A reporter for the Mercury News published an article today describing her experience attempting to sell and iPhone on Ebay for profit. The fact that people even attempted this just blows my mind. Now, those guys that decided to stand in line to buy up the iPhones then sell them on Ebay – while I think that’s a disgusting way to rip people off – I understand why they might have thought they had a chance (despite rumors that Apple manufactured 3 million of those bad boys).
But this woman literally called an Apple Store, walked in, and purchased an iPhone. That should have been her first clue.
From the article:
With my laptop still open in front of me, I called the Apple store on Manhattan’s posh Fifth Avenue, where just days earlier a crowd of ardent Apple fans camped out just to make sure they were the first to get their mitts on the gadget.
“Hey, do you have any more iPhones?” I asked a saleswoman, expecting a sigh and negative answer.
Surprisingly, she said the phones were still in stock. Without spending much more time thinking about it, I headed to the store expecting a circus.
When I arrived, there was no mob or even a line. Though a swarm of customers surrounded an iPhone display, the scene was surprisingly calm.
I walked up to a salesperson, asked whom I needed to speak with to purchase an iPhone, and was pointed toward an almost-empty checkout area. All I had to do was walk up to a cashier, ask for an 8 gigabyte iPhone, hand over my credit card and sign the receipt.
Surprisingly calm?
What the hell did she expect? The LA Riots reborn?
Ultimately she lost $40 bucks on her little endeavor, and I couldn’t be happier for her.
One thought on “Hey are you one of those idiots that tried to sell an iPhone on Ebay? This lady was…”
I’d have thought the reason the Xbox 360 and Wii were fetching silly money on ebay is because there was no other way to get them – the fact that stores still have iPhones in stock should be a pretty good indication that they’re not hard to get hold of, like you say. Plus, I imagine anyone wanting to buy one would want it brand new, from a store, with a fresh new contract in their details, not have to go through the hassle of transferring everything over for the sake of what is essentially a “second hand” item…