Scalpers at Apple Stores

[IllIllIll]

Try camping out in front of the stores at any other time for several days and see what happens. Then you can advise me on what is or isnt against the local laws.

Why does he have to camp out in front of a store to know what he's talking about, especially about laws in China (and he's right, by the way)?

Apparently you didn't camp out in line, so by your own statement that means you're not really qualified to say anything about "local laws" either. At this point all you are doing is expressing righteous indignation that some people have too much time on their hands that they can spend hours/days in a line waiting to buy a phone that they may or may not resell. Perhaps a bit of jealously is in play here.

 

[dcorban]

The whole situation is just disgusting, literally digusting. As in, I feel actual disgust when I see these photos and read the first-hand accounts from stores.

The Chinese people need to think about the image they are portraying. When we repeated see huge throngs of them sleeping on streets and so blatantly scalping phones, it really sends a bad message. Think about how people feel disgusted at seeing the Walmart Black Friday mobs. It's the same here, only instead of a negative impression being made of lower income people, it's of Chinese people.

 

[IllIllIll]

I was at the mall today selling my old iPhones and the line was taking up 3 or 4 stores.

I believe you. Were these stores closed because too many people were blocking the entrances as AdonisSMU claims? Didn't think so. And exactly how many of these people in the line were scalpers? I assume you asked.

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The whole situation is just disgusting, literally digusting. As in, I feel actual disgust when I see these photos and read the first-hand accounts from stores.

The Chinese people need to think about the image they are portraying. When we repeated see huge throngs of them sleeping on streets and so blatantly scalping phones, it really sends a bad message. Think about how people feel disgusted at seeing the Walmart Black Friday mobs. It's the same here, only instead of a negative impression being made of lower income people, it's of Chinese people.

Racist much? You make way too many assumptions in this post.

 

[itjw]

Thought I'd share this video. Gives some insight on what's going on at lines at Apple stores. It's getting worse and worse every year. Sadly, it ruins that "Apple" experience for many people who truly do want to buy a phone for their own personal use.

YouTube: video
YouTube: video

What "experience"? The one where you get special privileges and others don't get to have the same even though they have the same rights as you?

Guess you hate freedom too. Capitalism? Choice?

Get there before the "scalpers" (as part Cherokee I'm offended btw), and guess what, you can have your precious "experience"

You had better things to do? Guess what? They didn't

 

[yg17]

The whole situation is just disgusting, literally digusting. As in, I feel actual disgust when I see these photos and read the first-hand accounts from stores.

The Chinese people need to think about the image they are portraying. When we repeated see huge throngs of them sleeping on streets and so blatantly scalping phones, it really sends a bad message. Think about how people feel disgusted at seeing the Walmart Black Friday mobs. It's the same here, only instead of a negative impression being made of lower income people, it's of Chinese people.

So Americans sleeping on the streets to get an iPhone isn't disgusting?

Frankly, I find the whole idea of camping for days outside a store to be among the first to buy a damn phone ridiculous regardless of your nationality and you couldn't pay me enough to do it. Especially when I was able to order online and had mine by 11 AM on launch day without standing in a single line anywhere. But if that's how people want to spend their time, who am I to try to stop them?

 

[Oktobermagic]

1. Possibly, but as long as Chinese stores don't have enough stock to support the demand after launch, scalpers will be filling the void. Obviously people over there would rather pay more than wait.

2. Might slow things down, they'll probably just increase the number of scalpers.

3. Don't think this will help. Scalpers will just use prepaid credit cards or their own credit card. I don't think they use cash to avoid a paper trail because they're not doing anything illegal, I just think they use cash as a matter of convenience. And they probably have photo IDs too.

All Apple has to do is limit 2 phones per ID per day. If buying in the US you need a valid ID recognized by the U.S. Gov't, or a passport. That ID is logged a checked against when buying. And I don't see anything wrong with tying the phones to an Apple ID for 30days, as someone else suggested.

 

[ohio.emt]

All iPhones bought from a store must be activated before they leave the premises.

Problem solved.

Didn't they do that iPhone 3G?

 

[Deliro]

What "experience"? The one where you get special privileges and others don't get to have the same even though they have the same rights as you?

Guess you hate freedom too. Capitalism? Choice?

Get there before the "scalpers" (as part Cherokee I'm offended btw), and guess what, you can have your precious "experience"

You had better things to do? Guess what? They didn't

What does being part Cherokee have anything to do with this? Why does this offend you? Placing down the race care doesn't give your opinion any more merit, so why even mention it?

 

[JawneeWin]

What does being part Cherokee have anything to do with this? Why does this offend you? Placing down the race care doesn't give your opinion any more merit, so why even mention it?

Hence, why I didn't even reply.

 

[lordofthereef]

I don't know about other markets, but the scalpers are waiting at every store I have been to. The hilarious thing is craigslist is flooded with phones including the 6 plus that are not selling (based on posts that I have favorited that keep getting refreshed). There are more scalpers here than there are people legitimately buying the phone.

Don't even get me started on the piss poor management the Nashua NH Apple store had in setting up a line. They were literally driving people off the property until 6am, corralled everyone like hogs, stated the line would start "here, no there, no over there!", and then jsut randomly picked someone from a mass of 600+ to be the beginning of the line. I have written a formal letter to the Mall, the Apple store, and the Nashua PD explaining the multiple issues there were here; having been to five launches now it was easy to see that nothing was handled properly.

