iPhone X Models Flooding Craigslist and eBay Amid Six Week Shipping Estimates

[Chupa Chupa]

Thousands of iPhone X models are listed, many that already have tons of bids. An auction ending in an hour for a 256GB iPhone X has a current bid of $1,675, for example, a premium of $500.

It's not really a premium of $500 unless you live in a no sales tax state. Otherwise it's more like a $450 premium over what you'd pay in a store. And the buyer only gets to keep about $175 of that, the rest going to shipping, eBay/Paypal. Hardly seems worth the effort unless you had a entire cases to sell. Looking at ended auctions seems 1600-1700 is the going price with a smattering above that.

 

[Dirtydutch]

This is where all those T-Mobile variants went

 

[redneckitengineer]

I purposely bought two with the intention of selling one via ebay/craigslist. You can bet I'm trying to recoup the cost of my $1200 phone. I'll get maybe $4-500 from my iPhone 7 Plus 256gb, then add in the up to $5-600 profit off the X sale, and buddy, you can definitely see the smile on my face.

 

[Appleaker]

I understand freedom of this economy, but quite honestly people that do this make me sick. There are plenty of people who want these devices, and it also sucks that people will be willing to pay those prices.

But, that is my use case, and I am only in control of my own actions and conscience .

It’s not like these people are being scammed or are forced to pay this. They are paying what they want to get it rather than having to wait over a month. This has been happening since before preorders. It is their choice. As for the sellers, they could be greedy and selfish but sometimes they are not in good financial situations or may do ebay for a living, this is a good product to sell. And if you think about it, the buyers are probably going to be in better situations.
As for the rest of us, it may not seem fair but the people complaining are the ones who didn’t prepare to preorder at the exact time with everything set up or don’t mind waiting a few weeks. The only thing this does is speed up the stock out.

 

[Syk]

And people crying about BestBuy $100 markup HAHA

 

[garirry]

The only people that should be blamed instead of scalpers is the people who buy from those scalpers. If you're willing to pay 50% extra just to get the product a bit quicker, shame on you.

 

[vannibombonato]

Just remember that for each of you that genuinely think that someone must be an idiot to pay a premium for a scalped iPhone, there are thousands that genuinely think that you are all idiots if you're willing to pay even the regular -insane- price for a phone that does the same things that phones that cost half blah blah blah...

 

[YoungLay]

Maybe I should sale mines and just wait the 6 weeks lol

 

[Sevanw]

Let me again say, the Apple diehards created this. They've shown that will pay whatever and do whatever for an iPhone. These scalpers would not exist if the desperate pathetic buyer did not exist.

 

[coolkid93]

Absolutely ridiculous

 

[Appleaker]

It's Not about the duration of how long this has been going on for, it's about for those who legitimately want the phone for the current price point and are not able to achieve a device because you have those who purchase for the sole intent of charging an overly absorbent price for it. Given it's their money and they can do what they want with the device, it's rather pathetic. To each their own.

Well it was no secret that there was short supply, and it was going to run out for preorders anyway, all these people do is speed up the process. Yes, like many sellers on eBay, you hope to buy an item in order to make a profit. And it’s important to not that the vast majority of these listings are auctions, people are paying what they want and there’s no price point that people are forced to pay if they want it on launch day.
If someone desperately wanted it at the price point, they would have prepared for preorder and get it straight away, or they would be preparing to queue up at the Apple Store sometime soon.

 

[roar08]

Sarcasm
This is terrible! People are scumbags! Capitalism is evil! People shouldn't be free to buy and sell goods at prices others are willing to pay! Down with the free market! eBay is an enabler!
/Sarcasm

If you think something is overpriced, don't spend your money on it. If others want to spend theirs, what do you care?

I'm confident anyone who uses the phrase "too much money" or "this is stupid" or "people are scumbags" (all labels used in this thread) wouldn't be offended if they won the lottery and suddenly found themselves with "too much money".

Have nots will always judge the haves.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Every time. The scalpers drive up the waits for those looking to actually buy and additionally try to make a profit on those they screwed out of a decent shipping time.

