I paid some huge cash for the privilege of getting an Apple Vision Pro brand-new in February. All-in, with optical inserts and taxes, I financed a bit of over $3,900 for the 256GB model of the headset. A day or so in the past, I made a mistake that I’m certain many early adopters are accustomed to: I seemed up how a lot it’s been promoting for on eBay.
On Wednesday, a 1TB Imaginative and prescient Professional, full with all of the included gear, Apple’s fluffy $200 journey case, $500 AppleCare Plus, and claimed to have been “worn perhaps about an hour” sold for $3,200 after 21 bids. The listed delivery estimate was $20.30. Model new, that mixture is $5,007.03 on Apple’s web site for me. One other eBay itemizing, this one with my headset’s configuration (however sans optical inserts) went for just $2,600 — once more with most, if not all, of the included equipment. A number of different 256GB and 512GB models sold for around that amount this week.
This, in fact, is how the story goes for early adopters, particularly once you’re shopping for very costly tech earlier than the mainstream catches on. Apple’s pricing doesn’t assist issues, particularly when the subsequent closest competing headset — the Meta Quest 3 — is simply $500. It’s a bummer even when they’re in the end not all that comparable, no less than when it comes to their focused audiences and targets for his or her platforms.
Nevertheless it nonetheless stings, doesn’t it? Figuring out I may have saved a number of hundred {dollars} and gotten the best storage configuration, AppleCare Plus, and a storage case is especially painful. I just like the Imaginative and prescient Professional a lot — perhaps greater than some other author at The Verge — but when I hadn’t missed the return window, I might ship mine proper again to Apple in a heartbeat simply so I may get considered one of these offers. Fortunately, after I’m sporting the headset, no one can see my tears.