Well, that was fast. Within hours after Xiaomi Malaysia sold out its initial batch of Mi 3 and Mi Power Banks within 17 minutes, scalpers have begun their trade. Offering their newly-purchased Mi 3 and Mi Power Banks for sale, some are selling these products (which aren’t even in their hands yet) for as high as RM1400 for the Mi 3 and Mi Power Bank. A quick search through our forum’s Garage Sales thread has revealed plenty of new threads, offering either the Mi 3 and Mi Power Bank at elevated prices. At the time of writing, there are no less than sixteen different forum members selling the Mi 3, with prices that range from RM1000 all the way to RM1400. Here are just some of the offers: 
On the other hand, the Mi Power Bank seems to be a more muted affair for scalpers. At the time of writing there is only one such sales thread. With many online sellers in the forum already selling the power bank for as high as RM98 prior to the official sales by Xiaomi today, it may very well be that many Malaysian consumers are purchasing the Mi Power Bank for personal reasons rather than for business. After all, Xiaomi Malaysia did well to limit the maximum units per order to two.
This isn’t a new phenomenon, but it is still very disappointing to see these threads crop up, whatever the product. As someone commented upon seeing the amount of sales threads popping out, it is really unfair for those who genuinely wanted to purchase the Mi 3 and Mi Power Bank not being able to purchase them because of the scalpers who are only looking to get a quick – and potentially healthy – profit.
[EDIT] Relentless. Even on this post, there are people selling the Mi 3 at inflated prices:
In any case, we have approached Xiaomi for a comment on the matter, and will update the post when we receive one.
[Update @ July 8, 12:54pm] Seems like this will be a recurring theme each time Xiaomi sells a new product. The Redmi 1S officially went on sale earlier today, selling out 5,000 sets again within minutes. And once more, within an hour of the sales ending there are already plenty of Redmi 1S on sale at our forums.
This time around, though, the prices being demanded aren’t as inflated as the Mi 3 – where some were asking for as high as RM1300. Many seem to be content with a small profit, with many being sold at the RM550 range. On the other hand, one unit seems to be going only for RM429 – just RM10 on top of the RM419 retail price.
It must be pointed out here that Xiaomi Malaysia has held its flash sales very consistently, with one happening almost every week. We can’t confirm it, but it is pretty likely that the Redmi 1S will be on sale at RM419 in the coming weeks, so perhaps it maybe a good choice to wait for the next round of sales. That being said, the sheer amount of people looking to grab one (either for personal use or for business) seems to be stimulating this secondary economy or sorts.
As such, it looks like there’ll be another round of “scalper sales” that will take off come July 22, when the Redmi Note becomes available in Malaysia.
(Source: Goldfries)
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