posted on May 20, 2002 08:49:33 PM new
I don't know if anyone here has any info about this or not but here goes..I track Apple products on Ebay because I am a Mac user and like to keep track of what's going on...while I know there are a lot of wholesale outlets for other makes of computers, Macs have always been difficult to find for anything under what the apple website is charging for current models... Typically, the only thing you'll save by buying from a reseller is maybe shipping....Lately I have been seeing a lot of successful auctions that are advertised as pre-sale auctions for apple laptops, and they are selling for almost retail...so I'm wondering, where are they getting these machines? It is normally very hard to become an authorized Apple re-seller, and the margins are slim even when you are one. Maybe there is some overseas contact? Or are these all fraudulent sales??? Any thoughts?
posted on May 20, 2002 09:05:50 PM new
I'm a Mac user, too, and I can attest to just how expensive the hardware can be. I'm thinking the eBay sellers may be people who have computer stores and are therefore licensed Apple dealers. The computer market has been in a slump for about 9 months, so I figure these are dealers who are just trying to move their merchandise. Better to take a little less, try to make it up in S&H, than to have models sit on the shelf until they are replaced by new technology and then no one wants them. That's just my theory.
Came across the same thing with a guy selling telescopes. He was selling right at retail. Turns out he was just turning the stock he had from a retail store. Just wanted to move it because it wasn't making him money sitting on showroom floor.
~*~
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. ~Oscar Wilde
posted on May 20, 2002 09:21:33 PM new
I could see your point, except that right now the newest Macs are hard to keep on the shelves, even given the current slump.. and the auctions I'm really wondering about are Pre-sale auctions, with the TOS telling the buyer that he may have to wait 2 weeks or more for the item to be shipped, so these are not Macs that somebody has on hand.....very curious.....
posted on May 21, 2002 04:25:40 PM new
Sounds like someone is selling "direct ship". He/she gets your money, waits for the check to clear, etc, and then orders from his supplier direct ship to you. The extra time is to make up for the additional order processing time for his order. A lot of internet retail stores do this, especially in the computer area. Either that, or some one is making bulk (do 5 or 10 laptops make a bulk?) purchases and trying to have as many as possible sold before he/she takes receipt. Also a way to minimize inventory.
posted on May 21, 2002 05:07:10 PM new
why dont you just ask these sellers?could they be brick and mortar stores??brick and mortar store employees who can buy at discount??
posted on May 21, 2002 05:56:40 PM new
The only problem comes up is if their supplier can not come up with the item in the time frame. On Yahoo, there is a guy that is selling alot of Apple and Sony Laptops this way and he is having paypal problems and he feedback is not great. Around 30 % of all the feedback left is either neutral or negative because he can not ship in time.
PayPal requires that the item must ship in 20 days, and if the person is pre-selling with a 30 day delivery time, it violates PayPal TOS.
