Reselling Pinephones on ebay to make money out of it?

[Peter Gamma]

No, his business model is very simple. He buys Pinephones in the Pine64 store when they are available. When they are unavailable, he sells them on ebay for twice the price.

Please explain what the problem is with that.

Thanks for downvoting my reply @patrickmollohan

As someone already explained: Pine64 risks to get a bad image. Assume someone needs urgendly a PinePhone when it is not available, and pays 1000 USD for the device, and then realizes that it is as it is sold a device for developers, and id dissapointed about the device. It is is easy to trigger a shit storm in this constellation.

[Dendrocalamus64]

If somebody really paid $1K on ebay for something they knew nothing about, I think most of the shit would be flying at them.

[Peter Gamma]

Then there is a shitstorm which goes forward and back. Is this not even worse?

[MtnSk8]

No, his business model is very simple. He buys Pinephones in the Pine64 store when they are available. When they are unavailable, he sells them on ebay for twice the price.

Please explain what the problem is with that.

Thanks for downvoting my reply @patrickmollohan

As someone already explained: Pine64 risks to get a bad image. Assume someone needs urgendly a PinePhone when it is not available, and pays 1000 USD for the device, and then realizes that it is as it is sold a device for developers, and id dissapointed about the device. It is is easy to trigger a shit storm in this constellation.

That is your opinion, fine, I think its a childish opinion and I disagree, so should I downvote every opinion I don't like?

[Peter Gamma]

Peple like William Croft, OpenBCI supporter in the OpenBCI forum already give advice to buy the PineTab instead of the PinePhone:

“Rather than the phone, the Pinetab looks to be a better choice. My viewing of the Pinephone shows it is out of stock anyway.”

William Croft, OpenBCI supporter

https://openbci.com/forum/index.php?p=/d...nux#latest

Does the current shipping strategy not damage the image of the PinePhone?

[Subsentient]

I'll add my two cents to this important topic.

I'm poor. I was making $25/hr as a developer before the pandemic hit. You'll notice that's already not great for developer pay.
Our company was completely destroyed by the pandemic, the entire industry of our clientele imploded almost overnight.

Now, reduced to contract work, I make around $500 a MONTH if I'm lucky.

I never would have been able to afford a PinePhone if it hadn't been sub-$300.

I personally consider this scalping to be a serious problem, and I think the solution is twofold:

1. Pine64 should add a policy stating that purchases for the primary purpose of resale are not permitted, and forbid large orders.
2. Pine64 should double their batch size. I don't think it needs to be a ridiculous amount of units, but we DO need more PinePhones produced. Let's be real, by this point, it's pretty clear that Pine64 will NOT be left with excess stock, even if they double the inventory. The PinePhone is a hot item for those who know.

[KC9UDX]

1. I don't know how they could enforce a reselling ban. I think they already limit purchase quantity.

2. You do realise that this will likely increase the cost, no? What are they supposed to do if the demand suddenly drops off?

I don't mean to sound rude, but there are countless sub-$50 phones on the used market for those who can't afford much.

[chithanh]

I honestly don't see the problem here. It is not that Pinephone is some kind of essential item that you cannot go without for a while. If you don't want to pay the scalper's price, then wait for the next pre-order window. Besides, the pre-orders were open for weeks, so plenty of time for anyone to get theirs in.

Reselling can also not be prevented legally (even when invoking trademark law) due to first sale doctrine. The only good strategy against reselling is force-bundling of desirable items with less desirable ones, which will also upset your normal customer base.

Also with the resellers, you get a good chance of receiving a Pinephone even in countries where Pine64 doesn't have reliable shipping to.

[Subsentient]

1. I don't know how they could enforce a reselling ban.  I think they already limit purchase quantity.

2.  You do realise that this will likely increase the cost, no?  What are they supposed to do if the demand suddenly drops off?

I have had plenty of shitty used phones in my time, Android mostly. I have several of them sitting in a drawer above my desk. I didn't *want* Android. I wanted Linux.

You see people in the lines at food banks and such with their shitty, OEM spyware loaded prepaid Android phones telling them their account is overdrawn. Lots of these phones display ads on the lock screen, install mysterious chinese-language apps, or worse. I've seen it firsthand at least twice, I'm probably forgetting an incident or two.

I don't mean to sound rude, but there are countless sub-$50 phones on the used market for those who can't afford much.

I don't intend to be rude either, but I do feel the need to state that your tone reeks of entitlement and I feel you should know.

I find it to be a deeply offensive and repugnant thought that the only ones who should be able to afford a device that offers real, genuine freedom should be those with 80k/year salaries.

If they're reselling one or two pinephones here and there, there's no problem. If they're buying them in bulk, there's a big problem.

I don't imagine a doubled batch size should be too much of a problem. Can you really picture PinePhones reaching saturation already? They sell out almost immediately whenever they're produced.

[j8m2p6f]

Pinephone PMOS sold out in 2-4 days after appearing on the store page not at or up to shipping point.