I'm curious if there is a business here for shipping iPhones to other countries and selling them for a premium. I would think that eBay would have leveled this market difference, but is it something that may be profitable?
Speaking from the Malaysia perspective (also Thailand, since I'm there a lot): When the iPhone first came out, there were huge opportunities. People were flying back and forth more or less non-stop between southeast Asia and the USA, buying as many iPhones as they could fit in their hand luggage, and selling them here for almost twice what they paid (best way to avoid import duties, since customs people at the airport here rarely search bags). They were clearing many thousands of dollars a week, huge incomes for this part of the world. Phone stalls at MBK* in Bangkok pinned up all their "5th Avenue Apple Store" shopping bags as badges of pride and signs of authenticity. Some things have changed, though: 1) As of late 2009, legit iPhones have become available through local carriers. They are quite expensive (in Malaysia the price premium for a Maxis iPhone vs an AT&T one from the USA is close to 50%) but the segment of the market that really "had" to have one includes a lot of risk-averse rich people who'd rather pay more and get the local warranty than mess around with some random internet guy or phone stall guy. 2) Everyone and his brother entered the gray market trade. So many people are bringing in iPhones in small numbers that the margins have really shrunk. You're competing with some 20-year-old Chinese kid from Cheras who lives with his parents and spends US$25 a month on food. He can shave prices lower than you can and still feel comfortable with the profit. 3) I think the market may actually be approaching saturation. I was out at a bar in Kuala Lumpur last night and of 6 people at our table, I was the only one without an iPhone. I would say your best shot is to find some country Apple hasn't reached yet, but I think they've worked pretty hard last year on hitting all the markets with decent quantities of disposable income. ---- *Until you see the phone shops at MBK for yourself, you can't imagine the scale and grit of the grey market phone ecosystem. Photographs don't do it justice.
Wow that sounds really interesting. Make tons of money flying back and forth while selling iphones, not bad.
Yes i can be sell but some phone is locked to the telcos so you still need to unlocked it before you sell.
Thats why custom duty exists, you won't make a large enough profit selling couple of iphones offshore that you can justify flying there, say it costs $1000 for the flight, to get that much you would have to sell like a 100 iphones. And when you carry so many you are highly likely to be charged customs duty .
Huh? Who on earth would fly around the planet to sell iPhones at a $10 markup? The big sellers in Bangkok in the early days of the iPhones were buying them for US$600 and selling them for US$1000. $400 per phone gross. If you brought 20 phones back with you, that's $8000. Subtract $1000 for flights, $500 for travel and miscellaneous expenses (e.g, $50 for an "informal exemption" to customs duty), and you still pocketed $6500 for three days' work.