A while back I wrote about Henrico county (new Richmond) Virginia that was selling off old iBooks for $50. People talked about flying across the country to get an iBook at that price. The county limited the sale to people who lived in the county, and move the sale to a race track where they thought they could control the crowds. They also apparently hired some (but not enough) security. One thing that did not do was RAISE THE PRICE! Here are some stories about what happened:
from The Unofficial Apple Weblog :
No, you aren’t reading The Onion. Yes, there really was a stampede. No one was seriously injured, but this morning’s $50 iBook sale was an insane mob scene by all accounts. Lines of parked cars started to form around 1:30am and by 7:00am, when the sale was to begin, the line was said to be more than a 1/2 mile long, while thousands of people rushed the gate for an opportunity to spend $50 on a 4-year old iBook that stood a good chance of barely being worth even that little. There are reports of baby strollers being tipped over and mangled and one old man in a walker was reportedly trampled to the ground! More after the jump…
One of our readers, Jason Coleman, sent us this first-hand account of the scene:
“My wife and I just came from the Henrico County iBook sale. It was absolutely insane. The estimate was that about 12,000 people showed up. There were a number of people injured when people rushed the gates.”
“We left after 4 hours of baking in the sun, empty-handed. There were some rumors that the actual number was something less than 1,000, but I couldn’t say for sure. However many, there were many times that in people who wanted one and the crowd control… well it wasn’t being controlled really. Just the police shouting at people to keep backing up, even though there was no where to go. Insane. Your readers should be very glad that they didn’t come. Just wait and buy one for cheap on eBay next week.”
from News.com :
To ensure you could purchase an Apple laptop that had survived four years in a classroom, would you:
urinate in your pants;
toss a chair to keep others from cutting in front of you;
throw an elderly man to the ground;
stomp on a baby’s stroller;
or drive your car through a crowd?
Actually, all of the above occurred Tuesday (by different people) when the Henrico County school system in Virginia offered 1,000 slightly abused iBooks to county residents at $50 bucks each, according to this story from the Associated Press.
from Fox News :
Seventeen people suffered minor injuries, with four requiring hospital treatment, Henrico County Battalion Chief Steve Wood said. There were no arrests.
Jesse Sandler said he was one of the people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut in front of him. “I took my chair here and I threw it over my shoulder and I went, ‘Bam,”‘ the 20-year-old said nonchalantly, his eyes glued to the screen of his new iBook, as he tapped away on the keyboard at a testing station. “They were getting in front of me and I was there a lot earlier than them, so I thought that it was just,” he said.
