Henrico County iBook Sale Creates iRiot

pikester writes "What do you get when you combine 1000 used iBooks being sold for $50 and 1000 people desperately wanting to buy them? You get an iStampede of course! Add into the mix one guy who watches too much wrestling and one gal who re-lived her first Backstreet Boys concert by wetting herself and you'll being looking for video of the whole thing. CNN has some extra details as well." From the article: "Officials opened the gates at 7 a.m., but some already had been waiting for hours in line. When the gates opened, it became a terrifying mob scene. People threw themselves forward, screaming and pushing each other. A little girl's stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried to drive his way through the crowd."

Reminds me of a song title

[Anonymous Coward]

"In the ghetto...."

That's right ladies and gentlemen

[Loco3KGT]

That's my state's citizens, neighbors, and friends at their best!

I couldn't be more proud.

*tear*

This story wont get many posts.

[deft]

Everyone is at the sale...

so...

[Anonymous Coward]

iDontCare

What happened to "No - rush, 10 mins"?

[EmperorKagato]

OMG! Zerg Rush!

Wow

[Fahrvergnuugen]

I usually only piss myself over new apple products...

As a matter of fact...

[Tackhead]

> Add into the mix one guy who watches too much wrestling and one gal who re-lived her first Backstreet Boys concert by wetting herself and you'll being looking for video of the whole thing.

As a matter of fact, no, iWont.

One each?

[Anonymous Coward]

"What do you get when you combine 1000 used iBooks being sold for $50 and 1000 people desperately wanting to buy them?"

Looks a lot like one each to me...

Re:That's right ladies and gentlemen

[savagedome]

That's my state's citizens

Citizens of Virginia? Well, I have a globe of United States that you might be intested in buying!

Ibooks are like crack..

[rice0067]

All white and promising good stuff. then you get really disappointed by the quality and want to knife your dealer.

Memo to His Steveness:

[Hawthorne01]

From: [e-mail]
To:[e-mail]

Steve,
I think we've found the perfect price point to really boost Mac sales. I'll have marketing look into it, but as best I can figure, we'll lose money on every sale, but we'll make it up in volume.

See you in Paris next month,

Phil

For those that went there and did that...

[slusich]

Now you can get the tshirt too.
http://cgi.ebay.com/HENRICO-COUNTY-50-iBook-t-shir t-kicked-in-the-balls_W0QQitemZ8327177210QQcategor yZ15687QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem [ebay.com]
Seriously, they had to expect this. They should've had a more orderly way to deal with this sale.

iDiots?

[BikeRacer]

Come on, doesn't everyone know they found all the golden tickets already?

New Poll?

[__aaitqo8496]

To get a used iBook for $50, I'd be willing to...

• Throw an elbow
• Crush a stroller
• Pee myself
• Throw an old man into the pavement

Um....

[osrevad]

What do you get when you combine 1000 used iBooks being sold for $50 and 1000 people desperately wanting to buy them?

You would get everyone living happily ever after with their iBooks. But there were actaully about 3000 people, which changes everything.

Actually ...

[Bearpaw]

Crazy... Mac users.

Actually, I bet most of 'em were Windows users, driven around the bend by viruses, bugs, and bloat, and desperate to switch. It's the only thing that could explain it.

Real Live /.ing

[wowbagger]

So, we have a real live meatspace slashdotting.

Sigh.

No wonder everybody steers clear of this planet.

take this ladies, children, and old men

[kidNexus]

first official slashdot post from a $50 iBook.

Re:Too Cheap -Fraud and Abuse

['nother poster]

That's a trick question, right?

Re:That's right ladies and gentlemen

[Anonymous Coward]

Every Nation has to grew up.

I hear these rumors on the internets.. but alls I can asks, is... Is our children learning?

The worst part

[Stripsurge]

None of those people ended up with their lappy because some guy bought them all online while the mob was busy crushing strollers.

Re:That's right ladies and gentlemen

[moviepig.com]

"... it became a terrifying mob scene. People threw themselves forward, screaming and pushing each other. A little girl's stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried to drive his way through the crowd."

Oh, the humanity...

Is this the world's first iDisaster? Will iWitness accounts be published in a forthcoming iBook?

iWonder...

Only Apple

[mezron]

You just don't get this kind of exitement with Microsoft products ;)

Follow up story...

[TiggertheMad]

Most people were disapointed when they got in and discovered that the ibooks were not in fact, cabage patch kids.

Re:Wow

[Gleep]

I think she was trying to re-charge the battery in her cellphone...

Re:Simple case of supply and demand

[Jerry Rivers]

You're right. A used, four-year-old iBook isn't worth $50.

Re:Reminds me of a song title

[rayde]

my favorite quote from TFA:

Jesse Sandler said he was one of the people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut in front of him.

"I took my chair here and I threw it over my shoulder and I went, 'Bam,"' the 20-year-old said nonchalantly, his eyes glued to the screen of his new iBook, as he tapped away on the keyboard at a testing station.

"They were getting in front of me and I was there a lot earlier than them, so I thought that it was just," he said.

Re:That's right ladies and gentlemen

[pete-classic]

A "globe of the United States"? I must have one!

-Peter

Re:That's right ladies and gentlemen

[humina]

That is why it's called the United Commonwealths of America. Land of the brave and home of the UCA Citizens. The 50 stars on the UCA flag represent the 50 commonwealths. I live in the California Commonwealth. Our commonwealth capitol is Sacramento. Our commonwealth state bird is the quail....

Re:Actually ...

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet most of 'em were Windows users

I bet most of them were zombies...
iBoOoOoooOoOoooOoOk!!!! iiiiBoOoooOoooOk!!!

