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There are 100s of Apple Pencils on eBay....
- Thread starter mikezmac
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If someone wants to sell their Pencil for $350, and someone wants to buy it, what's the big deal?
BTW, I am selling my iPad Pro for $1 million. PM me if interested.
BTW, I am selling my iPad Pro for $1 million. PM me if interested.
Is that a 32GB version or the Cellular version
Exactly.
And the hatred of scalpers for their greed is quite funny in the context of Apple.
Scalping is certainly not ideal but a lot of those guys need that 100 bucks far, far, far more than you need an Apple Pencil.
Last I remembered people complained the poor are poor and the rich are rich. I don't see the problem in scalping pencils, no one told these idiots to open their wallets to buy the pencil. Thats how people make money on the streets to get through daily lives, but **** cheap (or steal it) and sell it to make a buck. Don't blame someone for trying to make money because you didn't think of it first.
Again this falls on apple on how they run their product release models, they restrict stock to make people want it more because they cant get their hands on it first shot. Theyve done this for every single product they sell.
Again this falls on apple on how they run their product release models, they restrict stock to make people want it more because they cant get their hands on it first shot. Theyve done this for every single product they sell.
True, who knows who is scalping. Families to feed perhaps, and although it is inconvenient for us and our 1st world problems, I certainly would approve wholeheartedly under some circumstances, and since there's no way to know.....
Of course it's easy for me to say with my shiny new Pencil next to me.
Many thieves also need the money in your wallet so much. Actually, everybody needs money. I don't think using the need of money to justify questionable behaviour is correct.
I don't really understand why Apple are continuing to supply stores with significant quantities that are being picked up, when they have customers with orders sitting in the pipeline. Why are they not fulfilling the orders now that were placed on launch day, instead of randomly supplying retail stores and third party vendors. I would expect ordering online direct from Apple to be the way to get products quickly, and failing to do this is really pissing off their regular repeat customers.
I have no problem with there being supply constraints. I have no problem in having to wait for a new and popular product to arrive. But I'm not really very happy about Apple sending repeat shipments off to Best Buy when they have already accepted my order on their website.
I wasn't one of the ones shouting earlier on, but it does look like the "retail channel" organisation within Apple has gone somewhat downhill since the arrival of you-know-who...
I have no problem with there being supply constraints. I have no problem in having to wait for a new and popular product to arrive. But I'm not really very happy about Apple sending repeat shipments off to Best Buy when they have already accepted my order on their website.
I wasn't one of the ones shouting earlier on, but it does look like the "retail channel" organisation within Apple has gone somewhat downhill since the arrival of you-know-who...
Excuse me, but scalpers are not thieves. It's robbery for sure, just a different kind
I'm not saying that scalpers equal to thieves. But if you justify questionable behaviour by the need of money, you can justify a lot of worse thing too.Excuse me, but scalpers are not thieves. It's robbery for sure, just a different kind
Wait... Are you saying buying items when they are in demand and selling higher is "questionable"? If so, I hope you realize your entire retirement is based on this with stock. Buy low, sell high... What do you think the entire stock market is based on?
I'm not so sure the stock market would be a good defense/example. Many companies have no issue laying off people or reducing benefits to increase profit. BUT enough of the smoke screens. The focus should be on Apple's supply department and on scalpers equally. Perhaps they are colluding together!
Scalpers are essentially opportunistic. They see that there is a significantly higher demand than supply, and they also see that, in terms of emotional value (particularly in relation to scarcity), some items have a value higher than the retail price to many people. So they exploit this opportunity.
This happens every year with iPhones in particular.
It isn't really an issue if it's not denying people who really need something, like starving people needing food or infected people in Africa needing an Ebola vaccine (if you think about it, this helps to put the Apple Pencil mania in perspective - you won't die if you don't get it)
This doesn't make it morally acceptable, but as someone already mentioned, the stock market works on similar principles - emotions affect the true value of an item, and people who live off the stock market exploit this.
