but return policies have to be ammended for things like this to completely hump the people who do it to consumer electronics, much like the no-return ticket scalpings. You want to scalp 200 iphones? Go ahead! No returns, eat a loss! Ticket brokers don't get a pass when a show sells badly, unless it gets cancelled.

So, I think the shitbags who try and artificially raise the price of consumer electronics should learn the same lessons that ticket scalpers have to realize, and that it's not just pure money for sitting in a line for a while. Too bad there'd be some kinda of unholy uprising on this blog and elsewhere if you suddenly couldn't take back some piece of electronics without paying a restocking fee.

The domain name system is actually a great example of a market where there wouldn't be any shortages if it wasn't for the scalpers. Just look at how many placeholder domains are out there.

Good for Apple though in undercutting all these sellers (especially the one lady who wanted to buy $16,000 in iPhones to turn a "huge" profit on ebay).

Buying 2 iPhones and trying to flip one doesn't make someone a grey market dealer unless they're selling an iPhone that's not supposed to be sold in the US.

Thought I'd amend that for ya.

I don't mind the Greymarket folks so much. I never buy into the hype of a product and need to but it upon release, so they don't take anything away from me (money or the product). Also, I figure that if they can find a sucker to pay up to 2x the price of something, power to 'em.

I'd seen multiple sources that said that both would be huge sellouts. And I was right.

What wasn't in my research were how many jackholes there were out there ruining it all. I've flipped consoles plenty of times in the past at abou 10% profit on my part. I sell a $200 console and pocket about $20 after ebay fees. This held true with the PS3, fortunately, but it was a nightmare to get rid of. Every moron on eBay had it figured that they could resell theirs for $1,000 or more. It might have worked in 2000 for the PS2, but that certainly wasn't the case here.

This guy is a dope for not doing his research.

And it makes the lines longer.

I don't think anyone is angry that you are trying to make money. What makes them angry is when someone goes and purchases a final product with the sole reason to resell it for a large profit. I was pissed at my friends when we were all able to get face value tickets the the 2006 Rose Bowl yet they were planning on selling their pair for profit. There were students that wanted to go and couldn't because of their greed. There isn't anything wrong with it, but it doesn't make a whole lot of friends either.

I still have an iphone sitting at home unopened. It didn't sell last weekend on Ebay, but I have another week to return it so I'm waiting just in case Apple runs out.

Why so angry people? If someone wants to pay $1000 for an iphone then so be it. You'd be surprised what people will buy on Ebay and how much they'll pay for it.

And sorry Bluemeep, no restocking fees if it's returned unopened.

In more related news, the scalpers were gambling that Apple wouldn't be able to keep up with supply. Sometimes you win that gamble (Wii), but much more often, you lose (PS3, iPhone).

This is probably an AP NEWS release and was just re-released by the two partner newspapers.

Words of wisdom. Never buy fancy electronics their first six months of release. You typically save a small amount of cash for waiting (more if you're the sucker-types who buy from scalpers), no lines or hassles, and less lemons.

*cheers*

HA, Ha! You suck at arbitrage!

</nelson>