“David Flashner thought he had it wired: buy two iPhones last Friday when they first went on sale, keep one and sell the other at a profit so big it would pay for most of the first one,” Katie Hafner reports for The New York Times.
“Mr. Flashner wasted no time. He began advertising the extra phone while still in line at an Apple store in Burlingame, Calif., south of San Francisco. During his 21-hour wait, he posted half a dozen different ads to Craigslist — with prices ranging from $800 to $1,200 — and waited for the calls to come in,” Hafner reports.
“But no calls came because consumers expect that stores will soon have phones in stock. He continued to advertise the extra phone through the weekend, and ended up with just one call, which went nowhere. On Wednesday, he returned the phone,” Hafner reports.
“Mr. Flashner, 25, who manages an audio-visual equipment rental company, is not the only would-be iPhone reseller whose plan failed to follow the script,” Hafner reports.
Full article here.
Supply and demand. First the product has to be sold out (as it was yesterday – some Apple Stores have since ben restocked) and you have to have extended periods of drought (we’ll see) to build up any eBay frenzy. Nobody with a brain would buy an iPhone for some exorbitant price off eBay during the first few days when they could just walk into an Apple Store and buy one at normal retail price.
Well consider the value of buying the first iPhone and just keeping it wrapped a few years. The value of an unopened iPhone could be substantial. From a collector’s viewpoint that would make sense. For the quick sell off’s, well I agree with the consensus.
Road Warrior, the signature. Brought to you buy the original.
@ me
the 3 that i sold were all to people in the U.S. who didn’t have access to the sale (Apple Store or AT&T). There’s absolutely nothing wrong with spreading the iPhone love to folks across the country who wouldn’t have one otherwise while turning a profit in the process. cough capitalism cough cough
youre not from around here, are you ?
Thanks to Apple they have been able to cripple most of the morons that want to screw people out of buying an iphone at a normal price.
Apple prepared properly and produced way more iphones then any other recent major product lauch from any company and has successuflly been able to bring the iphone into the hands of the people that deservere and desire one for them selves, not to just rip people off and try to suck up the supply just to make a profit.
Whys that?
“Wow. I’m hurt. Sound like a typical lesbo comment.”
Like all of my comments?
-lesbo
<< … the select few who are greedy like the lady who brought $100,000 IN CASH to gobble up as many iPhones as possible… >
She wasn’t being greeedy. Foolish- yes, stupid- probably. The $100000 she brought in was HER money. She didn’t rob the United Way fund. American Capitalism- oh yes, I forgot- It’s all our fault.
Does anyone here know the definition of the word scam? Because based on your comments I am pretty sure most of you don’t.
And the days of selling things at inflated prices are “well and truely over”? You can’t be serious can you?
I think you can get disability money from the government for that kind of monumental level of stupidity. You should apply Petey.
Ok people, this is the way it works. It’s an auction. You have something to sell, people offer to pay whatever it is they are willing to pay for it. A transaction is completed. There is not much more to it than that.
You don’t want to get “scammed” by the so-called “scammers”? No problem, get up earlier than they do and wait in line. But if someone spends a day in line to buy something that later on becomes scarcely available, offers it up on an AUCTION site and lemmings fall all over themselves to pay WAY above sticker price that is their business.
Why be mad at the sellers? It’s the morons who are willing to pay double for a product who are the really idiots here. They create the market for what you term to be “scammers”.
Stop being ignorant of the facts here.
@ aProudAmerican
So, what if a corporation with loads of cash swooped in a bought up all the resources of an essential service, that people needed, and sold it back to the public for an ever-increasing government protected profit?
Like, say, healthcare.
Would that be okay?
Oh, wait…
Not to mention you can by them online at the applestore
PPS: I would like a Apple Store in NZ please
and Telecom to be beaten as they are as mean as AT&T or worse
Ran by people who charged for calling emergency number from a cell phone, can you believe that. I use to work on there help desk for Internet called Xtra, They really pushed for money and did not look after staff at all, and the technology was not top notch.
Sad really, IT being ran with no drive for a better ness, or by people who liked Computers.
Telecom pushed a weak goverment so it was hard for other companies in IT, NZ now is facing tough ecomonic times
part perhaps to this as people re very savvy with IT, web and Service
AB
Keyword Chrissy:>
to the public for an ever-increasing government protected profit?
Government, Why are they protecting that,
PS: I hope you understood my telecom note:
I dont like them, I tghink i want the world to know Telecom NZ are bad.
@ChrissyOne
“Like all of my comments?”
You are anything but a typical les. You are extraordinary! And I got video to prove it…LOL j/k
@aProudAmerican
Nobody said she was a thief… she is greedy.
greedy |ˈgrēdē| adjective ( greedier , greediest ) having or showing an intense and selfish desire for something, esp. wealth
PC people suck by the way I just need to say that ,
Can you believe how annoying it is to do a search on a PC, some stupid Dog jumps and starts fin around,
also, when you want to type a letter word has so many options it sucks, and Stops me from writing down what I need,
Sometimes a letter is to a friend or loved one, and a Stupid MS office thing comes up which is bad taste,
Also When I open IE it crashes on any PC,
Also I need to say this: Num lock is off by default on a PC,
This is stupid , why else would you have numbers on keypad,
To move cursor
Arrh MS is such a stupid company why do people keep sticking up for them, its like friend in a gang.
