Inside Shenzen's Grey-Market iPhone Mall

jfruh writes Despite being largely manufactured in China, iPhones are still too expensive for most Chinese to afford — new ones, anyway. That's why thousands come to a bustling marketplace in Shenzen that specializes in older grey-market iPhones. Many of them are damaged phones that have been refurbished by enterprising merchants. From the story: "Reselling iPhones can be a lucrative business. The Shenzen mall, called Open World Communication City, is based in the Huaqiangbei district, which attracts buyers from around the world who come here to shop for cheap devices and components. But some of the business is shady. Earlier this year, a person who claimed to have worked at the mall posted pictures online showing how dealers can refurbish an iPhone 5 to make it look like an 5s."

Comments

Repair

[pr0nbot]

It was like this in the Tepito market in Mexico City in the 80s... as well as all the refurbished and stolen goods, if you had a broken walkman or whatever, there'd be some guy who could fix it for you. I miss the culture of repair.

Re:Repair

[c6gunner]

I miss the culture of repair.

You miss overpaying for goods?

A repair culture exists any time it's significantly cheaper to fix something than to replace it outright. A couple hundred years ago there was a repair culture about everything including socks, because a new pair of socks was a luxury and continually patching old ones was way more economical. We stopped repairing our socks when they became cheap enough to throw away. Do you really want to go back to a time when you had to keep repairing your socks because you couldn't afford new ones?

I don't miss that. Not at all. I much prefer having the choice to either tinker with my gadgets when I have the time, or just buy new ones when I don't.