Best I could tell there were about 6-7 kingpins rushing up and down the line with their notebooks telling their people what phones to buy based on the stock updates they were getting as the lines started to move. It was the worst experience I have ever had getting in line.

I would order online, but folks who want to use NEXT don't have that option.

 

[Prise]

Diverting goods to capture the arbitrage created by price discrimination is (1) not illegal, and (2) a part of capitalism, and (3) FREE society.

Anyone here is free to get in line, pay another to, and divert these goods to wherever for a profit.

 

[lordofthereef]

Diverting goods to capture the arbitrage created by price discrimination is (1) not illegal, and (2) a part of capitalism, and (3) FREE society.

Anyone here is free to get in line, pay another to, and divert these goods to wherever for a profit.

Fair enough. How many of them are paying taxes on this income? If I said 1% I think I would be grossly overestimating.

 

[Deliro]

Hence, why I didn't even reply.

Yeah, I have a tendency to sometimes feed the trolls.. I'll work on that.

 

[Hatshepsut]

All iPhones bought from a store must be activated before they leave the premises.

Problem solved.

That option is kind of annoying and intrusive for those of us that buy our phones either using a family member/friend's upgrade or that buy the phone as a gift for someone else. Probably just ensuring that as many countries get the iphone at the same time as possible is the best way to avoid being overrun with scalpers.

 

[IllIllIll]

That option is kind of annoying and intrusive for those of us that buy our phones either using a family member/friend's upgrade or that buy the phone as a gift for someone else. Probably just ensuring that as many countries get the iphone at the same time as possible is the best way to avoid being overrun with scalpers.

However, that's assuming that most scalpers are exporting phones to other countries.

The real solution is to ensure that every country has adequate stock of phones to meet demand on release. The problem is that it's not logistically or economically feasible, especially when you're talking about a phone that comes in 10+ different models and carriers.

 

[livingonvideo13]

I am not Apple and of course they can do whatever they want. You really can't be mad at the scalpers because Apple has created this situation and they could really find a solution if they wanted to.

The fact is that there is not really a way to get the device into every hand that wants one, with the configuration they want. They should make it available first to the people that have supported Apple and are current users. It would not be hard to only allow pre-orders online from people that currently have an iPhone that is currently in use. Make an APP that current users can download that will allow them to place an order for one Iphone that will replace their current iPhone. Instead of reserving over a million phones for all the apple stores so they can sell on opening day, they should be used first to those that currently have an iPhone and want to upgrade to the newest one.

This would get the phone into the hands of those that have already spent money with Apple recently and are currently using their products.

Apple could really fix this problem if they really wanted to get the iPhone into the hands of their loyal user base and not into the hands of scalpers.

There are going to be people that miss out on the iPhone on the first day. Apple just needs to decide if they want to make it a free for all like this last release, or make it available to their current user base first.

Apple is the one mostly to blame for the madness.

 

[megadon]

Fair enough. How many of them are paying taxes on this income? If I said 1% I think I would be grossly overestimating.

EXACTLY

I could care less how many of these people resell their phones, however, almost non of these people are going to pay taxes, hence why they purchase with cash.

No one cares if you resell the phones at the same price that you bought it for, but when apple sets the price for their phones, and hoards of these people flock to buy them for the sole purpose of reselling to the highest bidder in china, and avoid taxes on those gains, that's when it becomes criminal and extremely ugly.

Sooner or later states are going to introduce laws to stop this. It mirrors ticket scalping. Currently 26 states, the District of Columbia, and most sports-league municipalities in the United States have some form of anti-scalping regulation, and three-quarters of the U.S. population resides in those locales.

These anti-ticket scalping regulations are there to insure that bulk buyers do not tie up the supply of goods for the purpose of selling them to the highest bidder.

Not so sure why everyone is getting really upset when they see people venting their frustration about the shady scalpers.

 

[ToroidalZeus]

Not so sure why everyone is getting really upset when they see people venting their frustration about the shady scalpers.

Some people have a distorted view of how real world society works and follow a hypothetical "anything goes" free market doctrine.

 

[westcoastcyc]

The scalpers are fighting each other.

http://www.twincities.com/nation/ci_26583796/iphone-fights-could-be-driven-by-rival-chinese

 

[MiamiC70]

EXACTLY
Sooner or later states are going to introduce laws to stop this. It mirrors ticket scalping. Currently 26 states, the District of Columbia, and most sports-league municipalities in the United States have some form of anti-scalping regulation, and three-quarters of the U.S. population resides in those locales.

These anti-ticket scalping regulations are there to insure that bulk buyers do not tie up the supply of goods for the purpose of selling them to the highest bidder.

Right, that worked since seemingly Tickemaster and Stubhub are still legal :/
**** scalpers. Period!

 

[saberz]

On behalf of the human race, I want to extend our most sincere apologies for this embarrassing behavior.

I've seen this behavior at coach stores (grabbing a present for my wife) and you see people with 10 of the same seasonal bag in line. That's horrible, and the truly sad part is that people will be dumb enough to pay their prices!