For material goods, this usually doesn't last - if something is in sufficiently high demand, someone will manufacture an alternative to fulfill that demand as another avenue of profit. First thing that comes to my mind is natural and synthetic rubber.
But the really irritating part is that no one can duplicate the Pencil easily. It's built to work specifically with the iPad Pro's technology. It should have been included with the iPad Pro. Contrast with the keyboard, where you at least have the Logitech Create keyboard as an alternative (albeit not a particularly inspiring one).
At the end of the day, humans are being humans... there's really only one villain in this whole drama... and that's Apple supply chain and their crummy underestimates of the demand for the Pencil.
This happens every year with iPhones in particular.
It isn't really an issue if it's not denying people who really need something, like starving people needing food or infected people in Africa needing an Ebola vaccine (if you think about it, this helps to put the Apple Pencil mania in perspective - you won't die if you don't get it)
This doesn't make it morally acceptable, but as someone already mentioned, the stock market works on similar principles - emotions affect the true value of an item, and people who live off the stock market exploit this.
For material goods, this usually doesn't last - if something is in sufficiently high demand, someone will manufacture an alternative to fulfill that demand as another avenue of profit. First thing that comes to my mind is natural and synthetic rubber.
But the really irritating part is that no one can duplicate the Pencil easily. It's built to work specifically with the iPad Pro's technology. It should have been included with the iPad Pro. Contrast with the keyboard, where you at least have the Logitech Create keyboard as an alternative (albeit not a particularly inspiring one).
At the end of the day, humans are being humans... there's really only one villain in this whole drama... and that's Apple supply chain and their crummy underestimates of the demand for the Pencil.
Does anyone honestly think a world without release-day scalping is preferable to one with? It was very apparent from the start that, at the $100 price point, far more people wanted a Pencil than Apple could provide, and this will likely persist until mid-December. Scalpers allow this reality to be more accurately reflected in the price of the item.
Dont understand why people have an issue with scalpers ... it's apples fault re. the short supply. Scalpers are a symptom of capitalism rather than the cause of the supply issues. If you guys dont want to pay, wait for availability in store. I've paid $100 more, because i want one before xmas.
Regardless, it's ******** if Apple will sell all their stock to a scalper. There was one story on this thread where someone bought 50 to throw on Ebay.
Ditto. As for the scalpers, hey, what the market will bear, right? The value of something is what someone is willing to pay for it. I wouldn't do it, but I don't fault them if they operate within the system to make a few bucks. My issue is with Apple. It irritates me that my order sits in a queue while pencils are being shipped to physical stores, thereby enabling scalpers.
If people would just stop paying outrageous prices for the products on eBay.... it would kill the grey market... but I understand some people just want it now, and price is no object. I would rather just wait...
It's pretty ****ed up that Apple would have people that preorder the Apple Pencil days after the release day and yet instead of filling those orders first they would ship to Best Buy, Staples is a few other select locations. Knowing damn well that these people are gonna put them on eBay.
Messed up.
Messed up.
We don't know what kind of contracts Apple has with their resellers.
If you were Best Buy or Staples, you'd be pissed if you only got stock once demand had dropped.
It's pretty obvious that had Apple included the Pencil that supplies of the iPad Pro would have been even more constrained at launch. I'm sure Apple didn't want shortages of add-on accessories. But they didn't want to miss out on iPad Pro sales during the holiday rush, so they shipped the iPad Pro in November. By mid-December it appears Pencils will be in regular supply, and people who receive iPad Pros as gifts won't be in the market for accessories until late December and January anyway.
The odd parts to me were that Apple committed to shipping Pencils to Best Buy before it had enough for its own stores, and that they did not adopt the same pickup system for online orders as they did for the Pro. If they had offered people a choice of placing an online order with 4-5 week delivery or trying to reserve online we'd probably see fewer complaints. It's the luck of the draw feeling with the current in-store setup that had people frustrated.
I purchased the Apple Pencil at Best Buy for my own use.