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Hundreds upon Hundreds of Ebay Scalpers

M

macguy360

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 23, 2011
836
512
I was curious about how many people may have pre-ordered the Apple Watch to scalp so I checked Ebay.

I was astonished to find that there are hundreds upon hundreds of listings for watches that people have preordered within the first couple of minutes that the preorders went live.

Given that it appears that there was a very limited quantity available for initial pre-orders, if it turns out that there isn't nearly as many people wanting to purchase the watch for themselves (compared to scalpers) and the eBay listings go unpurchased, then we may actually see a significant number of watches available in stores as scalpers come back to return watches that they can't sell.

Similar things have been noticed with previous iPhone and iPad releases where scalpers purchased tons to try to resell and then lack of interest in overpaying resulted in tons of returns.

Given that this is a new product launch and there is very limited quantity, people may purchase from eBay. Who knows what will happen but it is interesting. Personally, I wonder if the number of scalpers is like 50% of total pre-orders.
 
macguy360 said:
I was curious about how many people may have pre-ordered the Apple Watch to scalp so I checked Ebay.

I was astonished to find that there are hundreds upon hundreds of listings for watches that people have preordered within the first couple of minutes that the preorders went live.

Given that it appears that there was a very limited quantity available for initial pre-orders, if it turns out that there isn't nearly as many people wanting to purchase the watch for themselves (compared to scalpers) and the eBay listings go unpurchased, then we may actually see a significant number of watches available in stores as scalpers come back to return watches that they can't sell.

Similar things have been noticed with previous iPhone and iPad releases where scalpers purchased tons to try to resell and then lack of interest in overpaying resulted in tons of returns.

Given that this is a new product launch and there is very limited quantity, people may purchase from eBay. Who knows what will happen but it is interesting. Personally, I wonder if the number of scalpers is like 50% of total pre-orders.
Click to expand...

I ordered a few because I didn't get to see the model nor tried on the sizes at the time.

my plan was to return the one I don't need after try-on appointment... but since people are making a profit on eBay, I might look into it too.

I still maintain if Apple let you try on the watch BEFORE pre-order period, much less people will buy 2-3 watches in case they didn't like their first choice
 
By the way, you can go to eBay and search "Apple Watch Preorder" then set the listings per page to 200 and theres page after page of scalpers selling watch pre-orders.
 
macguy360 said:
I was curious about how many people may have pre-ordered the Apple Watch to scalp so I checked Ebay.

I was astonished to find that there are hundreds upon hundreds of listings for watches that people have preordered within the first couple of minutes that the preorders went live.

Given that it appears that there was a very limited quantity available for initial pre-orders, if it turns out that there isn't nearly as many people wanting to purchase the watch for themselves (compared to scalpers) and the eBay listings go unpurchased, then we may actually see a significant number of watches available in stores as scalpers come back to return watches that they can't sell.

Similar things have been noticed with previous iPhone and iPad releases where scalpers purchased tons to try to resell and then lack of interest in overpaying resulted in tons of returns.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure that the phone you are talking about was the iPhone 6, which was the top selling phone ever. The reason they were returned was supply was so high to start, that people were able to walk in and purchase a phone, so the resellers were out of luck. It had nothing to do with lack of interest.
 
I want to buy one from eBay... I just hope that all this supply get lower prices for the demand... Hahaha.
 
Also a good possibility is that if watches don't sell on eBay, then the orders will get cancelled. This could result in shorter wait times.
 
Wildgift said:
Yes under options I believe.
Click to expand...

Your right! So far i see that there are somewhere around 300-400 completed sales of pre-orders on eBay.

There are about 700-800 remaining pre-orders for sale on Ebay right now.
 
I wouldn't buy one just out of principle.

Pisses me off actually. I hope they all lose sales.

Great they make money, but not at my expense.
 
diegonzo said:
I want to buy one from eBay... I just hope that all this supply get lower prices for the demand... Hahaha.
Click to expand...

Personally, I would not suggest buying a pre-order from Ebay. There have been way too many times I have read in the past of people purchasing an expensive Apple item or gaming system on Ebay, but ending up getting an empty box in the mail due to the wording of the listing. Then the person has to contest the sale with Ebay and go through the whole process of getting their money back.
 
I'm "selling" a pre-order for a price I don't expect to get to make the fiancee happy as she thinks I pre-ordered only to make money. I have no intentions of selling it, which is why I listed it so high. So when it doesn't sell, I'll say "oh well, gotta keep it now!". :)
 
Imagine how many more there are since many are surely waiting until they actually receive the Watch before they list it on eBay. Perhaps Apple should have had a limit of one per order, as it seems many figured that if they were already up at 3am, they might as well order a second one to help pay for the first.

Bottom line is that if no one buys them off eBay, then no one will sell them there. Fat chance.
 
bjdraw said:
Imagine how many more there are since many are surely waiting until they actually receive the Watch before they list it on eBay. Perhaps Apple should have had a limit of one per order, as it seems many figured that if they were already up at 3am, they might as well order a second one to help pay for the first.

Bottom line is that if no one buys them off eBay, then no one will sell them there. Fat chance.
Click to expand...

Can't really have a "social experience" if they only allow 1 per household. The odds of finding another to share a doodle or heartbeat with will be near impossible early on.
 
ucfgrad93 said:
I certainly wouldn't buy one of these from eBay. I'd rather order from Apple and wait.
Click to expand...

I would be rather leery of being scammed myself with no physical unit shipped. Plus I would be too cheap to pay above retail. I love the Watch, but not THAT much.

I had ordered a SG sport but my ship date slipped to 4-6 weeks in the confirmation email so I ordered a white sport too. I canceled SG later on Friday. I guess I'm just not entrepreneurial enough by nature.
 
Here is an update on the eBay numbers for anyone interested.

224 Sold listings.
649 currently available listings.
629 listings that ended with no bids or sales. Most of those have been reposts.

So out of around 1000 eBay listings give or take, 224 have sold (less than 23%) while 629 have ended without bids (63%) and 649 remain.

Looks like the scalpers are hardly successful at selling the watch preorders.

Given the numbers, it looks like there will be plenty of returns and less follow up preorders.

We should see much better availability after the 24th unless people start seeing other people wearing the watch and a frenzy of buyers starts up.
 
jonfarr said:
I'm "selling" a pre-order for a price I don't expect to get to make the fiancee happy as she thinks I pre-ordered only to make money. I have no intentions of selling it, which is why I listed it so high. So when it doesn't sell, I'll say "oh well, gotta keep it now!". :)
Click to expand...
Wow, you're very accommodating. I don't think my husband would have married me if I made him go to such lengths to keep something he bought with his hard earned money. He's fiscally responsible so I keep my nose out of his purchases. If he had been the irresponsible type I'd just not have gotten involved with him in the first place. Well good luck with your listing. I hope you get to keep your watch.

I don't know how these eBay sales are going to work out if Apple continues to comb through preorders and cancel those that are in excess of two per customer. They're looking at Apple ID and billing and shipping addresses among other things to make their cuts. Some of these auctions may have to be retracted. Unfortunately their cuts may cost one of the three watches we ordered, which were for me, my husband, and his sister. That would be painful but if Apple's dragnet takes down a few scalpers, that will help ease the sting a tiny bit.
 
Just watched a 42mm SS w/ Link & AC+ sell for $1400 on eBay with 2 bids. With those numbers, the scalpers aren't having much success at this point. The cost of the :apple:Watch with AppleCare+ and taxes would be around $1130, then if you add whatever eBays cut is into the equation... they barely made anything for the effort.
 
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