Sears Advertises a $69 iPad 2

Would you like to buy an onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.ipadngravy.com');" target="_blank" title="iPad" href="http://www.ipadngravy.com">iPad 2 for $69? Hey, don’t be greedy, you cannot buy thirty and resell them. Actually, you cannot buy them at all for that price anymore. Keyword being “anymore.” That is because shoppers really did have such an implausible question proposed to them on Friday, and on a well-known retailer’s online site nonetheless.

On the Sears target="_blank" href="sears.com">website, the price of the 16GB iPad 2 was inadvertently dropped to just $69 from its usual $499 price-point. Through the power of the Internet, the deal spread like wildfire as tons of hopeful buyers placed orders to get the hottest tablet for the cheapest price ever. In fact, it is a price so cheap that Apple cannot even sell the iPad at to employees without a significant loss.

Of course, $69 is a fraction of the manufacturing cost per unit, not only making the deal staggering but also impossible to fulfill. Thus, it was not to be for the buyers who tried to take advantage of it. Sears declined to say how many devices were ordered while the offer was up, but has cancelled every order made at the time and issued potential customers a refund.

A third-party seller is to blame for the crushed dreams of resellers and bargain buyers looking to obtain the greatest deal of 2011. The vendor was part of the Marketplace section of the site where items are not directly supplied by Sears.

Could this have been a “fun joke” by the vendor to watch the Internet blow up over the prospect of a true 86% discount on one of the most sought-after items on the market? I would not rule that out since it sounds even more crazy that somebody would manage to type $69 instead of $99.

No matter why the error happened, it is not logical to blame Sears for a simple number typo. They have a lot more to lose financially than they have to gain since the company would practically be unjustifiably paying out-of-pocket to provide customers with iPad 2 at an unattainable price.

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