iPhone Mark-Ups Shrink in China’s Gray Market
- ‘The best times are gone,’ says one Beijing reseller
- First-day premiums of 29% compare with 163% a year ago
People line up outside the Apple store in Beijing to get their hands on the new iPhone X on Nov. 3.
Photographer: Fred Dufour/AFP via Getty Images
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Apple Inc. investors may be cheering as the iPhone X’s debut propels the stock to all-time highs, but the mood among sellers of the handset in Beijing is decidedly less upbeat.
The gray-market dealers who peddle iPhones outside Apple retail stores and in electronics shops across the Chinese capital say enthusiasm for the device has failed to match the heady levels of previous releases.