The Big Apple has iPhone fever — and it’s gotten so bad that places in an all-day, all-night line to get one are going for more than the pricey gadget itself.
A full day before the latest update to the multimedia cellphone was scheduled to go on sale, lines snaked around the Apple flagship store on Fifth Avenue at 59th Street. Some high-tech fans actually lined up on Tuesday for today’s launch of the iPhone 4.
The crowd included several entrepreneurs who were hawking their places in line for $1,000 — for a phone whose top price is $299.
“We’re really trying to sell our spots,” said Joey Mallon, 18, who had come from Boston with pal Wil Parcellin, 18. They were second and third in the line of more than 100.
“We’ve got postings on [the Web sites] Craigslist and MacRumors. We’ve got offers for up to $100, but we’re waiting for it to go up to $1,000,” he said.
Julio Grullon, 19, of The Bronx — who first lined up at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday — was hoping to make more than that.
Someone already offered him $1,200, he said.
“People see us from the street and throw out numbers,” said the 19-year-old, who was fifth in line. “We’re in the mentality of making money and the more we wait, the better offers we get.”
Some Apple fans were paying people to wait in line for them. At one point yesterday, a man who would give his name only as “Tony” paid a homeless man with food to wait in line.
Several witnesses said that after three hours, the homeless man had a seizure and had to be taken away by ambulance.
The man — who first gave his name as Steve, and then as George — showed back up at the line later looking no worse for wear. But he had to get behind about 100 people by then.
Rodney Byerson, 29, was also being paid to stand in line. The Manhattan man is a production assistant at a TV company he wouldn’t name, and he said that he was being paid to wait there so that one of his bosses could be first to get his or her hands on the phone.
“They are rotating us in and out,” he said of the company’s plan.