as they may increase the price due to scarcity of supplies of both PS5 and Xbox Series X.
Streetmerchant: PS5 stock checker
Manwhile, anyone could run Streetmerchant to make their own monitoring as stock checker program is publicly available. While the bot provides real-time feed on the PS5 and Xbox Series X stocks, it further strengthens the difficulty of finding one at this time.
Touted as the "the world's easiest, most powerful stock checker," Streetmerchant can be easily installed to check stocks of any product. It scrapes various websites for stock patterns via Chromium and API. It automatically opens browsers and sends notifications once stock becomes available. However, the developer noted that the PS5 stock checker bot will not automatically make a purchase once a stock is spotted.
How to install Streetmerchant
Installing Streetmerchant is extremely easy and does not require any programming skills or computer smarts. It would be a welcome onus if a person has some basic understanding of how to build a terminal as well as git and Node.js. Meanwhile, streetmerchant can run in Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems.
- Download and install Node.js 14
- Download and install git
- Clone the projectgit clone https://github.com/jef/streetmerchant.git. After cloning, users may checkout a particular ref by using "git checkout "
- Run"npm" install
- Copy".env-example"to a new file.env then edit thefile using any text editor. Find out more information about this here.
- To start, run"npm run start"
- However, if user wants to stop the program, just press Ctrl+C at any time.
Users can use the command "npm run start" or "npm run start:dev" to restart the project automatically if filesystem changes in the .env file or src/ folder are detected. Meanwhile, the developer noted that Streetmerchant is customizable.
Just create a copy of the .env file and make changes depending to what information the user wants or needs to know. Take note that environment variables are all optional.
Related article: PS5 Stock Availability: Redditor Creates Twitter Bot That Updates on Where to Buy New Console Regularly
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Written by CJ Robles
