According to Apple, demand for iPhone X has been “off the charts,” which led to the new device being sold out within minutes. According to different reports, shipping period fell from two to three weeks for all models to up to five weeks just 10 minutes into the pre-order. Because of the limited availability of the much anticipated device, sellers have been scalping their pre-order confirmations on eBay, hoping to make huge profit on customers demand.
According to recent figures from eBay, there were more than 1,200 listings posted within 45 minutes of the pre-sales opening at 12 midnight PT today.
An “iPhone X” search found more than 4,480 live listings, the majority being “Buy It Now” offers rather than auctions.
eBay also tracked a big spike in “iPhone X” searches on its site.
From midnight until 1 PM ET, there were about 36,555 searches for iPhone X, the company told TechCrunch.
Whilst it’s too early to tell what the average selling price is — that will require more sales data over a longer period of time to be accurate — eBay says most of the listings appear to be in the $1,500 price range.
For comparison’s sake, the iPhone X starts at $999 for the 64GB model, and goes up to $1,149 for the 256GB model — so there’s definitely a mark-up in place. (The $1,500 price range appears to apply to the 64GB iPhone X, from what we have seen so far.)
And not to forget that some have even posted their iPhone X pre-order confirmations for sale at prices that can only be referred to “wishful thinking” — like tens of thousands of dollars and even more.
The advantage of buying the phone on eBay is that you’ll be able to get it faster (well, it also depends on your location) than the ship times Apple is now able to provide. You’ll also have a nice selection of devices to make a purchase from by finish, carrier or storage space.
As for the lack of inventory, Apple would like you to believe it’s all demand-caused. The company released a statement to that effect, stating:
We are thrilled to be taking orders for iPhone X, the future of the smartphone. We can see from the initial response, customer demand is off the charts. We’re working hard to get this revolutionary new product into the hands of every customer who wants one, as quickly as possible. We will keep accepting orders online, and iPhone X will be available at Apple retail stores on Friday, November 3 starting at 8 a.m., as well as from our carrier and retailer partners around the world.
Furthermore, it's uncertain to know whether or not it’s the really high demand that led to the rapid sellout, as Apple did not share how many devices it had available at the launch of the device. Some analysts, however, had stated they expected only two to three million would be on hand ahead of iPhone X’s November debut. To put that into context, the iPhone 6 sold more than 10 million units on its first weekend. (Apple no longer releases first weekend sales figures for new iPhones.)
eBay will continue to track iPhone X sales over the weekend, and we’ll update if and when the company has more data to share.
Source: TechCrunch
