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awaken470

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 11, 2017
21
19
hi, i went twice to the Apple store before it opened and noticed that there was always a large line of people dominantly of Asian decent with backpacks waiting in queue for the iPhone. Was just curious as to what they do with the phones? Sell them in China?
 

kirkhuffy

macrumors 6502
Oct 1, 2012
256
111
Philadelphia
hi, i went twice to the Apple store before it opened and noticed that there was always a large line of people dominantly of Asian decent with backpacks waiting in queue for the iPhone. Was just curious as to what they do with the phones? Sell them in China?

ding ding ding you are correct
 

Sean76

macrumors 6502a
Feb 10, 2013
665
406
NYC
Lmaooo...

They are still lining up all around NYC!

Not like tons of them, but prob like 5-15 people is what I've seen.

5th ave had about 5 people at 11pm on Sunday night. That's a good 9 hours before they start selling them at 8am!

They prob buy them and ship em to China for like 3 times the price...ouch!
 

iapplelove

Suspended
Nov 22, 2011
5,324
7,638
East Coast USA
Lmaooo...

They are still lining up all around NYC!

Not like tons of them, but prob like 5-15 people is what I've seen.

5th ave had about 5 people at 11pm on Sunday night. That's a good 9 hours before they start selling them at 8am!

They prob buy them and ship em to China for like 3 times the price...ouch!

Yeah but by the time they open people who use the Apple Store App would have bought them all.
 
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haruhiko

macrumors 604
Sep 29, 2009
6,656
6,089
China has plenty of stock now. These scalpers probably are serving the local market this year.
 

haqsha23

macrumors 6502a
Oct 22, 2017
750
580
Mississauga
In Canada I'm seeing premium's of $50-$150 only. Seems like a huge hassle to make that little money. If you're going to scalp and make money you better have an early launch day pickup.
 

Sean76

macrumors 6502a
Feb 10, 2013
665
406
NYC
the people lining up are pickups order online

Lol no there not.

You don't need to line up for a pick up, hours before an apple store opens.

Clearly they are trying to get the open stock that's available for the public which from what we've seen is ridiculously scarce this year.
 

Clairvoyant129

macrumors member
Jul 21, 2012
35
8
Plenty of stock. I think they are just trying to buy it here because even after tax it's cheaper than that in China

No, these people are 100% resellers. Most of them don't even speak English.

On launch day these Chinese scalpers bring their entire family even children to get around the 2 iPhone per person limit. You see tons of them at the Soho NYC Apple store.

Resellers are scum.
 

Lobwedgephil

macrumors 603
Apr 7, 2012
5,786
4,748
They are picking up any Verizon full price model they can get and reselling, they are there everyday.
 

xsimplyjosh

macrumors regular
Oct 21, 2015
146
53
I hate my own race sometimes... :p (chinese)

I just don't see the point of scalping iPhones now to be honest. If i'm not mistaken at least most likely they are from Hong Kong or so since Hong Kong implemented a "no refund" policy in all their apple stores due to this scalping shenanigans and other countries have not implemented it yet. This is only hurting the local genuine buyers who want an iPhone for its intended purpose not for 3rd party profits like these people think of.
 

brian3uk

macrumors 6502
Sep 15, 2016
393
1,362
In Orlando the line is majority Brazilian and is a good 100+ deep by 8am. Best Buy hires extra Portuguese speakers and has signage in Portuguese too. It's pretty tough to walk in and buy anything around here.
 

Infinitewisdom

macrumors 6502a
Sep 23, 2012
838
594
In Orlando the line is majority Brazilian and is a good 100+ deep by 8am. Best Buy hires extra Portuguese speakers and has signage in Portuguese too. It's pretty tough to walk in and buy anything around here.

Is there scalping going on with the Brazilian contingent? Sure, right? I thought I read somewhere that iPhones are insanely priced in Brazil.
 

brian3uk

macrumors 6502
Sep 15, 2016
393
1,362
Is there scalping going on with the Brazilian contingent? Sure, right? I thought I read somewhere that iPhones are insanely priced in Brazil.

Yes, it's much more expensive at home so they buy EVERYTHING they can here. PlayStation, Xbox, cameras, laptops, you name it. Anything new and popular is on the list. They walk in with empty suitcases and out totally full. I mean thanks for the tax money but leave something for the rest of us ok.
 

madKIR

macrumors 6502a
Feb 2, 2010
849
801
NYC
My friend tried multiple times in New Jersey. I think she only succeeded the 3rd time, the first 2 times the Asian scalpers would buy most of them before it was her turn. Also, I'm talking about this past weekend when she finally got it, so it's not even right after the launch. It looks like they mostly buy the 256GB version as well, hence she couldn't easily get it even though would come early in the morning.
 

