iPhone Duo scalpers are loosing money on every unit they sell

Scalpers who stocked up on Apple’s first foldable iPhone hoping for big profits are instead taking some pretty steep losses. Prices on the secondary market have collapsed much faster than most of them expected.

The iPhone Duo went on sale about a week ago after months of heavy speculation. A lot of resellers, often called scalpers in China, bought units at high prices or in bulk, counting on limited early supply to create the kind of scarcity premiums they’ve seen with past flagship launches. That bet hasn’t paid off. Demand cooled off pretty quickly once the phones actually reached buyers.

Reports from local merchants describe a sharp turnaround. Problems with the hinge and software that still feels incomplete have dampened interest. Resale prices dropped fast, turning what was supposed to be a profitable product into losses on almost every unit. A merchant at Hangzhou’s Yigao Digital City said nearly all the scalpers dealing in the iPhone Duo are now losing money. Industry chatter claims some of the more experienced operators have lost tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan (1 USD = 6.67 yuan) on their stockpiles. In this climate, anyone still breaking even is seen as the lucky exception.

Information about new devices spreads almost instantly across social media and review channels, so the old information gaps that used to let resellers profit from scarcity have mostly closed. Supply also improved faster than many expected, which further shrank the window for big markups. Analysts and local dealers note that the high starting price already limited the number of genuine buyers, so once the initial wave of curiosity passed, resale demand basically dried up.

Scalpers who treated the iPhone Duo as a near-certain scarcity play have paid a visible price, reinforcing that speculative hoarding in today’s transparent digital market carries a lot more downside than it used to.

(Via)

Read more

• iPhone Duo vs Huawei Mate XT 2 Ultimate: Apple vs the Wildest Foldable Yet
• Top 5 Alternatives to the Apple iPhone Duo
• iPhone Duo is already discounted in parts of China amid software and display issues

For the latest stories, visit our News section.

New: Gizmochina is now on WhatsApp. Follow our WhatsApp Channel for the day’s top stories.

You can also join our Telegram community or get Gizmochina Daily, our morning newsletter with our take on the day’s news.