Smugglers in China are racing against time to sell off their remaining stocks of illegal iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus handsets before Apple Inc. and its Chinese partners deliver the authorized units on Friday.

Prices of the iPhones on the black market plummeted weeks before the delivery of the legitimate units leaving the bootleggers in the red and unable to get back their return on investment.

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The smugglers tried to cash in on the month-long delay of the iPhones shipment on the Chinese mainland, only to realize that they had engaged in a futile business venture.

Smartphone dealers are finding it hard to sell the iPhone models in Zhongguancun, the largest smartphone center in Beijing.

Wang Qiang, a mobile phone sales shop owner at TopElectronics City said that he has not sold a single unit since last week.

Wang said that if the handsets will not be bought before the National Day Holiday, then the seller will be in "bad shape." Wang has six more iPhone gadgets to sell and he said that if he sells them at the official price, he stands to lose 4,000-5,000 yuan for each phone.

iPhone 6 was being sold by Chinese smugglers in the black market for 10,000 yuan ($1,633) after Apple first introduced it to the market as its latest gadget on September 19. The price was equivalent to two iPhone 6 Plus models in the United States.

Now, dealers have brought down their selling price to the level of the official price which is 5,288 yuan for the 16 gigabyte iPhone 6 and 6.088 yuan for 16GB iPhone 6 Plus.

Reports said the iPhone dealers smuggled their wares from Hong Kong and the United States where the retail prices were low.

Reports said smartphone dealers who got their units in September made a killing in the black market while the latecomers suffered losses.

"It's a 'go big' or 'go home' kind of deal," Wang said.

The gloomy sales in the black market do not reflect the Chinese buyers' attitude towards Apple's latest gadget. On the contrary, pre-orders for both models from official channels have reached a skyrocketing 30 million.

Shopping website JD.com said it has received pre-orders of more than 10 million while tech website qq.com said it has received more than 20 million pre-orders for the phones.

TagsiPhone 6 Plus, Smugglers, legal, black market, iPhone, iPhone sales