Units started showing up on auction site eBay on the first day, with some being sold in fixed price auctions for as little as £475.

But the true value of the game systems has been seen through auctions with multiple bidders, which have seen prices rise as high as the whopping £1,220.

However, UK bidders need to be aware that because the next-generation games consoles contain Blu-ray DVD drives, they are locked to a specific region.

PS3’s from Japan won’t play older PS2 games or PSOne games bought in this country because they are all encoded for the European market.