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Massive Stainless Steel Unavailability

I’m getting 1-2 iStockNow notifications per day now with DFW and Nashville as my search parameters. The log jam must have broken loose and they are spreading them across the country in a soft allocation.

Thrilled with my SGSS Milanese S4. Enjoyed the aluminum S3 but LOVE this SS S4....can’t explain it but just so much nicer look, feel and experience. Admittedly, I may just be in the honeymoon phase and infatuated with the newness but certainly didn’t even remotely feel this way about my aluminum S3. YRMV
 
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My search for a 44 Gold SS took a sharp turn. The moment I saw the Silver SS with White Sports Band available, and there were a number of them popping up in Toronto for the past couple of days, I took the bait. The 44 Gold SS is still elusive at this point in time.

Knowing that the Silver SS would scratch very easily, I was still willing to risk it and try it out. I am surprised to see mine holding up quite excellently, with no swirl marks, micro scratches on it after wearing it and cleaning it gently with a microfibre cloth several times. And I use the iPhone X flash light to check.

Could this be a different material SS from the past iterations? Will the surface eventually show micro scratches from cleaning...I don't know but so far so good.

I am happy with it regardless and it truly does shine and say to people, "Hey, I am a pricey SS Apple Watch...look at me!!!". I also like it more than the Space Black and the Gold now.
 
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donster28 said:
My search for a 44 Gold SS took a sharp turn. The moment I saw the Silver SS with White Sports Band available, and there were a number of them popping up in Toronto for the past couple of days, I took the bait. The 44 Gold SS is still elusive at this point in time.

Knowing that the Silver SS would scratch very easily, I was still willing to risk it and try it out. I am surprised to see mine holding up quite excellently, with no swirl marks, micro scratches on it after wearing it and cleaning it gently with a microfibre cloth several times. And I use the iPhone X flash light to check.

Could this be a different material SS from the past iterations? Will the surface eventually show micro scratches from cleaning...I don't know but so far so good.

I am happy with it regardless and it truly does shine and say to people, "Hey, I am a pricey SS Apple Watch...look at me!!!". I also like it more than the Space Black and the Gold now.
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Give it time, the regular stainless will show scratches, it’s the nature of 316 L stainless. Its a soft, dense metal and there is _no_ protective coating as I mentioned in the other thread that you started. I also owned the regular stainless Apple Watch for years, it’s a great watch in terms of the actual materials used, but the benefit being that you can use a cape cod polishing cloth to remove any scratches, as where if the space black or gold stainless would scratch, is permanent.
 
Anyone ordered or ever ordered from
Best Buy? Their stock says gettin more soon. I just got a 10% off coupon, would save about $80 if I ordered through them. My original apple order is supposedly coming 10/22-10/29 but I’m not sure how long BB would take.
 
tuan time said:
Anyone ordered or ever ordered from
Best Buy? Their stock says gettin more soon. I just got a 10% off coupon, would save about $80 if I ordered through them. My original apple order is supposedly coming 10/22-10/29 but I’m not sure how long BB would take.
Click to expand...

Does that coupon include all products at Best Buy? Best Buy tends to exclude Apple electronics in the terms/conditions of their coupons. I got a 10% off coupon recently as well but it excludes pretty much anything that is expensive, including Apple electronics.
 
tuan time said:
Anyone ordered or ever ordered from
Best Buy? Their stock says gettin more soon. I just got a 10% off coupon, would save about $80 if I ordered through them. My original apple order is supposedly coming 10/22-10/29 but I’m not sure how long BB would take.
Click to expand...

Got the same email. Apple Watch is excluded.
 
BBF70C1B-DAF5-486C-A92F-E31F9CDD2651.jpeg
I was able to use it earlier this year for a S3. Most likely they changed their terms to exclude it recently
 
A little late, but a few days ago I was able to reserve a 44mm Space Black for pickup, and upon arriving was able to exchange my 44mm SS despite it being almost a full week out of the standard 2 week return period! Apple is awesome. Loving the Space Black!
 
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donster28 said:
My search for a 44 Gold SS took a sharp turn. The moment I saw the Silver SS with White Sports Band available, and there were a number of them popping up in Toronto for the past couple of days, I took the bait. The 44 Gold SS is still elusive at this point in time.

Knowing that the Silver SS would scratch very easily, I was still willing to risk it and try it out. I am surprised to see mine holding up quite excellently, with no swirl marks, micro scratches on it after wearing it and cleaning it gently with a microfibre cloth several times. And I use the iPhone X flash light to check.

Could this be a different material SS from the past iterations? Will the surface eventually show micro scratches from cleaning...I don't know but so far so good.

