Given the recent publicity given to the iPad 2 grey market, especially overseas, you’re probably not going to be surprised to hear that many people waiting in line for an iPad 2 at Apple’s flagship 5th Avenue Store after every delivery are being paid to wait in line and buy their iPads for someone who will then sell them overseas. These line-waiters tend to make between $100 to $200 dollars for their services, and with iPad 2s going for at least twice and sometimes three times their retail price on eBay or in other countries, grey marketeers are obviously interested in soaking up as many iPad 2s as possible.
What might shock you is just how big a problem this is. According to the New York Post, though, more than half of the 400 people in line at Apple’s 5th Avenue Store last Thursday handed over their two purchased iPads in exchange for cash to a man sitting in a nearby BMW-X5.
“This has been going on for days,” one Apple Store employee said. “I feel for the die-hard customers who want the product but can’t get it.”
Jeez, I’ll say. Apple’s hands are tied on the matter, though: even though the iPad 2 export market seems like it is largely dedicated to exporting tablets to Hong Kong, Apple has been warned in the past of looking upon their Asian customers to a higher degree of scrutiny. That’s only fair, but short of refusing to sell certain customers based upon profiling (which isn’t just illegal, it’s icky), we’re hard pressed to see how Apple can ensure only selling their limited stock of iPads to customers who intend to actually use them.
If you haven’t gotten your iPad 2 yet, I’m sure this news story is pretty frustrating. If it helps, though, those long lines of gray market line-waiters should disappear almost entirely when the iPad 2 launches internationally on Friday… and Apple says they’re still on track for that. Be patient! There’s light on the horizon!
[via Gizmodo]
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
32 responses to “Report: Half Of All Line-Waiters At 5th Ave Store Shipping iPad 2s Overseas”
This is pure BS. You should be required to tie your purchase to your iTunes account or something. You have to have one to use the device anyway. I feel sorry for people who stood in line and didn’t get an iPad because of these evildoers.
Nice idea except a lot of iPad buyers may be first time iPad or Apple device buyers and therefore may not have an iTunes account yet, so that would mean they would be forced to sign up for one in store.
It does seem unfair to the customers that genuinely want one for their own use. But like the article says, there’s nothing that anyone can do.
I’m in Canada so we won’t have that problem, we just won’t be able to get them for another month or so even after the initial overseas launch.
We still can’t reliably get iPhone 4’s here.
Are the people buying these iPads to ship overseas residents? Could ID be required proving US citizenship for say, six weeks? Or could they go back to credit card only for the first few weeks?
I got my iPad 2 from the Apple Store in Louisville on opening day, and went back last Wednesday after they got a new shipment in to buy one for my father (he was third in line for an iPad at a Walmart in Louisiana on release day, and they only had two!).
Evidently, it triggered something when I gave them my credit card because the guy looked at me and asked if I was buying this one as a gift. So obviously, they knew I’d already bought one.
Correction: I got my iPad 2 from the Apple Store in Louisville on RELEASE day…
Just one solution, tough: Make a worldwide launch.
The problem is that Apple rushed iPad 2 (as the first) into the market, hoping to own it.
They didn’t have enough units to meet demand.
At the very least Apple should only allow one per customer. That would make it twice as difficult for resellers and leave more for the people (like me) who have tried to get one.
This makes me really upset. It’s basically scalping, and that IS illegal. And besides that, why don’t these people waiting in line charge this man in the BMW about $1000 for their trouble, since clearly he’s making a fortune overseas. THAT would slow him down considerably. It’s just wrong any way you look at it.
I think Apple should take credit cards only for first couple launch days and cap those to 2 per customer?
I made the line on launch day in NYC 5th Ave store but gave up about 2 hours later when I was told my desired configuration was all sold out.
Apple is not great on worldwide launches. In India,the ipad was launched just 5-7 weeks ago at a 30% premium over what the people in the US pay for each device. This is why people scalp. There is a huge untapped market which can only be met in the gray market.
There is nothing illegal about this, the man isn’t stealing the iPad’s, and I’m going to assume he’s not on the property of the store itself. There is no difference between an American who genuinely wants an iPad and someone in Asia who genuinely wants an iPad. They both want the same product, the only reason this is happening is because of the staggered release dates. There’s no “evildoing” going on here. This man is purchasing iPads with legal tender, and selling them to others. I honestly don’t see the problem here.
its easy… after buying the ipad, activate it on the spot… the value of opened box ipad is lower than sealed.
Capitalism. Don’t you love it? Without it there would be no ipad.
I personally don’t see anything wrong with this. If you need an ipad order it online and stop whining about long lines. Apple sold 15 fucking million ipads in 9 months. Do you have any idea how hard it must be to create that kind of stock? I don’t know for sure but i bet it is pretty fucking hard. Just because you wont get your ipad exactly when you want it doesn’t make it Apple’s fucking responsibility to ration out ipads to people who won’t resell it. This isn’t fucking medicine being handed out to the needy… its a bloody luxury item. Stop bitching about how you didn’t get you ferrari on launch day.
On another note, good article and good reporting.
Except that it is not scalping nor illegal.
Too frustrating for me after waiting in line for a few days and have the same people purchasing iPads. Don’t blame for making a profit if they can, why not. But 4-5 weeks delivery is absurd. I’d rather not deal with this, especially since I don’t really need a tablet anyway. A light laptop would suit me better.
Illegal and unethical. Get these mofos out of our country.