If you want to buy the new iPhone Duo right now, you might notice how hard it is to find one in stock. Scalpers are making the situation worse by using automated AI bots to grab the limited inventory. This aggressive tactic means regular customers are forced to pay double the retail price on websites like eBay. The current market makes this specific Apple release tough for everyday buyers to secure.
Bots drain online pickup stock while human customers wait outside
The device launched with a high starting price of $1999. A memory shortage during production helped cause this premium cost. Recent reports show that Apple sent 80 percent of its initial stock directly to physical store shelves. It reserved the remaining 20 percent for online shipments and in-store pickups.
Resellers use bots powered by artificial intelligence to monitor inventory and purchase those online pickup slots instantly. Because a bot completes checkout pages in seconds, a regular shopper cannot compete. Instead, people are forced to wait outside retail stores early in the morning, hoping to buy one of the physical models available inside. Observers note that these long lines look just like old Black Friday crowds.
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Small retail shipments create a profitable market for online resellers
Instead of delaying the product launch, Apple released the new iPhone in October across multiple global markets. This decision spread the inventory very thin. Stores only received between 50 and 250 units each for the opening weekend.
Because the phone is rare, resellers are making huge profits. Some sellers on Reddit reported auctioning their devices for twice the retail price and could not believe their luck. Buyers are willing to pay these massive markups. Until production catches up with demand, getting this device will remain a difficult task for everyone else.
It will take time for Apple to manufacture enough units to beat the reseller market. If you dont want to pay inflated prices, your best option is to wait patiently for normal shipments to resume later this year.
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