It’s the shiny new toy in the tech world and seemingly everyone, including me, wants to get their hands on one (16,000 iPads have been sold on eBay to date). The iPad won’t be available internationally until the end of the month but, thanks to eBay, that doesn’t have to stop you.
I actually experienced this first-hand when I was in Las Vegas last month for the eCommerce Summit. My Macbook Pro took a digger at the beginning of the conference and I checked into the “Genius Bar” at the Apple store in The Forum Shops linked to Caesar’s Palace. Dropping it off for repair (which was successfully accomplished in less than 24 hours – superb customer service throughout), I noticed a gentleman surfing ebay.com from an in-store iMac. I asked him what he was doing and sure enough, the Apple store was only selling iPads to those people with reservations so he was going to buy one from eBay right there and then in the store! He even let me take a pic of him doing it:
According to eBay, this is not an isolated incident and it has turned into quite a trend for folks overseas. Check out the below graphic depicting the first two weeks of iPad exports from the US on eBay:
As you can see from the related reads below, people are paying a hefty mark-up to the actual sticker price of an iPad. Goes to show that despite the Fixed-Price trends over the past year+, when an item is in demand on eBay, the format that will continue to dominate and make the most sense for sellers is Auction.
Cheers,
RBH
Related Reads:
NY Times Bits: The iPad Travels the World, via eBay
Gizmodo: Sell Your iPad Overseas on eBay and Profit
TechCrunch: eBay Sells 5,000 iPads, UAE Buyers Pay Highest Prices