Yes I agree. But certain people have a problem with that. Well, if they can't get their phone. That's their problem. Don't blame the scalpers. Blame yourself
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Wow. Scalpers are no joke.
- Thread starter Steviejobz
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Yes I agree. But certain people have a problem with that. Well, if they can't get their phone. That's their problem. Don't blame the scalpers. Blame yourself
This thread is stupid. It's called supply and demand...simple economics. If something is in demand, people will do whatever they can to get it, whether for themselves or to scalp. Nike shoes, concert tickets, $3 DVD player on black friday...and iPhones.
If you had the means to buy mass amounts of these phones and flip them for 2-3x profit, I wouldn't believe you if you said you wouldn't take that opportunity.
If you had the means to buy mass amounts of these phones and flip them for 2-3x profit, I wouldn't believe you if you said you wouldn't take that opportunity.
Have a feeling that people are pointing scalpers=Asian=Chinese. Why? lol
Here in Washington, every Apple store has Asians yes, were they all Chinese? No, a lot of them were Vietnamese. I also saw other races from around the world as well. Didn't know what countries they from, they had heavy accents.
Here in Washington, every Apple store has Asians yes, were they all Chinese? No, a lot of them were Vietnamese. I also saw other races from around the world as well. Didn't know what countries they from, they had heavy accents.
supply and demand yes, but the images of launch day lines consisting of mostly elderly folks who barely speak English is not something to be proud of. Its only going to get worse if Apple does not address this now.
I agree it's not the image that any company would technically be proud of but it comes with the territory of these phones being as popular as they are. I don't see how they can realistically address it without saying "Asians can't buy these phones for 2 months".
That's the last thing any company needs is a class action lawsuit on discrimination.
They can address very easily:
- credit card only instore for first 30 days. I think they tried this before, but were labeled racist for some reason
- phones are locked to the country of purchase for the first 30 days
- some form of government issued ID required to purchase in the first 30 days. Only to ensure the 2 per person policy
So what you are saying is apple should release the iPhone first in Asia and then a month later release it in America but then don't allow old Asians to stand in line because Americans only want to see young white dudes am standing in line.
Scalpers are the worst in any community with a dedicated fan base and limited supply. The iPhone thing is bad, but there are worse out there.
Phish scalpers are the worst scum there is. Problem is, majority of them are Phish fans themselves. Most of the time, a ticket to Phish is easy to come by if you buy them in advance at least a week before the show. But some shows and 3-day runs are a pain in the romp to get a hold of.
For example, Phish is playing 3 days in Las Vegas this Halloween. Around 20% of tickets for each day and for all their concerts are sold by Phish in a lottery system before the rest are released by Ticketmaster. The stadium in concert set-up holds 20,000. The lottery works by giving Phish your Credit Card and how many tickets you want for each concert. There is usually a week period where anyone can request tickets in the lottery. Then when the lottery happens, if you are lucky enough, they will charge your Credit Card for how many tickets you won for those concerts. If you don't get all the tickets you want, you are lucky if you even get any, you then have to fight with your refresh key to score them when they go on sale online.
For this Halloween, all 3 shows sold out instantly on a Sunday morning. Within a couple days, over 2,500 tickets were on Stub Hub for the 31st with a minimum price of $250. That's over 10% of all the tickets being sold on one website for a minimum of 5x the face value (all the shows had a price of $50 regardless of seating). Go to any Phish forum and you'll see how many dedicated fans are still in search of a ticket. The NYE shows are even worse, $500 minimums for a $50 ticket.
There's no real way to stop it, but Phish fans [have set up a website - URL removed] to buy/sell/trade tickets for only face value. It has gotten so bad, that people in the community who know how much they could potentially get for an extra ticket, decide to give their fellow fans the face value of the ticket instead of making a profit. Some buy as many tickets they can, just so they can sell them to their friends who potentially didn't score a ticket, or then sell any extras for face on that website or on Phish forums. They know that so many tickets go to scalpers, real phans cannot get into the show unless they bring $100 bills. Which to be honest, a Phish concert is worth way more than the face value of the ticket, it's just the act of providing money to scum bags who will keep buying and re-selling these tickets.
So, how do you stop the scalping? DONT BUY FROM SCALPERS! No matter what! Given the opportunity, buy as much **** you can, then sell those for what you paid for +shipping or gas$. It's the only way.
Phish scalpers are the worst scum there is. Problem is, majority of them are Phish fans themselves. Most of the time, a ticket to Phish is easy to come by if you buy them in advance at least a week before the show. But some shows and 3-day runs are a pain in the romp to get a hold of.
For example, Phish is playing 3 days in Las Vegas this Halloween. Around 20% of tickets for each day and for all their concerts are sold by Phish in a lottery system before the rest are released by Ticketmaster. The stadium in concert set-up holds 20,000. The lottery works by giving Phish your Credit Card and how many tickets you want for each concert. There is usually a week period where anyone can request tickets in the lottery. Then when the lottery happens, if you are lucky enough, they will charge your Credit Card for how many tickets you won for those concerts. If you don't get all the tickets you want, you are lucky if you even get any, you then have to fight with your refresh key to score them when they go on sale online.
