Scalpers always jump into action whenever there’s a new iPhone available for purchase. Reports have suggested that the iPhone X will be available in limited quantities at launch due to production issues. This presents a golden opportunity for scalpers who can sell the iPhone X units they acquire for considerably more. That’s what they’re already doing as the iPhone X on eBay is fetching as much as $1,500.
Apple recently said that demand for the iPhone X has been “off the charts,” that’s not surprising, given that many reports had suggested that quite a few customers had decided against purchasing an iPhone 8 because they wanted the iPhone X instead.
The iPhone X is unlike any other smartphone that Apple has released in the past. It doesn’t have a home button and features new technologies like Face ID facial recognition. The iPhone X is also Apple’s first smartphone with an OLED display.
The iPhone X ship times dropped from 2-3 weeks to up to 5 weeks merely ten minutes after pre-orders for the iPhone X opened on Friday. It appears that there was some truth to those reports about limited quantities after all.
The latest numbers from eBay show more than 1,200 listings for the iPhone X. Most of the listings went up within an hour of the iPhone X pre-orders going live. Scalpers have started selling their iPhone X pre-orders on eBay with prices as high as $1,500. The base model of the iPhone X costs $999. That’s a 50 percent profit margin.
This is obviously not ideal for customers and not a lot of people are going to enrich scalpers just because they can’t wait to get their hands on the iPhone X. Nevertheless, there will always be people willing to spend more money just to get the latest iPhone before everyone else.