iPad ‘Cads’ Scalping With Abandon

NEW YORK — Were you one of the lucky half million fortunate souls who scored an iPad 2 at one of Apple’s retail stores before they started selling out?

If so, it was despite the efforts of what the New York Post calls “A cutthroat Asian group” of scalpers who are out in force at Apple’s flagship store on 5th Avenue.

It is there, across the street from Central Park and the storied Plaza Hotel, that the most vile of the vile are plying their trade even as we speak, the Post reports Thursday, buying iPads in bulk, charging a hefty markup to other customers leaving the store empty-handed, and shipping the rest off to China.

The bandits are asking up to $2,000 for an iPad 2 that they acquired a few feet away for as little as $500. Their despicable behavior periodically causes the store to run out of supply, making it impossible for decent, hard-working people with plenty of disposable income but maybe not that much to get even one at the normal retail.

You can see them with their huge bags, the Post says, providing photographic evidence, corrupting the free-market system and our human right to be overcharged only a little for luxury items.

“The illicit, highly orchestrated scheme was in full gear yesterday, with a ringleader doling out massive wads of $100 bills to about five cohorts,” the Post reports. “The sidekicks then went up and down a line of about 200 Asians outside the store and around the corner, handing out the money.”

One “legitimate” customer interviewed by the Post said she’d been to the store three times, only to find the tablet cupboard bare. “I walked right up to the guy with all the bags and said, ‘Shame on you,’ ” thePost quoted the woman. “He just laughed at me.”

Apple does limit sales of the iPad 2 to two per person, but the organized bands of scalpers make up for this by deploying hundreds of buyers.

Apple’s mobile devices — iPhones and iPads — are particularly tempting for extortion-like markups, especially in the first days and weeks of a new product launch.

Wired