Last week I did the unthinkable. I sold my iPad on eBay.
Was it a case of buyer’s remorse? There was some of that, certain. But more than something it was as a result of Apple’s returns and exchanges policy, which offers customers two weeks (rather on the much more standard 30 days) to alter their thoughts. And if it is been opened, you have to pay a relatively common 10 percent restocking charge, which for your iPad can array from $60 to $83, depending on what model you got.
To become fair, I knew about these limitations upfront. So, becoming out of the 14-day policy and not seeking to trek all the way out to an Apple shop to sweet-talk a manager into breaking the rules to let me spend Apple $60 to trade up for the a lot more pricey design (which was, and nevertheless is out of stock at the San Francisco store), I went with eBay rather.
Inside the spirit of spring cleaning, I had utilized the auction support the week earlier to market my aging iPhone 3G. It had a two-inch crack running up he back, in addition to a number of scuffs–all things I experienced produced mention and included photos of inside auction description. Amazingly, I offered it for just $30 less than I compensated for it brand new, two many years earlier, so my hopes have been higher for breaking even, and possibly even making a tiny profit.
Sure adequate, that turned out to become the case. In much less than eight hours, my one-day public sale experienced jumped from $100 to $500, and it closed at $600–which is the amount I had paid for the iPad and iPad case prior to sales tax. I may perhaps have lost the $50 I experienced compensated for California revenue tax, but I would have had to pay Apple $10 more if I had gone through the standard return process (for which I used to be ineligible).
What definitely amazed me however, was how significantly interest I was getting from international buyers, folks who at present can’t get their hands on an iPad in their personal country–at least right up until the finish of the month. I got messages from folks in Spain, Russia, the U.K., and Australia, all of whom said they would bid if I could just do international shipping. And this was just for a one-day auction; I picture I’d get pretty several far more if it had operate longer.
In fact, a excellent quantity of eBay sellers are providing international delivery on iPads. According to numbers gathered through the New York Occasions this past weekend, some 65 % of iPads offered for the public sale site are ending up inside the hands of buyers outside from the U.S. That’s no small number, particularly contemplating the Times says quite a few of those are paying a premium, which in some cases could wind up becoming a third the cost from the machine.