Re:That's right ladies and gentlemen

[databyss]

insignificant?

Re:more information

[ethx1]

It's like that MasterCard ad. But backwards.

Beating down losers with a folding chair: Priceless.
Urinating on yourself: Priceless.
Driving a car though a mob: Priceless
Loosing your shoe in the sweltering heat: Priceless.
iBook: $50

Re:more information

['nother poster]

And why shouldn't a parent, I believe I saw the FATHER carrying the little girl and broken stroller, take their child to a public venue for a sale? It's not like it was advertised as "Come on down and battle for a 'puter!!! Grab your knives and nightsticks and leave the kids at home! First come, first beaten!!!" It was supposed to simply be the local citizenry purchasing used computers from the local government.

Re:Wow

[ari_j]

I've noticed that my urine stream is much snappier since I got Tiger.

Assault Charges, anyone?

[Stanistani]

>Jesse Sandler said he was one of the people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut in front of him.

"I took my chair here and I threw it over my shoulder and I went, 'Bam,"' the 20-year-old said nonchalantly, his eyes glued to the screen of his new iBook, as he tapped away on the keyboard at a testing station.

"They were getting in front of me and I was there a lot earlier than them, so I thought that it was just," he said.

Hmmm.

Henrico County Sheriff's Office
Michael L. Wade, Sheriff
[e-mail]

Sheriff Mike?
I got one for ya!

Re:What happened to "No - rush, 10 mins"?

[MynockGuano]

(This text inserted to bypass the lameass filter)

Maybe that's why? >8)

Re:Reminds me of a song title

[HTTP Error 403 403.9]

I am waiting for someone to tell me that these iBooks are overpriced and they can get a Dell laptop for $40.

Reminds me of a WWWF moment.

[Anonymous Coward]

"They were getting in front of me and I was there a lot earlier than them, so I thought that it was just," he said."

Woe to anyone trying to get first post before him.

In a related story.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Seattle, 16 August 2005
A rush to avoid Windows Vista turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over by people fleeing a public demonstration of Microsoft's "next generation" operating system. One woman went so far to wet herself rather than be forced to accept a DVD containing the beta release.

Slashdot effect?

[erroneus]

So THIS is what the Slashdot effect would look like in person eh? heh... wish I could have seen that!

Re:Oh, great idea ...

[MooseByte]

"Of course, selling them on ebay would mean that the only people who could buy them would be people who already had access to a computer. "

Then again given the stampede, the crushed baby stroller, the lady peeing on herself and the guy swinging the folding chair, suddenly "already had access to a computer" is sounding like a pretty darn desirable filter. ;-)

He should date Ellen Fleiss!

[Thud457]

"So, I was like, waiting in line at the Henrico County iBook sale, and there were lika a lot of people there who wanted $50 iBooks. And people started pushing and shoving, and I was like "hey, don't be pushing in front of me beeeeeotch! ", but she just wouldn't listen. So I raised my aluminum folding chair over my shoulder and BAM! , smacked that bitch up good. But then the police came and told us the iBooks were all gone.

... I bet it would've been a pretty sweet $50 iBook, though.

Re:Behave themselves? Look at morons in an Airport

[maxpublic]

There's always a small group of folks who stand back and let the herd struggle with one another over baggage. We lean against the wall, amuse ourselves over the antics of our fellow human beings, and then go pick up our bags after the crowd thins out. Which takes what? All of five or ten minutes? In exchange for the free amusement?

Max

Re:Reminds me of a song title

[EulerX07]

Consider it done [cgi.ebay.ca].

Re:Reminds me of a song title

[temojen]

'round these parts we call that assault. Assault is a crime; cutting in is just rude.

We used to make fun of the Soviets...

[Anonymous Coward]

People threw themselves forward, screaming and pushing each other. A little girl's stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried to drive his way through the crowd.

We used to make fun of the Soviets for standing in line for toilet paper. At least they were calm about it.

Re:That's right ladies and gentlemen

[nairnr]

Ok, I'll take a stab at it... Residents of the District of Columbia aren't in a state or commonwealth.. It is a federal district for the federal city of Washington...

The Residence Bill of July 16, 1790, established a site along the Potomac to be the capital. This federal district was first called the Territory of Columbia and the federal city the City of Washington. The name changed to the District of Columbia in 1793.

How's that for a Canadian eh?

Re:I was there!

[IronChef]

I went there with my mother and my sister, however, after people started running, I just wanted out. I only stayed for my sister.

To hell with your mother, eh?

Re:Dumbass.

[jnewmano]

I've seen it happen before my eyes, it wasn't very pretty....

Re:Reminds me of a song title

[Anonymous Coward]

A moron in an airplane threw a ream of papers out of the plane on a RAINY day each paper had a 1 dollar bill stapled to it. the ream of papers did not seperate, it fell as one brick 200 feet until it hit me in the head.

Is this why you're called Lumpy now?

Re:Reminds me of a song title

[lusidity]

No way man. That was you? lol. I seriously remember that! The Ham conventions in Dayton were insanity for sure. Definately good times though... never meet so many geeks in one place back in those days (now we have E3, etc). But yeah, that's crazy. I must've stepped on your head like 8 times that day. Well, wait, actually 9 times I'm pretty sure... I do remember that I made sure to count each one individually, but so many people were crowded around, it really was quite hard to get positioned correctly in order to allow for maximum stompage. ;) Not really, but I do remember hearing about that. I wasn't in the vicinity when that happened, but I remember people talking about it while I was there. Small world. I miss the Ham convention. A little bit. Florida is nice too though. :)