The guy before me couldn't either, because the well-organized huangniu had monopolized sleeper tickets from various ticket agencies just before tickets started to be sold to the public.

Walking out and being asked whether I'd like to pay 300 yuan extra to get a ticket, I said to myself, that I'd rather giving up buying a ticket than let those shameful scalpers profiteer from me.

Apple is clearly just as mad. On Monday, Apple issued a new policy, requiring buyers to register online with ID numbers, and then show up physically to an Apple store. Each buyer is allowed to buy only one iPhone 4 at a time.

This is a common solution that people come up with to inhibit huangniu. In fact, last year, the real-name train ticket system was implemented in South China, which hardly slowed down those all-powerful scalpers.

They could collect ID cards, stand in the queue all day long and shrug at genuine customers: "Why not save all the pains and just buy here?"

They were right. Actually more than a few of my friends had good connections with fixed scalpers. You just have to pay several hundred yuan extra as Spring Festival approaches and they will put you on the train home.

For me, after getting up at 3 am to join the queue at the railway station and stand in the biting wind across the square, I was more than willing to make a deal with a reliable scalper.

After all, the iPhone 4 is not a train ticket. The latter is a far more urgent necessity. You can live without the iPhone 4, but you do need to go home and reunite with family members during holidays and festivals.

Therefore, even if Apple's real-name solution can check Chinese huangniu, it's not because Apple has solved the huangniu issue, but that the iPhone 4 is not something in really short supply. The scalpers will simply turn to something else.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. chenchenchen@ globaltimes.com.cn