The beloved Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone is already selling at huge premiums on eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY), and it isn't even on the market yet and we don't have any idea what sort of real waiting list there will be. This can't be a huge surprise when you consider the same thing happened with the release of Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE)'s PS-3 and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s Xbox 360.
Today there was a sale recorded of one of the 8GB that closed out at a final selling price of $1,025 after 38 bids. The item is listed as auction number 150121663975 on ebay.com. There is even another 8GB iPhone for sale with four days to go and the price is already listed at $700 as of 6:19 PM EST tonight.
If you go to the "completed listings area" on eBay and put in a base rate of $400 and a peak of $2,000, you'll see that the 4GB and 8GB phones are selling all over the place and at much higher than list prices.
What happens when short selling comes to phones and video game systems? Where do you send the phone if there are any issues? It's hard to know what these will be selling for on the gray market when the real shortages are known, but that "caveat emptor" keeps coming to mind.
Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
Short selling the iPhone on eBay
Posted May 14th 2007 7:45PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), eBay (EBAY), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), iPhone
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-14-2007 @ 10:04PM
johhny said...
are we that scared about racism that we have to say "gray" market and not "black" market. and another thing. geez wait a few weeks and you can get a damn iphone at regular price at best buy. it reminds me of the playstation 3. i bought mine two weeks after it came out for $600. i know people that paid $1500 two weeks prior. i want a iphone just as bad as any other joe but just be patient for goodness sake. oh yeah down with zune....lol
5-14-2007 @ 11:01PM
Rob said...
The auction you link to is not legitimate. People who don't believe people should profit from a shortage of goods create fake eBay screennames and bid up the items as high as possible. This screws the seller because the buyer isn't going to pay but the seller still has to pay eBay's closing fees. The exact same thing happened with the PS3. Don't buy into the hype that these things are going for as much as the closing price says; look for auctions where the winning bidder has positive feedback and didn't create their screenname the same day.
5-14-2007 @ 11:34PM
stlblufan said...
"Gray market" and "black market" are two distinct terms meaning different things. It has nothing to do with racism. Google them.
5-15-2007 @ 6:12AM
Steve said...
That is completely insane! Apple are great at whipping their consumers into a frenzy!
To think that they will be able to buy it at the normal retail price, and yet they chose to buy it well above.
At least the investor will be excited about the hype!
5-15-2007 @ 7:56PM
Jonathan said...
im jus here to confirm the release date of the iphone.... i talked to the manager of a at&t store she told me that the iphone would be released june 9th... she said there will be midnight madness and they will be sold midnight june 9th!! this has been confirmed by all at&t stores..im 100% sure of this.... oh and i forgot she said it would only be sold to new costumers, or costumers taking out a new line.... no one else