Apple Blocked eBay Sale of 3G MacBook Pro

what is the big deal about a 3G macbook, especially to justify paying 70,000... does someone think this is so revolutionary that it will be in the tech section of the Smithsonian?

It has a magical fruit on it that makes it more important to your average lay person. Duh.

I swear....people are beyond retarded.


It's a laptop, that is under-powered, and runs on a high latency, slow connection. Let's pay $70,000 for it huh? DERP!

It's a legendary one-on-a-kind item from the...'most innovative company in the world'. Of course it's worth money to people. I just don't understand how AN APPLE PRODUCT would infringe on...apple products. That's quite a stretch, even for them.

Apple either absolutely FAILS at hiding prototypes from consumer eyes, or pulls this publicity bullshit on purpose.

The 70K was probably a joke bid.

sale it on craigslist. maybe he would of gotten away with it if he put it on eBay for a quick 3-5 days auction. maybe he can get $3k. he prob wouldnt of gotten 70K....

Wasn't really surprised since I don't think that laptop was ever supposed to be acquired by the public. Still I see little point in Apple wanting it back since they might have already ditched the design and got all the research they can from it. Maybe Apple just felt like ruining someone's day?

Apple is not getting my business.They are using legal courts to stifle competition with Samsung and even altering photos they give to the courts.
They are the Big Brother now.
Bye Bye Arses !!!

It's not like someone was trying to sell a modified assault rifle.

Apple seriously needs to get cock punched here for some of the stunts they have been pulling lately.

So basically if you find any apple product, by any means, you are not allowed to sell it? How soon till I'm not allowed to put my own damn phone on ebay to sell? ( i don't actually own an iphone and very happy about that fact)

The only way I would see them blocking the sale of this legally is if they had proof it was stolen. Don't have a police repot? F off apple. It sounds like someone at apple threw this machine out seeing as how it's 4 years old. It's now something of a collectors item it seems.

If I have an old "junk" car and donate it to good will, and someone comes along realizes it's a classic and gets 100K for it, do I have ANY legal right to complain? Hell no I don't. The only time Apple/Jobs is happy is when he's standing behind you with your pants around your ankles telling you exactly what to do, what to think, and what to buy.

I'm not generally one to wish death on anyone, but when old jobsey boy kicks the bucket and apple goes into a decline the world WILL be a better place.

he was greedy... if he would have listed the item for only a couple of days, then he would have sold it. Now they're going to take it from him and maybe reimburse him the amount he payed on craigslist.

Not really... on eBay you can bid as much as you want but only you will know how much, because others, including the seller will see only that you are the highest bidder with a small increment over the last bidder. So if many people bid to 10k and here comes a "joker" and bids 70K, then the price of the item will show up as ~11K... until someone else bids 12K and an automatic bid will immediately appear as 13K from you.






I would have thought that they wold block the item because it is presumed stolen. Not for copyright infringement. If Mercedes builds a prototype car, and a staff member steals it and sells it to someone else who puts it on ebay, then Mercedes has all the right to block that auction, and to recover the car. Now, if they contact The person on craigslist and that person says he found it on the street and has no affiliation to apple, then I don't know what the legal possibilities are to recover a lost prototype, but if you remember they took action even with the pre release iphone 4 last year.

So was it a modified 2007 MacBook or some prototype? Is apple preventing people to modify their machines now?

I'm guessing this was a prototype that some employee was loaned that never got returned, or was stolen, or lost one night in a bar.

But again, copyright and IP violations? This sounds like Apple is all butt-hurt that someone modded their beautiful, perfectly designed macbook, and doesn't want this to get out in the public so that people think Apple is making these, and then they'd get flooded with calls from thousands of retarded apple users asking questions about where they can get their own 3G-enabled macbook.

Probably something in the EULA forbidding the user from modifying the copyrighted and highly recognizable external appearance of the device. Next they'll sue Etsy users selling things like custom macbook and ipod skins.

While Apple can get it pulled using the VeRO program, there is an appeal process. The seller can go to eBay, and say, "I believe I do have the right to sell this because A B C." Then eBay goes back to Apple to have them back up their initial claim. If Apple can't, or doesn't, then the seller is free to relist the item.
There's a great eBay podcast that covers these sorts of situations. Do a search on Griff and eBay and you'll find it.

The Apple SWAT team is currently lurking in the bushes, waiting for the cover of darkness to kick down his door.

