How to Buy a Used PS5 on Facebook Marketplace Without Getting Burned

Which PS5 is which

Listings say “PS5”, “PS5 slim”, “PS5 digital” and “PS5 Pro” fairly loosely, and the difference matters to the price. Sony’s support page on serial and model numbers (checked 29 October 2026) says the model number is the letters CFI followed by numbers and a letter, printed on the bottom of the console when it stands upright. If a stand or base is attached, it has to come off to read it.

Sony’s own support pages group the consoles like this:

If the printing on the bottom is hard to read, Sony gives an on-screen route: Settings > System > System Software > Console Information, where the serial number is shown. Check the model before anything else. A listing priced as a disc console that turns out to have no drive attached should be priced as what you are actually holding.

The used PS5 checklist at a glance

The menu paths below come from PlayStation’s Australian support pages, checked on 29 October 2026. Do the network check and the controller test while the seller’s account is still on the console, and the reset last.

The general meeting and payment advice in the guide to whether Facebook Marketplace is safe still applies; this page is about the console itself.

Check that it can still reach PlayStation Network

A PS5 that cannot get online still turns on and still plays discs, which is exactly why it can be listed as “works perfectly”. Without PlayStation Network you lose online play, the PlayStation Store, game updates and anything you would buy digitally, so this is the check that matters most for most buyers.

Sony’s PS5 error code list (checked 29 October 2026) includes these access errors:

• WS-116332-6: “Access from your PlayStation®5 console may be prohibited or temporarily unavailable.”
• WS-116367-4: “Access to PlayStation® has been suspended.”
• WS-116330-4 and WS-116331-5: access to PlayStation “has been temporarily suspended”.

Sony’s list does not use the word “ban”, and apart from WS-116332-6, which names the console, it does not say whether a code applies to a console or an account. That is why the test has two parts:

1. With the seller’s account. Connect the console to the internet (the seller’s home Wi-Fi, or a hotspot from your phone if you are meeting elsewhere) and open PlayStation Store. It should load without an error.
2. With yours, if there is time. After the reset (below), sign in with your own PlayStation account over your hotspot and open the Store again. That tells you the console works with an account that is not the seller’s, which is the situation you will actually be in at home.

Be careful with listings that say “jailbroken”, “modded” or “offline only”, or that offer a console “not updated” as a feature. They are telling you the console has been changed, or is being sold, to run software Sony did not approve. Whatever you think of that, you cannot check its history, and you should not assume it will get online. A seller who will not connect the console before you pay has answered the question for you.

The seller’s account, digital games and console sharing

“Comes with 20 games” is the line that causes the most disappointment, because it often means 20 downloads on the seller’s account. Digital games belong to the PlayStation account that bought them, not to the console. PlayStation’s page on restoring default settings says resetting the console “deletes user and game data as well as any personalised settings”, so once the seller resets it, their downloads go with them.

Count the games like this:

• Game discs are part of the deal, provided the console has a disc drive. Ask to see them, and play one to test the drive.
• Digital games are the seller’s. Treat them as worth nothing to you, however long the list.

Then there is console sharing. PlayStation’s support page says Console Sharing and Offline Play lets anyone who uses that PS5 play the account holder’s games and media, that it can be on for only one PS5 at a time, and that it is turned off in Settings > Users and Accounts > Other > Console Sharing and Offline Play. A seller who forgets can still turn it off from Account Management on the web, but Sony says that remote “deactivate all devices” option can only be used every six months.

That is mostly the seller’s problem rather than yours, since the reset removes their account from the console either way. It is still worth asking them to switch it off before the reset: it takes a minute, it saves them trouble on their next console, and a seller who knows exactly where the setting is usually owns the console they are selling.

One more thing to ask about. PlayStation’s guide to handing a console on tells owners to remove an M.2 SSD they have added if they want to keep it. A listing that says “2TB” or “expanded storage” should still have that drive in the console when you collect it, and the price should drop if it does not.

Test the DualSense for stick drift

“Drift” is a control stick that registers movement when nobody is touching it: the camera slowly turns, a character walks off, or a menu selection creeps along by itself. Photos cannot show it, so test every controller in the listing.

• Start any game with a moving camera, or sit on a menu. Take both thumbs off the sticks and watch for ten seconds. Nothing should move.
• Roll each stick slowly around its full range and press it down. The movement should follow smoothly, and the click should register.
• Press every button, both triggers and the touch pad, and plug the controller in with a USB cable to check it charges.

PlayStation’s DualSense troubleshooting page suggests a reset first when a controller misbehaves: a small reset button inside the hole next to the Sony logo on the back, held with a pin for at least five seconds. If that does not help, its page sends “Button or analogue stick issue” to PlayStation’s repairs process. At the seller’s door, the practical point is simpler: a drifting controller is a known cost, not a reason to walk away, as long as the price allows for a replacement.

Testing the hardware, the reset, and paying safely

Meet face to face, somewhere public in daylight or at the seller’s front door; a seller who insists on posting a PS5 to a buyer in the same city is one to be careful with. Beyond the checks above, test what a photo cannot show:

• Put a disc in and let it load a game. Listen for grinding or repeated spinning.
• Check the picture appears on a TV through the HDMI port, with the cable seated firmly. A loose or damaged port is an expensive repair.
• Let a game run for a few minutes and listen to the fan. It should rise and settle, not rattle or whine.
• Look at the ports, the vents and the bottom of the console for damage, heavy dust or missing screws.

