Due to the massive demand for the latest game consoles, there are plenty of non-legit retailers and unscrupulous scalpers looking to get your money. We recommend sticking to the stores we’ve listed above, and avoiding shady websites such as TechInn and CheapGameCenter as well as people claiming to be selling the console on Twitter. You should also avoid buying the console on resale websites such as eBay and StockX, where the Xbox Series X is being sold for upwards of $1,000 — that’s twice its retail price.
Don’t give up hope if the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S appears to be out of stock the moment a big restock happens. Online retailers are usually being slammed at these times, causing that “in stock” button to flicker in and out. As such, we recommend refreshing the page for around 5-10 minutes — you never know when you might get lucky.
YouTuber Jake Randall recommends storing a PayPal or Apple Pay account instead of a credit card if possible, as it will allow you to circumvent some of the heavy site traffic that occurs during a restock. Once you’re logged in to stores such as Amazon and Best Buy and already have a payment option set up, you’ll have much less clicking and typing to do once it’s time to add that new Xbox to your cart.