US iPad scalpers catch cold on Chinese mainland

(Ecns.cn)--The supply of iPad 3 devices in Hong Kong turned out to be adequate to demand, and that has driven many U.S. scalpers to form long queues in front of American Apple stores asking to return their goods, according to China Business News, Thursday.

When Apple launches a new product outside the Chinese market, people in China normally obtain one through gray-market vendors or scalpers, especially from U.S. scalpers who could often score large numbers of them soon after the products were released.

It used to be that because of these scalpers, many ordinary U.S. customers couldn't get the product for their personal use, due to the limited supply. In order to control this phenomenon, before launching the new iPad Apple Inc announced that they would release the product both in the U.S. market and the Hong Kong market at the same time.

Apple made the announcement hoping to thwart scalpers, but some industry information was leaked that turned out to be wrong, saying that the HK supply of the iPad3 would be very limited. So scalpers were convinced it was worthwhile to stockpile many of the new products.

Although demand from the Chinese mainland is still heavy, more people are choosing to buy the HK-version of the iPad 3, which is cheaper and much easier to get. The loss of the domestic "grey" market forced U.S. scalpers to return some of their stockpiles so as not to lose too much money, said an insider who is familiar with the scalping set.

Apple Inc released the new iPad in more than 10 countries and regions simultaneously on March 16, including Hong Kong, but when this product will officially appear on the Chinese mainland is unknown.