Everyone saw this coming, but it was still disappointing to see. Fans were drooling over the 30th Anniversary PlayStation 5 Collectiona double dose of nostalgia and clean aesthetics when it was revealed earlier this month. Today, many of them stared blankly at PlayStation Direct pre-order screens as they watched it sell out while waiting in confusing online queues and struggling with glitchy website buttons.

The 30th anniversary collection went on pre-order earlier today And it turns out the limited edition PS5 Pro bundle, of which only 12,300 were produced, wasn’t the only thing that seemed impossible to get. Pre-orders for the PS1-style PS5 slim bundle, PS Portal, and DualSense controller also disappeared almost immediately, begging the eternal question of why Sony doesn’t just produce as many of these items as people want.

Panic broke out overnight when reports poured in from Australia and the UK that pre-orders, which became available in each region at 10am local time, immediately disappeared, followed by reseller offers that pop up on eBay for five to ten times the suggested retail price. As pre-order time for the 30th anniversary approached in the US, people tried to load the PlayStation Direct page early, only to be thrown into a queue with estimated wait times of over an hour.

To compound the initial confusion, Sony never really gave fans a clear idea of ​​what to expect from the pre-order process. After the PS5 30th Anniversary Collection was revealed, all it said was that it would be available for purchase on September 26, with no prior announcement of an official launch time or even pricing. Essentially, what worked was that people who tried to order via PlayStation Direct were put in a waiting room to be assigned a random spot in line, after which they could order whatever was left, which for most people, myself included, turned out to be nothing.

Was it because I didn’t get to the waiting room sooner? Or did I just get a bad spot in line? Was there a better way to handle all of this? There were anecdotal reports of people going into the store and then being thrown back into the waiting room. Once they were in the store, it was still confusing to buy stuff. Even items that weren’t listed as sold out, like the PS1 DualSense controller, couldn’t be purchased when you clicked ‘add to cart’.

It seems like people who just wanted the $80 controller had better luck with retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop, whose PS5 controller pre-orders opened alongside PlayStation Direct. Those also sold out fairly quickly, though. It’s possible that additional stock will be released in waves, as Sony did when demand blew supply out of the water with the PS5’s original launch. But I’m also not sure why Sony doesn’t just try to sell as many PS1-style controllers as possible, at least for those who order over the next few months.

It’s the cheapest option for fans who want to get in on the anniversary hype, or just love the idea of ​​channeling all those nights they spent in front of their original PS1 into the modern era. Maybe Sony was just testing initial demand and will come back later with a bottomless sack from Santa full of PS5 30th Anniversary goodies for the holidays. If not, the PS5 30th Anniversary DualSense controllers are already on sale up to $200 on eBay.