AI gadget Rabbit R1 was a surprise hit at CES 2024, but with pre-orders already sold out, some have turned to eBay to resell the device before it’s even out.
The Rabbit R1, an AI-powered smart assistant, made a grand entry at CES 2024 and has taken the internet by storm, quite literally.
This affordable gadget has features similar to the much pricier AI Pin from Humane, but retails at just $199. The Rabbit R1 was co-designed with Teenage Engineering and features a practical design with physical buttons.
While the gadget is up for pre-order and is expected to ship by March or April this year, scalpers have already listed it on eBay at much higher prices.
hell no. don’t do this. pic.twitter.com/xMpmGEJrMR
— Jesse Lyu (@jessechenglyu) January 12, 2024
Rabbit’s founder and CEO Jesse Lyu shared a screenshot of his phone showing a few Rabbit R1 listings on eBay priced between $300 and $690. He said, “hell no. don’t do this,” suggesting that the company didn’t anticipate the demand from users.
Most of these listings are from people who’ve successfully placed a pre-order in the first two batches and have even posted screenshots of their orders, with their order number obfuscated.
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These sellers on eBay promise to ship the unpacked Rabbit R1 device as soon as they receive their pre-ordered R1s.
This CES-favorite gadget has attracted massive interest. The company has revealed that the first two batches of 10,000 devices each have already been sold out within 48 hours of the launch. The third batch of R1s is up for grabs. But, they’ll only begin to ship in May and June 2024.
Is it worth being scalped?
The R1 is an AI-powered companion device with a small 2.88-inch touchscreen on the company’s Rabbit OS. It has a physical push-to-talk button to interact with the device and a 360-degree rotatable camera that the company calls Rabbit Eye.
It uses a large action model to play your favorite songs, order groceries, book cabs, edit spreadsheets, and more, just using voice commands.
While this intuitive device may have a massive learning curve and is AI-dependent, its low price, unique form factor, and massive hype are offering people a chance to make quick bucks by reselling the nifty gadget.