For this Halloween, all 3 shows sold out instantly on a Sunday morning. Within a couple days, over 2,500 tickets were on Stub Hub for the 31st with a minimum price of $250. That's over 10% of all the tickets being sold on one website for a minimum of 5x the face value (all the shows had a price of $50 regardless of seating). Go to any Phish forum and you'll see how many dedicated fans are still in search of a ticket. The NYE shows are even worse, $500 minimums for a $50 ticket.
There's no real way to stop it, but Phish fans [have set up a website - URL removed] to buy/sell/trade tickets for only face value. It has gotten so bad, that people in the community who know how much they could potentially get for an extra ticket, decide to give their fellow fans the face value of the ticket instead of making a profit. Some buy as many tickets they can, just so they can sell them to their friends who potentially didn't score a ticket, or then sell any extras for face on that website or on Phish forums. They know that so many tickets go to scalpers, real phans cannot get into the show unless they bring $100 bills. Which to be honest, a Phish concert is worth way more than the face value of the ticket, it's just the act of providing money to scum bags who will keep buying and re-selling these tickets.
So, how do you stop the scalping? DONT BUY FROM SCALPERS! No matter what! Given the opportunity, buy as much **** you can, then sell those for what you paid for +shipping or gas$. It's the only way.
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No one wants to see a line of poor elderly people lining up several hours for something they don't need. They are being taken advantage of by the organized scalpers. They getting paid what $100 to be a line mule for 15 hours, bordering on legalized slavery.
You're right, they could try some of that but the reality is that nobody is being harmed by the scalping...not that anything being harmless should be overlooked. Well maybe people are being harmed, I don't know, but that's a different thread.
The issue stems from people willing to pay a premium so people want to sell to that premium. I've seen headline stories that show how crazy it is when the iPhone actually got released in China last year, so it's no surprised what people are going through to sell to that market before it's released.
We're on an Apple forum so we're complaining about iPhone scalping. If we were on a Justin Timberlake fan site, I suppose there would be people complaining that his tickets are being gathered up by all the ticket dealers/scalpers.
Edit: ...or Phish, as Anastasio stated above
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Eh getting pissed at concert scalpers is more understandable especially if it's a once-in-a-lifetime gig. Resentment for people that do this with electronics is derived from impatience, maybe even jealousy. I'll give it a week or two and everybody will have their shiny new phones and be happy again.
If I were the OP, I'd be more pissed that the time it took an apple employee to get my iPhone from out the back and activate it, some women in the same shop was able to do the same process 6 times over, in the same time span it took him to do it once....
Steve never would have allowed this!
Steve never would have allowed this!
Yes as does the Apple Store but there's a long line there and there's no line at Best Buy
Yes, it does. You have every right to scalp so long as there are no rules against it, but living where we do, every other individual has a right to form their opinion of scalpers and express it.
There are people who, perhaps rightly so, feel that scalpers' methods exacerbate existing supply constraints by diverting the product out of primary sales channels, and artificially raise the price of the product in grey/black markets... effectively creating a market that otherwise wouldn't exist, simply to stay in business.
In short: being called every name in the book is an occupational hazard of your trade, and the cost of doing business. Suck it up.
Samsung has or had something similar. The first SIM must be from the country of purchase. You will say now, easy, flip a SIM in, register, bingo!
True, very true! But for that you must open the package, which will take quite a bit of the value.
But this issue is going on for some years and Apple doesn't care.
You misunderstood my statement. I am not a scalper. I own a successful business and have many lines on my business account hence I buy iPhones and iPads for my employees and family members.
Note to Scaredpoet: I was pondering the issue of xenophobia and how one should not be judged by another educated person.
Scalpers just exploit the capitalistic system. You can make money however legally you want but this isn't illegal. It's just morally wrong but who is to judge. You can do the same too but obviously you don't have that effective workforce these scalping gangs have.
Don't hate the players, hate the game!
Don't hate the players, hate the game!
It's called capitalism... Grow up people.
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So does every company that makes every product you buy.
Scaredpoet, you misunderstood. I am not a scalper. I am an Apple fan and love to buy new Apple gadgets hence I upgrade to a new iPhone every year and plan to upgrade to the new iPad Air in Oct/Nov and the new MacBook Air 12" next year. Having said that, I have been avoiding the Apple Store lately due to the xenophobia of the small percentage of people on this forum.
The statement still stands though. A scalper (not you) needs to understand that if they're sensitive about being called names and heavily criticized for what they do or who they are, then they shouldn't be in the scalping business.
Scalpers are not a legally protected class of individual. Quite the contrary: it's by its very nature a shady business, and will bring out the shady side of everyone they encounter. One shouldn't be surprised if that negativity is directed at them for what they do.
Having a negative opinion of scalpers does not by default denote xenophobia. I don't care what race you are. If you're a scalper, you're going to get criticized. Unfortunately some people might use race as a convenient means to get under your skin. Can't take the heat? Don't scalp.