It'd be awesome if Apple made a move to screw all those looking to take advantage of others.

Go ahead and report the listings. It'll help take some of them down. At very least it means a lot more work for those trying to profit from the release and driving up the wait times for legit customers.

 

[dstew201]

I purposely bought two with the intention of selling one via ebay/craigslist. You can bet I'm trying to recoup the cost of my $1200 phone. I'll get maybe $4-500 from my iPhone 7 Plus 256gb, then add in the up to $5-600 profit off the X sale, and buddy, you can definitely see the smile on my face.

How much depreciation did you pay on that iPhone 7+?

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Free market, baby. I don't get why scalpers get such a bad name. If it was such a concern to Apple, they would (and could) fix the issues, but all this buzz helps them.

Sorry sir, we don't have any food for you and your family. That guy bought it up and is charging 2x the price for it.

That may seem silly but it actually happens with many products you buy every day. The prices are higher because of practices like this and you pay more because of it.

 

[HM Apple]

Looks like the scalper lines will be returning Nov 3 to Apple Stores. Probably will be present for weeks.

 

[Attonine]

At this point it’s worth noting that these quoted prices are what people are trying to sell for. Although Im sure someone, somewhere, will pay this, just like those people who buy devices and then put them in a blender as soon as they step outside of the store, at the moment there is no evidence at all that anyone has managed to sell a phone for these prices.

 

[az431]

Why am I not surprised?

It's sad, but there are wealthy people out there that are willing to fork out that kind of cash just to satisfy their itch. And unfortunately, the scalper benefits from it.

There's not much profit. After eBay, Pay Pal, and shipping fees, the net to the seller is maybe $200. MR is also using sales in the high range. Filter the listing to completed sales and you'll see that many of the 256gb Xs have sold for around $1,400.

 

[JGIGS]

I'm not sure what is worse 1) the scumbags do this 2) people actually pay those prices

Hmmmm I get the scumbag part if they bought a bunch of them taking them away from other people who tried to preorder right when they went on sale but was there a max number you could order? I guess you could get around that with multiple devices, credit cards and emails.

Still worse being that impatient and overpaying for the dang thing.

 

[EVGabe]

The number of people getting robbed and/or stabbed in a back alley somewhere is about to go up exponentially.

 

[Piggie]

I agree it's not nice, but it's business, and its exactly what companies do every single day of the week.

Supply/Demand.

I recall a local flower shop, nice bunches of flowers £10 each.
Couple of days before "Mothers Day" the same bunches of flowers were repriced at £20 each.

Nice......

I think we should all understand, the problem is not the sellers, it's the buyers.
If people just refused to pay any more than the official price, this phenomenon would stop in an instant.

I've never done it myself, but if I can buy something for £10, and easy sell it straight to someone else for £20 many would say I'd be a fool to not take advantage of the opportunity.

 

[Totorotarrot]

i ran into a bug when i checked out (See my older comments) so i ended up buying two (for the same number). i m not sure how is that possible but i literally have two valid orders (different order number; both preparing to ship). i prob should just sell one of them and pay for the other one... (both 11/3 delivery)

 

[wtmk81]

I hope people don’t pay those prices, production will ramp up and orders fulfilled.

 

[Alexke]

I purposely bought two with the intention of selling one via ebay/craigslist. You can bet I'm trying to recoup the cost of my $1200 phone. I'll get maybe $4-500 from my iPhone 7 Plus 256gb, then add in the up to $5-600 profit off the X sale, and buddy, you can definitely see the smile on my face.

excactly my strategy as well, I am even thinking of selling them both. I still rock a 6s and don't need an update, the 6s still does everything I want fine.
Its just ask and demand, Apple creates dumb shortages and apple fanboys are craving for their newest social life enhancement tool.
Even thinking of skipping the X and waiting for the Xs , the refresh will be due in 9 months...

 

[bartolo5]

Been checking the prices of scalped phones on ebay and 64GB going price is really $1350ish for Nov 3rd deliveries. Seems so many scalpers are flooding ebay with supply that the surplus is about 35% which is reasonable, but I sort of expected it to be way higher.