@ ChrissyOne…
Health care would be one example, true …
but Enron also comes to mind
@aProudAmerican
“She wasn’t being greeedy.”
Let’s see. $100,000 worth of 8GB iPhones is about 160 iPhones w/taxes included.
She was hoping for $800 to $1200 (or more ) per iPhone to sell on eBay.
That’s $128,000 to $192,000 possibly more.
In a small degree, that’s greed. She was so giddy with excitement that she reeked of greed. I seriously hope she learns from this because she made an absolute fool of herself on camera.
Glad to hear that at least some of the bloodsuckers (unlike marcus aurelius) failed to cheat the morons who pay too much on eBay, although they deserve to be cheated.
Give her a Break she was proberly Bored has no life She has a chance to do some- think cool, fun
<he wants to be part of the Cool tech world and use ebay
Sell iphones like a youngone
SOOO what,
PS: has anyone seen how bad Chinas ecology is yuck ,
Greed, and the desire for profit are two different things. If she’d had a head for wealth, instead of opportunism, she would have bought AAPL stock and made some easy money without standing in line.
In Seattle, we call this “Mine the miners”, and it’s a tradition that goes back to 1897 and the Alaska Yukon gold rush. Clever northwest pioneers realized that, instead of trekking into the Great White North to die in a freezing hole, the real money was to be made by selling provisions to these intrepid fools. Many businesses founded in this era still operate to this day (including that of a shrewd shoe salesman and ex-miner named Nordstrom).
Half-wits like whats-her-name think about a fast buck, they DON’T think about wealth. Call it capitalism if you like, but like any tool, capitalism can be used wisely or poorly. Sometimes you win, sometimes you look like an idiot in the national press.
Choose wisely.
-c
re: People are not buying these things on EBay because everyone knows it is a brain-dead locked down phone from the most user hostile computer company on the planet – Apple.
Apple goes to extremes to screw over its user base by locking down their software, computers and now the massively overpriced iphone. Who can afford a $3000 phone? Steve Jobs shows that he hates minorities by not producing products for the poor. Only the rich can afford a phone (or the middle class if you don’t mind going into massive debt).
Thank goodness for Microsoft and companies like HP and Dell that produce computers for the rest of us. These companies are also green – they have fantastic records for recycling computers so they don’t damage the environment. Not Apple, they have the worst reputation on the planet. When do we see Steve with a gas mask on because he has destroyed so much of the environment that he can’t breath the air anymore?
—-
Comments:
1. Apple are no more locked down than Microsoft.
2. Prove to me it costs $3000 for an iPhone! – Show me the proof!
3. Apple’s reputation with the planet is good, if not better than almost all the other computer manufacturers – even Greenpeace has praised Apple (and they are a total bunch of fanatics!)
Finally, you obviously waited in-line for an iPhone and got in the store only to be told that they have run out of stock.
Boy are you one bitter and twisted, screwed up person…
IF YOU DONT LIKE APPLE OR ITS PRODUCTS DONT LOOK AT MAC NEWS WEBSITES!
petey was they guy real,
Was he not joking, poor dude
I want a real debate why apple Sux one we can have fun with
PS: who has seen the movie sunshine its quite cool, also Tripods this was such a cool Movie,
PS Hey Chrissy can you be my Girlfriend?
of you don’t.
And the days of selling things at inflated prices are “well and truely over”? You can’t be serious can you?
I think you can get disability money from the government for that kind of monumental level of stupidity. You should apply Petey.
Ok people, this is the way it works. It’s an auction. You have something to sell, people offer to pay whatever it is they are willing to pay for it. A transaction is completed. There is not much more to it than that.
You don’t want to get “scammed” by the so-called “scammers”? No problem, get up earlier than they do and wait in line. But if someone spends a day in line to buy something that later on becomes scarcely available, offers it up on an AUCTION site and lemmings fall all over themselves to pay WAY above sticker price that is their business.
Why be mad at the sellers? It’s the morons who are willing to pay double for a product who are the really idiots here. They create the market for what you term to be “scammers”.
Stop being ignorant of the facts here
—-
FUCK YOU REALITY CHECK!
MY ‘STUPIDITY’ AS YOU PUT IT, IS BASED ON 40+ YEARS LIVING ON THIS PLANET.
Tell me – how many years is your extreme stupidity based on? and what time does your Mummy come along and put you to bed?
If you are stupid enough buy anything on Ebay that is priced more than teh retail price then YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT.
Ok bad apple things:>
OK so real bad things, I know, When Steve retires we may not have anyone cool, Except me,
also, O I know iwork is a bit crap, you could say that, But o well
Appleworks was nice , Office Arr Poo man I can even smell office on a PC is smells like sacks
PC people play game killing and SIck porn
mac uses make music
art
and Science
“PS Hey Chrissy can you be my Girlfriend?”
See my post @ Jul 06, 07 – 10:59 am
-c