Then the reset, last of all, after the network and controller checks. PlayStation’s steps are Settings > System > System Software > Reset Options > Reset Your Console, and its guide warns that the process cannot be undone. If the console will not reach the home screen, Sony’s Safe Mode guide starts it by holding the power button and releasing after the second beep, which gives a “Reset PS5 (Reinstall System Software)” option; a console that only works that way is one to price very carefully.

Agree the price before you meet; the guide to negotiating on Facebook Marketplace covers making an offer that keeps the seller on side. If a controller drifts, the SSD is missing or the games turn out to be digital, say so and adjust then. Pay only after every check has passed, in a way you can trace, and never send a deposit to “hold” a console you have not seen. The guide to Facebook Marketplace scams covers the deposit and posted-item tricks that turn up again and again with consoles.

Why the well-priced PS5s are gone within the hour

Here is the listing everyone is waiting for: “PS5 disc edition, two controllers, three games, hardly used since the kids moved out, pickup this arvo.” Priced to sell, not priced to wait. It goes up after lunch and says pending before dinner.

Consoles are what Outpost’s users watch most. Of 16,238 new listings Outpost Alerts matched in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra between 2 June and 2 October 2026, almost all were handheld and home consoles. And sellers post them in daylight: “Of 16,238 console listings Outpost Alerts tracked in six Australian capital cities between June and October 2026, 59% were posted between 10 am and 6 pm local time, and the busiest hour was 1-2 pm.” Every buyer watching for a cheap PS5 sees the same listing at the same moment, the first messages land within minutes, and the seller picks whoever can come today with the money ready.

That is the awkward part of a careful checklist: the careful buyer is often the slow one. Do not skip the checks to save time. Change when you see the listing instead. Refreshing the app a few times a day leaves hours between looks, and the consoles worth having are claimed inside those hours. The guide to sniping deals on Facebook Marketplace explains why being first matters more than anything else on a fixed-price marketplace, and the hour-by-hour data on when console listings go up shows when to be ready.

Where Outpost Alerts fits

The checks are yours. Seeing the listing in time is the part a tool can help with, and that is the job Outpost Alerts does.

Outpost Alerts is an Australian-built service that watches Facebook Marketplace for new listings matching your keywords and sends them to an iPhone app, a web dashboard or Discord. It searches from its own servers, so it does not need your Facebook login. The fastest watchlist is checked every minute on Pro, every 3 minutes on Standard and every 30 minutes on Basic; additional watchlists run a little slower (3 minutes or more on Pro, 5 minutes or more on Standard).

A watchlist for a used PS5 might look like this:

• Search phrase: “ps5” on its own catches every model, or narrow it with “ps5 disc” or “ps5 pro”. One model per watchlist keeps the feed clean.
• Exclude words: wanted, swap, broken, faulty, parts, controller only, box only, games only. Exclude words match anywhere in the text, so be careful with short ones: excluding “pro” to keep the Pro off a standard watchlist also drops “screen protector included” and “professionally cleaned”, and excluding “disc” drops “discs included”. The guide to excluding words on Marketplace explains how matching works.
• Price ceiling: a little below what that model usually sells for near you, from your own research.
• Location: one location and a radius from 5 to 500 km per watchlist. Keep it to the distance you would drive today to test a console in person.

Outpost also filters what reaches you. Across 30,777 listings that matched a keyword, 38.6% were discarded as not the item being searched for; for consoles, that means the controllers, games, stands, cases and “wanted” posts that share the name.

What it does not do: it does not test a console, check for a PlayStation Network restriction or tell you whether the games are discs or downloads. Those checks stay yours, at the door. It watches Facebook Marketplace only, it does not message the seller for you, it has no Android app (Android users use the web dashboard), and it has no free plan (every plan has a 3-day trial). What it changes is whether you see the well-priced PS5 while it is still for sale. More ready-made console searches are in the Facebook Marketplace watchlist ideas, and if you are also weighing up a Nintendo console, the used Nintendo Switch checklist covers the same ground for Switches.

FAQ

Sources checked

• PlayStation Support: PS5 Error codes (checked 29 October 2026): WS-116332-6, WS-116367-4, WS-116330-4, WS-116331-5.
• PlayStation Support: How to turn on PS5 Console Sharing and Offline Play (checked 29 October 2026).
• PlayStation Support: Transferring or disposing of your console (checked 29 October 2026): Reset Your Console, M.2 SSD.
• PlayStation Support: How to restore default settings (checked 29 October 2026): what a reset deletes.
• PlayStation Support: How to find PS5 console serial and model numbers and disc drive serial number (checked 29 October 2026).
• PlayStation Support: PS5 vertical stand (checked 29 October 2026): CFI-1000 and CFI-2000/7000 model groups.
• PlayStation Support: Troubleshoot DualSense wireless controller issues (checked 29 October 2026).
• PlayStation Support: Reinstall system software using Safe Mode (checked 29 October 2026).

Marketplace features, fees, and policies change. Confirm current rules in Facebook's Help Center before relying on specific details.