Buying an iPad In a Parking Lot is a Bad Idea

[foidulus]

When I was living for a summer outside NY City there was variation on the speaker scam.

You'd be walking along the sidewalk, and couple of fellows would pop the trunk of their car and offer you a pair of big speakers for a good price. All sorts of stories were used about why they were selling them. You could look at them, examine them. Anything you wanted. If you had a stereo you could test them even (but who walks around with a stereo?). You'd get them home and they'd work fine even.

The scam was that they were buying cheap speakers, legitimately. Even getting a volume discount from the store. But they were charging 2x and 3x what they worth, and were counting on the out-of-town rubes believing that they were "hot", and therefore being sold at a steep discount. Part of the schtick was that they insisted on giving everyone a receipt. And of course the more the scammers insisted on doing the paperwork for the goods sold from the trunk of the car, the more their 'customers' were convinced by the schtick.

The cops tried to shut them down, but they weren't doing anything really illegal. They paid their taxes, and had the paper work to prove it. They plugged the meter. They weren't vending on the sidewalk, so there was some doubt whether the city's vending laws even applied. And if the scammers were cited they just paid the fine because it was small, and they figured it was cheaper to pay it than to fight it.

The only thing they were guilty of was taking advantage of the tourists' greed.

Thats pretty much a mobile version of the "going out of business" sale. Some places have been going out of business for decades now, wonder when they are finally going to close up shop

 

[jumpmanpro97]

didn't they have this scam in the 90's

"Hey buddy I have some stereo speakers for sale man!"

I remember in high school some guys in a truck trying to sell me stereo speakers, lol same scam just apple products now.

 

[Negritude]

The scam was that they were buying cheap speakers, legitimately. Even getting a volume discount from the store. But they were charging 2x and 3x what they worth, and were counting on the out-of-town rubes believing that they were "hot", and therefore being sold at a steep discount.

Yeah, that's not illegal. Around here we call that eBay.

 

[blackburn]

A very old scam. I saw selling cellphones that were soap bars and many stolen, many fake clothing stuff and many fake audio/video stuff. The trick is not to buy or even listen to those "random" encounters. One idiot tried to trick me into trading my phone for a nokia n95 that most likely was stolen, one has to be an idiot to believe in good intentions.

One curious story: a friend of mine was mugged and later on that day we found is cellphone for sale on the flea market. Too bad someone got arrested.

 

[marksman]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_4 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8K2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Who carries 500 cash with them these days?

 

[marksman]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_4 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8K2 Safari/6533.18.5)

who the hell carries $500 cash around?

*cough* ATM *cough*

If you have to leave these guys, go go an ATM and the voluntarily come back the loss of money is a proper punishment.

 

[mac=saif]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)



I'm not even going to say it.

EDIT:
Wait, it's funnier if I do.
mac=saif
are = our
is = has
And those aren't all of the problems with your statement.

Thank you, for marking out my grammatical mistakes. I would not have noticed it if it was not for you.
Let me remind you about a common rule in English.
EDIT:

Zync
You never start a sentence with the word 'And'.

 

[andrewlgm]

dirty people.

 

[Gasu E.]

You know what they say... If you outlaw guns then only outlaws will have guns.

Yes, gun proponents do say that, if that's whom you mean by "they".

If people want to kill someone there are a million ways that have nothing to do with guns.

True, but if you don't want to kill anyone, having a loaded gun lying around is an excellent way to fail.

Personally I'd rather be on the same level as the criminals.

That's an interesting aspiration; I wish you the best of luck.

----------

How can people be so stupid?
I back the people who run the scam, to remind us how retarded our world has become!

I watch the news every day, and listen to the illogical nonsense candidates for higher office are spouting. I don't need any other reminders.

 

[toddybody]

dirty people.

They have feelings too.

 

[Gasu E.]

Thank you, for marking out my grammatical mistakes. I would not have noticed it if it was not for you.
Let me remind you about a common rule in English.
EDIT:

Zync
You never start a sentence with the word 'And'.

But, today, it's considered perfectly acceptable to begin a sentence with a conjunction in informal writing! And you can start a sentence with "or" as well. Or you can begin a sentence with "but" when appropriate. And you can find many examples in major works of literature, including the Bible.

 

[Lesser Evets]

This is the oldest scam in the book. If people are still falling for it, they are babes or morons. Who trusts stuff sold out of a car trunk running through a parking lot?

 

[SockRolid]

Time to move their operation to Australia

I hear you can't buy the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia right now. Not legally, anyway.

Time for these guys to take their show on the road. They could sell *real* Samsung gear.

 

[Consultant]

Who carries 500 cash with them these days?

Mark: I don't have cash
Scammer: I just drove by an ATM, we can go there. Follow me.

 

[TWSS37]

Isnt this what Apple essentially does now, only with aluminum?

 

[Pomeless]

I think that the gift the Greeks gave to the Trojan's can on wheels too.

 

[louis Fashion]

I don't know if I would go as far to say they deserve what they get. Many years ago, there was a guy I worked with who got scammed in much the same way. He was a brilliant engineer, but very socially awkward. He thought he was buying some high end speakers, but ended up with a box of rocks.

a box of rocks? 4 Ohm or 8 Ohm?????

 

[Texran]

Pssst, I have a Thousand Dollars here. You can have it for Three Hundred.

Your avatar had me for a minute, thought it was a bug on my iPad. Smashed it but it keep moving. Too Funny.

 

[Tiggs]

In other news, a sucker is born every minute and a fool and his money are easily parted.

 

[sittnick]

This was covered in Dilbert last year

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-09-23/

 

[joepunk]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

it would almost be funny to find out that the wood was worth more than $300.

 

[Makosuke]

This is obviously an ancient scam, but it does seem to be at least a little different from the standard white-van version, in that at least some of the time with that one the rube could theoretically think he/she is buying something legitimate. Some might think they're getting stolen speakers, and anyone who falls for it is a sucker, but it's possible to be a sucker who thinks they're getting a legit deal.

This particular variant of the scam there is no way a reasonable human being would not think they were buying stolen goods. Which is to say that instead of just idiots, they're wannabe-criminal idiots.

Semantic difference, I know, but I think it does change the character of the scam at least a little.

Isnt this what Apple essentially does now, only with aluminum?

Points for the pithy jab at Apple's style tax, but the simple fact that Wintel companies are literally asking Intel for a $100 subsidy just to compete with Apple on price with the MBA, and that nobody has managed to out-spec the iPad at the same price point, is pretty clearly indicative that it's not in reality the case.

Unless you count HP selling the Touchpad for $99, which is fine except they're losing $100M in the process.

 

[Neodym]

[Apple's first company logo]
Image

When i looked at this picture i suddenly realized that Newton seems to use an iPad - amazing how Steve already knew back then what product he would release some 30+ years later... That guy really is planning long-term for sure (scnr)

 

[winston1236]

shocking, and here i was thinking buying high end electronics from a sketchy group of people in a chrysler 300 was perfectly acceptable

 

[b-rad g]

Happening in South Carolina too.....

http://www.thestate.com/2011/08/30/1952545/sc-womans-180-ipad-turns-out-to.html

If you fell for this, you deserve to have your money taken!