4 ms·

I don't have anything to contribute to the theory, but an anecdote: for a couple weeks last month in NYC, seemingly every street tout had sealed boxes of Apple

by timr 3y ago

I don't have anything to contribute to the theory, but an anecdote: for a couple weeks last month in NYC, seemingly every street tout had sealed boxes of Apple AirPods sitting on their blankets, next to their fake bags, watches, etc. Other guys were specializing in the trade, standing on street corners holding 2-3 boxes of AirPods, but nothing else. These appeared to be legit products, but obviously stolen. Where did these come from? Why weren't the sellers arrested on sight? Is it that hard to know that Apple hasn't authorized the corner blanket guy as a reseller? Is possession of stolen goods no longer a crime? I was low-key hoping that the police had some kind of sting running to get the source of the theft, but...who knows? So many questions.

Kirby64 3y ago
AirPods fakes are extremely, extremely convincing these days. I would be surprised if they were real stolen products from the Apple Store.
- timr 3y ago
  If so, these were exceptional fakes, down to the quality of the packaging.
  - Kirby64 3y ago
    Yup, and you can even buy them for $10-20 off sites like Aliexpress or Temu. They even do the popup for pairing when you open them. The audio quality and ANC is not so great, as far as I know, though.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
Covzire 3y ago
Are stolen iPhones even usable with cellular networks?
geodel 3y ago
> Apple hasn't authorized the corner blanket guy as a reseller They are like Apple store geniuses in a more federated architecture.
filmgirlcw 3y ago
The counterfeit/replica market for electronics, especially Apple stuff, has gotten really, really good. You often won't be able to easily tell just from the sealed box if it is a fake or not -- though opening usually offers some clues because the counterfeits often don't have the same attention to detail with the opening tab stickers and whatnot. And the stuff that is often hardest to tell, at least with a cursory glance, are AirPods and AirPods Max headphones. Because I have some friends who don't listen to me and insist on buying things from Facebook Marketplace, I've seen some very convincing looking AirPods Max headphones (you can tell they are fake because of markings inside the ear cups amongst other things, they also usually feel lower quality but that's hard to judge if you aren't familiar with the real things) that will often pair exactly like legit AirPods because the reps have managed to either clone the H1 chip or reverse-engineer the pairing process. The fakes often have real (stolen) serial numbers on the boxes so if you aren't familiar with how Apple does their plastic sealing and just ran a serial number off the box to see if it was legit through the Apple serial number checker, you'd probably think they were legit until you opened them up. At this point, I would guess that at least 90% of the "sold as new" AirPods and AirPods Max on eBay are fakes. This is very different from the old-school world of grey-market cameras sold off of street corners in New York that were often legit but were either fenced and/or from foreign markets without official support/warranty. The rep handbag game has become incredibly good too, to the point that there is now a subculture of people (some who could even afford the legit offerings) who collect and pay real money for the reps that are largely indistinguishable from the real thing -- but that might cost $800 instead of $18,000.
- quickthrowman 3y ago
  > The rep handbag game has become incredibly good too, to the point that there is now a subculture of people (some who could even afford the legit offerings) who collect and pay real money for the reps that are largely indistinguishable from the real thing -- but that might cost $800 instead of $18,000. To add another product category, replica watches are almost indistinguishable from real watches these days, Rolex are probably the most widely counterfeit watch brand. A good replica sub goes for $1,000 while the real watch is around $10,000 Replica watch subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/RepTime/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RepTime/ Rolex Submariner Legit vs Replica Video: https://youtu.be/oYY0bI_Aiqc https://youtu.be/oYY0bI_Aiqc

by timr 3y ago

Kirby64 3y ago

AirPods fakes are extremely, extremely convincing these days. I would be surprised if they were real stolen products from the Apple Store.

timr 3y ago
If so, these were exceptional fakes, down to the quality of the packaging.
- Kirby64 3y ago
  Yup, and you can even buy them for $10-20 off sites like Aliexpress or Temu. They even do the popup for pairing when you open them. The audio quality and ANC is not so great, as far as I know, though.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

Covzire 3y ago

Are stolen iPhones even usable with cellular networks?

geodel 3y ago

> Apple hasn't authorized the corner blanket guy as a reseller They are like Apple store geniuses in a more federated architecture.

filmgirlcw 3y ago

The counterfeit/replica market for electronics, especially Apple stuff, has gotten really, really good. You often won't be able to easily tell just from the sealed box if it is a fake or not -- though opening usually offers some clues because the counterfeits often don't have the same attention to detail with the opening tab stickers and whatnot. And the stuff that is often hardest to tell, at least with a cursory glance, are AirPods and AirPods Max headphones. Because I have some friends who don't listen to me and insist on buying things from Facebook Marketplace, I've seen some very convincing looking AirPods Max headphones (you can tell they are fake because of markings inside the ear cups amongst other things, they also usually feel lower quality but that's hard to judge if you aren't familiar with the real things) that will often pair exactly like legit AirPods because the reps have managed to either clone the H1 chip or reverse-engineer the pairing process. The fakes often have real (stolen) serial numbers on the boxes so if you aren't familiar with how Apple does their plastic sealing and just ran a serial number off the box to see if it was legit through the Apple serial number checker, you'd probably think they were legit until you opened them up. At this point, I would guess that at least 90% of the "sold as new" AirPods and AirPods Max on eBay are fakes. This is very different from the old-school world of grey-market cameras sold off of street corners in New York that were often legit but were either fenced and/or from foreign markets without official support/warranty. The rep handbag game has become incredibly good too, to the point that there is now a subculture of people (some who could even afford the legit offerings) who collect and pay real money for the reps that are largely indistinguishable from the real thing -- but that might cost $800 instead of $18,000.

quickthrowman 3y ago
> The rep handbag game has become incredibly good too, to the point that there is now a subculture of people (some who could even afford the legit offerings) who collect and pay real money for the reps that are largely indistinguishable from the real thing -- but that might cost $800 instead of $18,000. To add another product category, replica watches are almost indistinguishable from real watches these days, Rolex are probably the most widely counterfeit watch brand. A good replica sub goes for $1,000 while the real watch is around $10,000 Replica watch subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/RepTime/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RepTime/ Rolex Submariner Legit vs Replica Video: https://youtu.be/oYY0bI_Aiqc https://youtu.be/oYY0bI_Aiqc