“If only there were an app to nail black-market extortionists,” Lachlan Cartwright and Kate Sheehy report for The New York Post.
“A cutthroat Asian group has set its crosshairs on the flagship Apple store on Fifth Avenue at 59th — scoring nearly every iPad 2 it can get its hands since the hot gizmo went on sale last week, to re-peddle at exorbitant prices here and in China,” Cartwright and Sheehy report. “The illicit, highly orchestrated scheme was in full gear yesterday, with a ringleader doling out massive wads of $100 bills to about five cohorts. The sidekicks then went up and down a line of about 200 Asians outside the store and around the corner, handing out the money.”
“‘We buy from here, then sell,” one of the organizers gloated outside the store, standing near one of several bulging, oversized shopping bags filled with the hot devices,” Cartwright and Sheehy report. “‘The ones we bought today are already on their way to China,’ where they haven’t gone on sale yet, said the boss. ‘It’s been pretty crazy.'”
Cartwright and Sheehy report, “When asked how much it would cost to buy a top-of-the-line iPad 2, which retails for no more than $829, one of the rogues demanded more than twice what it was just bought for — $1,700. Then, his boss jumped in — and said it would be “best if you bring $2,000. An Apple worker inside the store said he didn’t like what was going on — but he couldn’t do much about it.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: No wonder it’s so tough to get an iPad 2 in NYC.
Yep, and as soon as Apple tries to control this by putting limits on cash buys or limits per person, someone will blog how their 90 yr old grandmother in a wheelchair hoping to score 8 iPads for her grandkids, was limited to only one by Apple’s meanies.
Too true.
As usual in this world, the few ruin it for the many.
Well, it’s the nature of a free market. It’s unfortunate that there’s such a shortage that many people in New York and elsewhere who want one can’t get one.
Lame. Just have patience. In a couple of months, there should be enough for everybody.
When you live in Asia long enough you start to understand this mentality. A show of status and wealth is paramount to anything else, you have to realise Asia really is a morally bankrupt part of the world where care, giving and charity really hardly exists… It’s a concern for us all because there are so many of them.
Nice of you to generalize all of “Asia” in a paragraph. There are many cultures in Asia, and they from each other as the British, French, Germans, Dutch, Spanish, etc. OR the many cultural distinctions just within the U.S.
I am Hong Kong born Canadian and totally agree with the above comment. It is true you can not lump all Asian together, but where the problem is systemic is China, especially the new found money made of the off the back of the poor courtesy of the monopoly given to certain business by the Communist Chinese government.
Wow! Asia is morally bankrupt? Your TV stuck
on FOX ‘NEWS’ ? 🙂
I can say this with honesty I never ever watch Fix news.
So what? Why does apple care where their product ends up
With such a shortage, Apple should have increased the price, to lower demand… The marketeers are just doing what a normally free market would usually be doing under supply constraints. It is nice to know that if someone wants one bad enough, they can pay extra and get one. The reality is, the Asian black marketeers wouldn’t be selling them for $2,000 if there wasn’t a market for them. If there wasn’t a demand at that price, the price would fall… I for one am glad the free market exists to meet demand based on available supply.
What a joke , have some patience we will all eventually get one. As the old saying goes there’s a suck born every minute. Just wondering how come they not going after the Xoom, maybe because they would have pay us a lot to take of there dirty little hands
More sloppy journalism. “scoring nearly every iPad 2 it can get its hands”. I’ll just bet they are skipping some of the units they can get their hands on.
I hope Apple is at least allocating inventory on some other metric than trajectory. If not Apple is pouring the bulk of iPads directly into these blackmarkteers hands. I don’t begrudge these folks for making money but Apple strategy was to supply home market demand.
Black market? Extortionists?
These items are not illegal. No one needs an iPad 2 to live. An entrepreneur can only charge what prices the market will bear. And if you want to complain about “oh what about the poor people who can’t afford $2000” well they can wait in line like me for 2 hours and get nothing, then place an order online with Apple and wait 2-3 weeks. Zheesh, yellow journalism…
agree ! It isn’t illegal. if someone welling to buy it for a higher price than what you pay for, you will do the same thing. IT DONESN’T MATTER if you are WHITE,BLACK,or ASIAN. It’s all about business. Hoping to get it sooner , i waited in line for 4 days in this week to get a ipad 2 in New York City and end up with nothing… after day 4, i gave up and just order it online. Life is too short to waste it.
Those who are patient will eventually get the iPad 2 model of their choice at the retail price. Those who insist on jumping to the front of the line, even though the iPad 2 has not yet been released internationally, will pay dearly for the privilege.
This isn’t hoarding of a necessity in a time of need or price gouging during a national disaster. The practice may be distasteful to some, but it is just business and it happens every day in the U.S. How many iPad 2s are being resold on eBay for a profit? Similar story for tickets to big events. Let the big spenders waste some cash.
I would never pay 2 to 3 times more for a product, even if it is hard to find. I may pay 10 to 20 % more. It is ashamed that Asians stick out, but I bet there are other groups that have done this as well. There are less organized groups or persons, too. I know back in the days for the ps3 and know a person who bought 3 units and sold on ebay. He was an american. This happens all the time. You want yours, get there night before and camp out and bring food.
Use your iPad 1 and be happy. Wait for the iPad 3.
It’ll be much better than the 2. Not just an incremental
update.
Our prices for iPad 2 in wholesales price:
iPad 2 WiFi white / black 16 Gb – 300 USD including shipping via UPS
iPad 2 WiFi white / black 32 Gb – 400 USD including shipping via UPS
iPad 2 WiFi white / black 64 Gb – 500 USD including shipping via UPS
5 x iPad 2 WiFi + 3G white / black 16 Gb – 1,200 USD including shipping via UPS
5 x iPad 2 WiFi + 3G white / black 32 Gb – 1,800 USD including shipping via UPS
5 x iPad 2 WiFi + 3G white / black 64 Gb – 2,300 USD including shipping via UPS
iPad Cover – $30
Screen Protector- $20
Screen Protector install -$10
Complete – US
For booking write to
Call: +1(646)340-9890
Skype:info.purchase
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Email:info.marketbuy@gmail.com