As far as I'm concerned what apple has done this time is excellent. Now if we could just sort out concert tickets the same way.
As an aside (and threadjack) concert promoters have no incentive to stop scalpers - they help ensure a sellout and those contribute directly to the profitability of the promoter; what pisses promoters off is that they can't get the higher prices scalpers charge. Rest assured if they could ensure a sellout and get scalper prices they would. In essence, the scalpers assume all the risk of low demand, while the promoters get a fixed revenue and known profit margin; for them the money's really in the ancillary sales at the concert anyway.
Of course, it is fun to get into events at a cut rate when demand is low - the scalper has a commodity whose value diminishes with each passing second; and often there are enough around that you can simply make a lowball offer until one accepts. I do it in joking kind of ways as to make it a pleasant experience and get the scalper in a mood to do business, but point out that since they still have a bunch of tickets and start time is less than 30 minutes away, do they want to eat them or lessen their loss by taking some money?
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Lots of iPad 3 around today at the reseller stores in Hong Kong for anyone that wanted one.
More importantly (to me) the new Apple TV was also available, though the price was a rather steep USD250.
Unfortunately Apple won't sell AppleTV here via the official Apple store for some unknown reason so we have no choice but to go to local resellers, I am hoping in a few weeks the price will drop to a more reasonable level (say around USD150) then I will get it.
Why not simply mail order it from an authorized reseller?
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Wirelessly posted
So true, so true. We've been young, They have never been old. IMO around the age 30-35 you start to gain a small amount of wisdom if your looking for it. Man age 12-25 I had NO CLUE. If you think you know something for sure that's prob a sign you know nothing about it
When I was 5, my parents were brilliant,
When I was 10, they were smart,
When I was 13, they were getting dumb,
When I was 17, they were the dumbest people I knew,
When I was 21, they were pretty smart after all,
When I was 30, they were brilliant.
it's amazing how life's clue by four works wonders when it whacks you across the side of the head a few times...
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Congratulations. You understood the first day of high school economics.
Yes, they are doing something sleazy, and what they are doing is gouging.
And it's pretty stupidly arrogant to tell the most valuable company in the world how they should be selling their products, particularly when you are doing it based on the first day (okay, maybe the first week) of HS economics.
Let's talk Econ101 - arbitrage is a perfectly normal response to price differences; and acts to restore pricing to a normal level. Apple responds by increasing supply which drives the arbitrage advantage to zero; in other cases such as commodities the underlying price rises in response.
Gray market goods are a classic example of arbitrage at work - when currency or pricing differences makes for arbitrage opportunities someone will generally take advantage if the return is sufficient.
Nothing sleazy - simple undergraduate college economics.