Not even a driving rainstorm could keep a crew of Asian black-marketeers from trying to take a bite out of the iPad 2 biz.
The operation swung into full gear during yesterday’s deluge, with the group’s fat cats forking over fistfuls of $100 bills to throngs of lackeys lined up outside Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue.
Within three hours, the group had managed to snag nearly all the new iPad 2s available.
The Post witnessed more than half of the 400 in line at 8 a.m. — nearly all of whom were Asian — hand over their purchases to the group’s ringleaders in exchange for cash.
“This has been going on for days,” one Apple Store employee said. “I feel for the die-hard customers who want the product but can’t get it.”
The Post observed one of the three ringleaders exchange wads of cash for iPads and put them in his BMW-X5 SUV.
The buyers, apparently receiving $100 to $200 for their efforts, each purchased the maximum allowed two tablets — which went on sale Friday.
The iPads will likely be shipped back to China — where they were manufactured — and resold for two to three times their US retail price, which starts at $499, one of the ringleaders told The Post.
Even though most electronic gadgets are man ufactured in China, Apple and other companies often do not sell them there until months after their American release, creating a huge gray market among young professionals, experts told The Post.
“There are a lot of people with the money now, and they want to be the first kid on the block with the new toy,” said Eric Harwit, a political-science professor with the East-West Center. “Apple had been pretty unknown in China until recent years but iPhones and iPads are now the hot products to have.”
Last year, when Apple tried to crack down on the practice, the office of then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo warned the company that holding Asian customers to a higher degree of scrutiny was illegal.
With its hands tied, Apple has no choice but to allow the sales to continue. The company declined to comment.
Shut-out customers were furious.
“It’s because of the scam I can’t get an iPad,” said Ljubo Jovacevic, 36, of the Upper West Side.