So I'm experiencing a new (to me) selling deal:the trade of Apple brand packaging, and I have a question about it.
This is the way it happened; I stumbled upon someone on Ebay selling a box and the paperwork for an iPad. Not the iPad itself, just the box and paperwork that comes with one. I thought "that's odd, who would buy that and why?" I looked and found that at the time (a couple of days ago) there were actually three people selling them, the lowest price was $1.99 plus $5 for shipping, which several people had bid on, and the other two were priced about $10 higher with no bids. The same day, I'm taking out my recyclables to the condo bins and I notice sitting right on top/inside a very clean iPad box, so I take it, examine it, photograph it, and post it on Ebay today for $1.99 +$5 for shipping/handling and the shipping container, and sure enough someone has put a bid on it.
Then it struck me; what if people are loading these with counterfeit merchandise (or worse, a brick cut in half), and reselling them to some victim? Is this negative scenario something that any of you have seen happen, so that I should not be contributing to this trade? I realize that I'm not culpable for someone else's crime, but I don't want to help them do it either.
Mutant Pie
Yes, it's certainly possible that empty Apple boxes could be used for nefarious purposes -- but there are very legit purposes for wanting such a box too, such as collecting or, in the case of MacBook and iMac boxes specifically, for shipping (such as if you sold your used iMac to someone, but had thrown out the original box).
When it comes to selling/giving away anything, there's always something bad/unethical/illegal someone could do with it, but you need to keep an open mind and think positively. I'd much rather donate my old clothes to Goodwill with the hope that they could help someone in need, than trash them out of paranoia that someone would buy them from Goodwill, turn around and resell them for a profit.
both opinions have reasonable points.... but in fact the problem of abuse is given although not wanted....
it might therefor be at least a good idea to issue a notice to ebay that this kind of sale might invite to piracy-
related acts and that it might therefor be a good idea for the crew at ebay to keep this kind of trade under survilience....
they should be aware of the possible abuse and there are in fact several evidence that indicate abuse from legal
usage... legal user might only buy one package but for piracy and abuse the same user might buy more than two or three packages... in that case ebay should probably take action and keep off such user from further transactions....
Thanks for the replies folks. Well Speedy I understand your points (mostly), but before I address a hypothetical situation I want to know if people (here on Applefritter) are actually witnessing this kind of abuse.
Mutant Pie
Mutant_Pie,
I have been (as you guy's know) an avid eBay Watcher for more than 16 years.
Mostly Apple II and Mac auctions with some other areas mixed in.
I have seen a lot of Apple II / Mac / iPod packaging / Paperwork auctions in the last five to six years. I have yet to see one where anyone has had problems selling these items, but I, myself do not buy them.
This is not to say that they are illegal, or anything else.
I believe that eBay does have a policy (hidden in there somewhere) that if you sell a paperwork type item it must be accompanied by a piece of hardware. This hardware can be almost anything from a stick of RAM to a defuct PCB.
I would check this policy out, just to be on the safe side.
The biggest problem I have seen, is that sellers (some sellers, not all) place the most outrageous prices on a two page brochure.
You would think that they are selling their Birth Certificate, or thier personal copy of the Declaration of Independence.
Well...That's my two cents worth.
Good Luck,
Steven
I saw this unfortunate, and related story about an iPad box scam on the news yesterday:[html]http://www.electronista.com/articles/12/01/18/canadians.hit.by.clay.ipad.scam/[/html]
It follows a different format than buying an empty box in the first place, but was the kind of thing about which I was concerned.
Mutant_Pie,
It just goes to show what lengths unethical and greedy people will go to.
To be sure; this is probably starting to be a wide spread practice and all it does is affect us as consimers by the stores having to raise thier prices. They really need to revise thire return practices for these items.
Years ago when I ran a computer store I sold quite a few boxes. Usually people needed them to ship the system. UPS or FedEx won't pay a shipping damage claim unless the system was shipped in the original box. So it can be worth $10 or $15 to get the original box.
I also one time sold a cracked LCD panel on eBay, IIRC I got $15 for it. The buyer was a laptop repair shop that want it for the CCFL tubes.