After hours of waiting in line, the army of scalpers that descended on Beijing’s Sanlitun Apple Store to buy the iPhone 4S have reportedly been told that there are no iPhones and that they all have to go home due to scuffles that occurred throughout the night!
From Shanghai Morning Post:
[Scalpers conflict! Beijing Sanlitun Apple Store cancels the sale of the iPhone 4S] Apple iPhone 4S is now on sale in the mainland, but Beijing’s Sanlitun Apple Store is not selling. Overnight, the legion of scalpers waiting in line had a few fierce conflicts, which caused Apple to announce this morning that they would no longer release the iPhone 4S today. Furious scalpers, who had been waiting all night, responded violently and even brought eggs that were tossed at the Apple Store’s normally spotless exterior!
【黄牛党冲突！苹果北京三里屯店今取消出售iPhone 4S】苹果iPhone 4S今在内地开售，北京苹果大悦城店提前发售，三里屯店因夜里黄牛之间发生激烈的冲突，该店早上宣布暂停出售iPhone 4S，今天都不再出售iPhone 4S，此举进一步刺激黄牛，甚至买来成袋鸡蛋，向店玻璃外墙砸去。
This is all after the scalpers initially impressed everyone with their masses of hired help and their regimented organization. One photographer claimed to have never seen anything like it in his 10+ years of reporting:
In my ten years of reporting, I’ve never seen scalpers this orderly. At Sanlitun most of the people here are working for the scalpers, either students or migrant workers. There are 30-50 people in each group, the level of organization is really just shocking. The group leaders are all carrying balloons, and each group is wearing a different colored ribbon tied around their arms. It all reminds me of a Wuchang Uprising movie…
做了十年记者，头回见到黄牛党如此阵势，现场大多数是他们发动的进城务工人员和学生，三五十人一组，组织性纪律性惊人，带头大哥手拿气球，方便属下跟随，各组系着不同颜色丝带，让我想起电影武昌起义…
Though Beijing may have had bad luck this morning, the iPhone 4S launch appears to be going smoothly here in Shanghai, as several photos have surfaced on Weibo already showing happy customers proudly holding their new gadgets.
No word yet on the red hat crew spotted last night, but as of right now it appears they were more orderly and patient than their Beijing brethren! See photos below of angry scalpers tossing eggs, and a few getting hauled away by the police.