I am happy with it regardless and it truly does shine and say to people, "Hey, I am a pricey SS Apple Watch...look at me!!!". I also like it more than the Space Black and the Gold now.
Click to expand...

I think the SS just plain looks great. I also think it looks "smaller" than the other versions, other than possibly the gold SS. There's something about the way light reflects off the curved edges that (to me at least) makes it look smaller than other colors/finishes of the same size Watch.
 
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stanman64 said:
A little late, but a few days ago I was able to reserve a 44mm Space Black for pickup, and upon arriving was able to exchange my 44mm SS despite it being almost a full week out of the standard 2 week return period! Apple is awesome. Loving the Space Black!
Click to expand...
I did exactly the same thing about a week ago
 
donster28 said:
Is Apple even churning these out? Nothing seems to be popping out for in-store pickups (even using iStock), at least here in North America.
Click to expand...

It seems they are updating stock at about 8am. Check then, I got the SS 44 on a walk in this way. They are getting stock in stores even though ship dates are out to November.
 
Went to my local Apple Store even though they showed no stock and they were able to see that another store 30 minutes away showed stock EVEN THOUGH online they showed no stock either. Was able to score a SBSS Sport 44mm S4 there. Guess it's basically a lottery for now.
 
Yeah I finally got one in a store today that shown online, I’ve been tracking for 7 days and the UK has had 0 stock of Stainless steel. I was annoyed when the staff told me she has sold loads over the week but there walk-in stock is different to their website stock. How annoying!
 
stanman64 said:
A little late, but a few days ago I was able to reserve a 44mm Space Black for pickup, and upon arriving was able to exchange my 44mm SS despite it being almost a full week out of the standard 2 week return period! Apple is awesome. Loving the Space Black!
Click to expand...
What made you decide to switch from SS to SBSS? I’m still torn.
 
klymr said:
Thanks all for the replies. When I picked up my S4 SS on Monday night and asked about the GiveBack program, the gal said I could trade it in for a gift card, or put the money back on my card that I just purchased the new watch with. Then she scanned the serial number and her little device told her it wasn't eligible. I was in a hurry to get home—especially with the traffic mess that I wrote about a few pages back—so I just took off.

Yesterday when I was at the store again, the product specialist is the one that entered the serial number. He again said it wasn't eligible, so he asked a second employee. She asked if the watch was purchased under a corporate account (it wasn't) because that can prevent it from being eligible. I mentioned it was purchased from that very store 23 months ago, and they both seemed very confused as to why it wouldn't be eligible. So they asked a third employee. He wasn't sure either why their in-store system wouldn't allow a return, but his suggestion was that if it was eligible online, that I should submit it that way.

Now the question is...is it worth it to send it in? I've heard horror stories about Brightstar. If they lowball the offer, do I have to option to just have the watch sent back to me? And if I send it in to Brightstar, do they require the band and charger, etc?
Click to expand...

I don't know if this has been cleared up, I saw a posta few weeks ago for a site called "Swappa"
Maybe this is an option? https://swappa.com/sell/wearables/search?category=apple-watch

Maybe try Facebook Marketplace? (I was looking for a S4 Steel to pop up on there over a week & 1/2 ago - I did, but the seller never replied. BUT I see a LOT of older AW's there, maybe see what you can get for it on it? Start high..make it "Or Best Offer") Best Buy Gift Card perhaps?

The trade in value for my old Sport S1 would have received a much, MUCH better value compared to Apple.
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stanman64 said:
A little late, but a few days ago I was able to reserve a 44mm Space Black for pickup, and upon arriving was able to exchange my 44mm SS despite it being almost a full week out of the standard 2 week return period! Apple is awesome. Loving the Space Black!
Click to expand...

Nice! And after I found the SS Silver 44mm, I was worried the store would deny my SG Aluminum 44mm on the 15th day and then I would be stuck trying to sell this 2 week, 1 day old $500+ watch on my own, taking a slight loss of money ...lol They had no problem accepting the return. Last Monday - Columbus Day, the timing could not have been more perfect when it came to the Steels showing up in stores.
 
I went with the SBSS Milanese as that's what I could find. I can offload the band to someone online to recoup the $100 difference.
 
Yea currently the SBSS with Milanese is the only one showing up locally - have my gold stainless on the way - currently clearing customs leaving China!
 
The black stainless, 44mm, cellular, Milanese loop showed up available at my local Apple Store yesterday, so I snagged one. Today, all of my local stores show no availability until 11/21. My online order still shows a 11/7 - 11/14 delivery.
 
Went into the Apple Store to see if they had a 40 mm gold SS. They did not. They however had a 40mm Space Black. I struggled to decide. Gold was what I really wanted so I decided to hold out for it. Now I have to wait until Nov 14 for my order. Wondering if I made a mistake in waiting for the gold.
 
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