EBay Shares iPad 2 Sales Data

Apple's second generation iPad tablet has been on the market for nearly 3 weeks now, and while the Cupertino outfit isn't quite ready to cough up sales data, online auction site eBay does have some numbers to share.

As you know, the iPad 2 sold out of most stores during its opening weekend launch, making the tablet hard to come by. But one place out-of-stock items are rarely in short supply is eBay, albeit at hugely inflated prices. More on that in a moment. For now, what we're interested in is how many iPad 2 devices have been moved through the online auction site, and according to eBay, nearly 12,000 units were sold in auction in the two-week period between the U.S. launch and the iPad's launch in 25 additional international countries.


Perhaps more interesting is the percentage of iPad 2 devices being sold in the U.S. compared to the iPad 1. Of those nearly 12,000 units, about 65 percent were sold to buyers living in the U.S., versus 35 percent  of first generation iPads in 2010. Based on this, one could say that Apple's iPad platform is increasing in popularity, even as the competition steps up their efforts with better equipped devices, like the recently released Xoom tablet. But the real reason might have to do with the shortage. Unlike the iPad 1, Apple didn't take pre-orders leading up to the launch of the iPad 2, so you either had to brave the long lines, or grab an iPad 2 off of eBay or Craigslist.

iPad 2 devices also found their way outside of the U.S. courtesy of eBayers, with the biggest export locations being Canada and Russia, followed by Hong Kong, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

As you can imagine, pricing was at a premium for Apple's short-stocked tablet. The average selling price of the 16GB Wi-Fi model was $697, up $198 from its retail price of $499. The pricing premium on the 64GB averaged $264 over the retail cost, and a whopping $406 premium on the 64GB with 3G built in.