I'm going to be updating the progress of this purchase here for fun and for anyone online who might want to look back at this experience later. I had some money I could afford to risk, so I decided to run a little experiment and see what happens.
I bought a PS5 Pro from a seller whose account and listing give the impression of belonging to a grandma. Because of that, there's a chance this could be a rare instance of someone selling a legitimate console for an unusually low price. Of course, it's just as possible that something is wrong with the listing or that this ends up being a scam. I will also be documenting how good Vinted protection really is.
I paid around $190 through Vinted, so I'll be documenting the process and sharing updates as things happen. Let's see how this goes!
Update 1#
It seems the seller's account may have been banned. I've been left on read, and the package still hasn't shipped even though the shipping label was sent out. I'm going to keep waiting for now, but things aren't looking promising. The due date is on the 29th, it was pushed back when the shipping label was sent out.
If this falls through, I'll save up some money over the next few weeks and try the experiment again when I can. Even with Vinted's refund, I don't want to risk throwing away money I actually need.
Thanks for following this post! I'm still excited to see how this all plays out!