Sean76

macrumors 6502a
Feb 10, 2013
665
406
NYC
This has benn going on for years here in NYC with Asian people lining up to buy phones for full retail. It's true though, none of speak hardly any English and pay with either cash or Apple gift cards.

Apple can't really put a stop to it though, I mean they are buying it for full price just as anyone else would. What they do with the phone is their business. I do however dislike scalpers and resellers for this very reason. Hurts the person who genuinely wants to buy the phone for personal use.
 
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PhantomCypher

macrumors member
May 21, 2015
59
31
This has benn going on for years here in NYC with Asian people lining up to buy phones for full retail. It's true though, none of speak hardly any English and pay with either cash or Apple gift cards.

Apple can't really put a stop to it though, I mean they are buying it for full price just as anyone else would. What they do with the phone is their business. I do however dislike scalpers and resellers for this very reason. Hurts the person who genuinely wants to buy the phone for personal use.

What are you talking about? The reseller is buying the phone to.....resell. The person that ends up buying it is using it for personal use....I don't see your point here.

The people buying up these phones an reselling them is trading their time for money. The people paying the premium are paying the human effort it took to wait in like 1,2,3,4+ hours in line for them. It's no different than paying someone $100 to wait in line for you and then jumping in last second to switch to buy the phones....
 

mkstewartesq@co

macrumors regular
Jun 30, 2007
196
30
Had this experience at Perimeter Mall in Atlanta this morning. Wanted to buy a Verizon phone for use on AT&T so could not reserve online for pickup. Got to store well before opening and there was a well organized group at the front of of the line who bought up all of the stock.

Oddly, most of the rest of the line after that, though not apparently composed of any single ethnic group, also seemed to all know each other - they would leave their spot in line to go say hello to to someone somewhere else in the line they knew, share a joke, etc., then return to their spot So I got the sense that most of the people in line knew each other pretty well, possibly from lining up each day. Oh, well - I didn't get a phone -but neither did a lot of these others.

M
 

camhabib

macrumors regular
May 29, 2008
142
56
Most of the people lining up before opening, regardless of race, are likely scalpers. They buy them at US prices to ship overseas to countries that either don't have stock or where prices are much higher in local currencies. Apple typically imposes a phone limit per customer which is why you'll see entire families at time in order to get as many phones as possible.
 
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TripleP

macrumors member
Mar 27, 2012
72
24
So does mean that some Apple stores are getting daily shipments of Xs for sale to walk-ins? I've checked the Apple store app early morning (@ 6:00AM) a handful of times for stock in the Boston area and I've never seen any available for pickup.
 

mkstewartesq@co

macrumors regular
Jun 30, 2007
196
30
Stores get stock most days, though I have heard mixed things on whether some are set aside for walk-in or that whatever the store has when they open is just whatever hasn't already been claimed by online reservations.

iStockNow usually alerts (in Georgia) at around 6:00 AM that stock is in, but often goes to "out of stock" before the store opens as online reservations are made. So that begs the question as to whether the store does actually still have stock, but only reserved for walk-ins and not for on-line reservations. I tend to think there is not much, if any reserved for walk-ins that cannot be snapped up via the website for the following reason. As I stood in line today, iStockNow was showing the location I was at as having stock right up to the minute that the reseller group bought it all, then iStockNow suddenly changed to "no stock" - since they pull their data from Apple's website of models available for online reservation and pick-up, this leads me to believe that none are set aside specifically for "walk-ins".

M
 

Sean76

macrumors 6502a
Feb 10, 2013
665
406
NYC
What are you talking about? The reseller is buying the phone to.....resell. The person that ends up buying it is using it for personal use....I don't see your point here.

The people buying up these phones an reselling them is trading their time for money. The people paying the premium are paying the human effort it took to wait in like 1,2,3,4+ hours in line for them. It's no different than paying someone $100 to wait in line for you and then jumping in last second to switch to buy the phones....

Awwww, what's a matter? You been waiting in line to re-sell...lol

Easy killer. You're missing the point, very very clearly you are missing it!

So ya it's cool for mobs of people to just buy up all the stock of iPhones while US, WE, ME, maybe you, (I don't know you may be a re-seller) would potentially get left out in the cold as RE-sellers snatch up the very limited stock?

I have Asian friends who just shake their heads at stuff like this! Nothing against anyone, if someone is making a living this way...whatever, some people just do what they're gonna do.

Sorry man...it's flat out ridiculous is my final answer...if I was waiting in line, and in front of me we're a ton of people who CLEARLY weren't in line to use this phone, and were just waiting so they could sell it immediately...I would be a little pisssd.

Anyway this is society these days...thumbs down.
 
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