By Chris Chang, posted Oct 1, 2010 at 2:31 PM, 4,016 views,

Parallel Importers Packing a Lot of iPhone 4s on Subway (Video)

Parallel-imported iPhone 4s have a going price of over 5,000 yuan (about $747) at mainland China. The grey market dealers from Hong Kong and Shenzhen have been working on the underground trade route for the iPhone 4, where HK grey market dealers purchase the iPhone 4s from local consumers or Apple online store, then sell the stocks to the grey market dealers from mainland China. While Apple’s iPhone 4 has the lowest price tag in Hong Kong, these two ladies were busy “smuggling” the iPhone 4s through subway.

For the parallel import, the grey market dealers have multiple methods to smuggle the iPhone 4s, and the video you watching here is one of the working methods. These parallel importers often work in groups and they always hide the phones in bags, or taped to bodies… However, if you get caught of bringing more than two iPhone 4s from HK to Shenzhen, you will be fined for 1,000 yuan (about $149). Yeah, people need to pay tax for importing electronics to mainland China from HK. If you convince the inspector that the iPhone 4 you’re bringing along is just a gift, you may be lucky to pass without paying any taxes.

As far as we know, the parallel import for iPhone 4 is no longer an “easy-profit business”. The price of these smuggled phones has already started to fall since Apple had launched the iPhone 4 in China. The grey market dealers are not interested to get the stocks from Hong Kong anymore. They would just hire the iPhone 4 scalpers to buy from the Apple retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai, and mark up the price to sell the phones to other provinces where contract-free iPhone 4 is not available. They would earn a profit of 500-600 yuan (about $80) for each iPhone 4. So, how’s Apple going to crack down this underground trade?

Source: YouTube

[Thanks Richard!]