Along with other comments posted for a reason to pull the auction, I would add that companies other than Apple would be interested to buy this MacBook (yes, even for 70K) because of the R&D and tech possibly contained inside the prototype. It could give companies hints as to what Apple is creating for future product releases possibly leading to more competition for Apple – something that is not in the best interest for Apple.

...and here I was thinking I couldn't hate Apple anymore than I did last week. Thanks, Apple.

The Apple Nazis are at it again.

Maybe evilroot is trying to make money off an "Apple prototype" that never existed, and they don't want to be associated with it's bad build quality / non-functionality.

Maybe he lied about it getting pulled. Could be the illusion would be destroyed under close inspection, and didn't anyone actually looking at it.

Maybe the bid was fake. Either way he could have been using Apple's name to make a load of cash, and if it wasn't actually something they made that should be illegal.

Let us see...looks like a stolen prototype that somehow got into a users hands through otherwise "legal" means. So the original owner stops the rather public sale. I am not seeing the big deal here. Like Apple, or not, but this seems to be the right thing to do on their part to me.

Also, I am sure that when the good folks at Apple get this back, they will trace the device back to who was supposed to have it. I am sure there are multiple non-disclosure agreement violations here. I have NO pity for those who violate NDAs....period.

Hmmm, I don't have any apple prototype stuff, but I did but a few storage units of their old call center equipment. I have a couple frames with t1 cards marked "cupertino", and apple asset tags on the door. Maybe I can get 7K for that.

I will tell you why someone will pay $70,000

THEY ARE A HARDWARE COMPANY AND WANT TO REVERSE ENGINEER IT.

This is probably why Apple nixed it immediately.

Because Apple isn't getting paid for the sale. Apple believes that only Apple can legally sell Apple branded products.

This whole episode is a form of "guerrilla marketing"

A MARKETING STUNT PLAIN AND SIMPLE!

FAKE, PHONY, FRAUDULENT! APPLE IS A JOKE!

It's gotta be that Magsafe antenna! What else is revolutionary on it? It has a motherboard, CPU, HD, etc. I can't see how anyone is going to find something unique within the case.

I've used ebay extensively before.
The reason for that "Copyright infringement" is likely due to (as explained by ebay):
1. You need to be an authorized reseller to sell APPLE or any other brand name products.
2. You have to have written permission from APPLE that grant you the right to use the word "APPLE" and "MACBOOK", cause those two terms are copyright trademarks.

This is total bullshit. As it means ebay can pull ANY listing for ANY reason. For example, saying your android phone is an great alternative to iphone will get pulled, due to you not being the owner of the trademarked name "iphone".

It would 99% of the time not work, especially when the offense is a huge company like apple, having a huge legal team.
I once listed a software that says "works with Windows" and they pulled it saying I don't own the copyrighted word "Windows".
So I put another bogus listing, saying I am selling 2 windows (the one you install in your house so you can see outside), and put up a picture of a real window. Then eBay pulled it again with the same reason. Yes, the windows I listed is the same word as the windows OS, but it doesn't matter to ebay or microsoft at all.

If it's stolen goods, no matter how far you're removed from the original act of theft and how many times it's changed hands, as soon as those goods are identified as stolen you can't sell them, and the original owner gets the goods back. That's the law.

He's probably going to have to give it back to Apple.

If he's not a dick about it they'll probably give him a new Powerbook.

If it's a hoax there's no reason in the world for Apple to not spitroast this guy (and maybe the cops too, for the textbook definition of "fraud").

What is it with Apple haters making heroes of thieves, scammers, fences, and corporate spies? Once again, an excellent reason to not hire a hater (of any kind); they WILL break the law if it supports their hatreds.

So all you SteveJFanBio's - it IS true that you never actually OWN what you are paying for. I thought it was just a myth.

Oh, and I had an apple the other day for a snack - do I owe them now because I mentioned it in a post?????? I hope this guy sues them for billions and wins.

I don't get the hating people have for a company. The problems with your arguments is "Ownership". You are allow to put your "own dam phone on ebay", you're not allowed to sell someone else.

Given that this is a prototype it's more likely loaned out then sold to someone. All Apple has to do is prove that it owns the item in question, and the guy is in possession of stolen property and has to return it.

This is more like you loan your friend a car and he goes and sells it to someone else, wouldn't you want it back.

Don't be a hypocrite, just because someone has a lot of money doesn't mean they don't have a right to their property.