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Apple Fans in China Willing to Pay Absurd Amounts for Black Market iPhones

And you thought the full retail cost of the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus was high...

September 20, 2014
iPhone 6 Launch 275

If, for whatever reason, you don't want your brand-new iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, you can always take a trip on over to China to recoup your expenses—and likely the cost of the plane ticket, too.

Those looking to take advantage of the fact that the iPhone 6 hasn't been released in China at the same time as its release this week in other countries—the U.S., Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia—are finding that black market prices for the new smartphones are making third-party reselling quite the lucrative prospect.

There's the case of one reseller, as reported by Bloomberg, who can apparently promise two-day delivery of a 16-gigabyte iPhone 6 for anyone who approaches him (trying to promote sales by standing outside of a Beijing Apple Store). Such a service doesn't come cheap, however: A 16-gigabyte iPhone 6 will cost a prospective Chinese purchaser nearly double the price of the device itself, or just around $1,300.

And said seller is delivering quite the deal it seems. Other nearby resellers were promising delivery of a new 128-gigabyte iPhone 6 today for approximately $2,440—that's quite a bit of a markup from the Hong Kong price of that exact smartphone ($927).

As Asian Capital Holdings' Ronald Wan put it, "This is a sure bet to make money. From a 50 percent to 150 percent markup, it's better than the stock market."

The delay, according to numerous reports, has to do with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Specifically, Apple still needs to obtain the requisite network access licenses from the government agency—it's the final major hoop the company needs to go through to commence with its launch plan.

Neither Apple, nor Chinese officials, are offering up a timeline for when that final regulatory approval might go through, or when China might officially get its own launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. All Apple has mentioned is that it hopes to be able to get iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones in China fans' hands as soon as it can.

Until then, Apple enthusiasts in China will have to be content with offering up absurd amounts of money for the device—in one case, just around $3,250 for a single smartphone. For some, the price of waiting for the latest and greatest Apple product is just too much.

For more, check out PCMag's hands on with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

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About David Murphy

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David Murphy got his first real taste of technology journalism when he arrived at PC Magazine as an intern in 2005. A three-month gig turned to six months, six months turned to occasional freelance assignments, and he later rejoined his tech-loving, mostly New York-based friends as one of PCMag.com's news contributors. For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).

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