Want an iPhone 6 without the wait? Here's how much it'll cost you
iPhone 6 scalpers have taken to eBay to auction off their preordered Apple smartphones to those who weren't so quick on the draw.
- Finalist for the Nesta Tipping Point prize and a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
So, you just heard about this iPhone 6 thing and you're thinking you'd like to get your hands on one as soon as possible? Unfortunately, you're going to have to go to the back of an already long line, unless you're willing to pay a little extra.
In most places, you can expect to wait in hefty queues at retail stores on September 19, when the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus officially go on sale -- and with no guarantee you'll walk away with a phone before your store's stock is depleted. But wait, you can preorder on Apple.com and other online outlets right now!
That's true, but most online outlets allowing iPhone fans to line up early are back-ordered by 3-4 weeks in most cases. This is where eBay scalpers happily step in to solve your problem and get you your new iPhone 6 quicker, so long as you're willing to pay a markup of about 50 percent to 60 percent.
Looking through current eBay auctions for early preordered iPhone 6 Plus models, it appears plenty of people are willing to pay roughly a $500 premium to move closer to the front of the virtual line. One auction that ended Saturday included a lot of two unlocked 128GB gold iPhone 6 Plus models and went for a high bid of $3,050. That's about $1,100 more than the retail price.
Some sellers are asking as much as $4,000 for the preordered iPhones, but $1,500 seems to be a much more popular price, or about $500 above the retail price of the particular model.
If you do decide to blow some extra cash to be among the first cool kids to have the latest iDevice, be sure to request proof of when the order was placed to make certain it went in relatively close to midnight Pacific time on Friday. Or perhaps you should spend that extra dough on a workshop devoted to mastering the art of patience. Your call.