Vision Pro headsets are selling for incredible sums on eBay because Apple can't ship them out quickly enough

Apple Vision Pro first impressions
(Image credit: Future / Britta O'Boyle)

Apple announced the Vision Pro back in June of 2023 and then was largely quiet until we recently got confirmation that the headset would go on sale officially on February 2. But if Apple wasn't saying much about the headset, it's clear that those who had waiting for news are keen to get their hands on it. Preorders began on Friday, January 19, and soon after delivery estimates ran into the weeks.

But while you can still order your new Vision Pro from Apple's website now and wait for it to arrive, or indeed try your luck at a local Apple Store across the United States, some people don't want to have to do either of those things. For those people, making sure they get a headset as soon as possible is vital — and they appear to be very willing to pay for it.

How much are they willing to pay for it? As it turns out, they're willing to pay thousands above, and the Vision Pro's already not inconsiderable asking price. Right now $3,499 Vision Pro headsets with 256GB of storage are selling for around $5,500 on eBay. Want the 1TB model? That's selling for almost $6,000 per headset.  

Scalpers are making a fortune

Popular or big releases finding their way onto eBay is nothing new, of course. Whether it's shoes, phones, tablets, concert tickets, or anything else where the demand is higher than supply, scalpers will try their hands at making some money. And in the case of the Vision Pro, it seems that some are making more than $1,000 for the minimum of effort. And with stocks so severely limited it's very likely that you couldn't get your Vision Pro on launch day because someone bought theirs to sell.

Amazingly, not all of the models for sale on eBay will be available on February 2, either. A 1TB Vision Pro which sold for $5,999 is available for in-store pickup starting February 7. Then the original buyer has to collect it and then ship it to the buyer, meaning they might well have been better just preordering from Apple and waiting.

It also goes without saying that these kinds of eBay auctions seem to be wide open to being scams, although many will not. We're not sure that we would want to have to go through eBay's claims process if we were $6,000 out of pocket, but it's clear that many people are willing to run that risk.

While many of these buyers will surely be people who would rather not wait for their new spatial computing headset to arrive, there are no doubt some who are buying Vision Pros from outside the United States. Vision Pro currently has no published international sales window which means buying a US headset and having it shipped out is the only way to get one if you live internationally much as was the case when the original iPad shipped back in 2010.

For those who would rather not go the eBay route, Canada, the UK, and China are rumored to be the ones to get a Vision Pro launch first with a pre-June time window having been reported. Pricing is still unknown, but those in the United States pay $3,499 for the 256GB model with 512GB and 1TB configurations also available for those who need extra space.

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Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.