The iPhone gold rush hits the auction sites

Consumers are bidding thousands of dollars on eBay for hard-to-find gold iPhones.

On the same day that Apple announced that it had sold over 9 million iPhone5S and iPhone 5C handsets, essentially selling through its entire initial stock, bidding for the hard-to-find handsets went from active to insane on eBay, with one gold iPhone 5S handset eventually selling for the scarcely believable sum of $10,100.

Disappointed consumers have started turning to auction sites to get their hands on what is quickly turning out to be this year’s must-have smartphone and it appears that they are being motivated in part by industry whispers that the gold version of the 5S handset (the flagship phone is also available in silver and a color that Apple calls ‘space grey’) is only going to be made in very limited quantities -- Business Insider claims that some countries and network carriers were not given any gold handsets to sell and that even in its biggest existing market -- i.e., the US -- Apple stores in some cities had as few as 20 examples in total to sell.

Apple has said that it is ramping up production of the gold 5s to meet demand, and a quick glance at the company’s website shows that online orders will be honored in roughly one month. Nevertheless a brisk trade in handsets is being done on eBay where the devices are selling on average for $2000 -- four times the in-store price. A lot of three phones currently stands at $4500 with two days left to run until the auction closes. The gold iPhone might be rare at this particular moment in time but soon there will be more available devices than there are consumers willing to buy them.

Apple has already sold 9 million handsets in just over three days, 1 million fewer than Samsung sold of its latest flagship the Galaxy S IV, however it has taken 28 fewer days to do so. Samsung took a month to hit that figure and at no point were its loyal band of consumers forced to turn their attention to online auction houses to fill the tech void in their lives.