Tokyo (AFP) - Buyers from China, deprived of the latest iPhone launch at home, were among the first in line Friday in Japan to grab the "6" and its new large-screen cousin as Apple hit back at rivals.A thriving secondary market was emerging hours after the first phones left stores, with mainland China having been left out of the initial global rollout.Dealers in Hong Kong said they were prepared to offer a hefty premium."If we are talking about the 128 gigabyte version we would buy it for as much as HK$18,000 ($2,322)," said Gary Yiu, the manager of the iGeneration phone reseller store.That's more than double the price of the top-of-the-range iPhone 6 Plus."I have around 200 pre-orders with 60 to 70 percent of these from mainland Chinese customers," Yiu told AFP, adding he had dispatched 10 members of staff to snap up as many handsets as they could.Yiu said the golden version of the 128 gigabyte iPhone 6-Plus was the most sought after model, adding he could resell it for over HK$20,000."There will be very little stock for this model, so a lot of people will be going for it," he said. - 'Unique phone' - In Japan, where the iPhone was being sold without a SIM lock on launch day for the first time, dozens of Chinese buyers had queued outside Tokyo's Apple stores."We can now buy a SIM-lock free iPhone for the same price as one locked on a local Japanese carrier," said Lin Wenming, an IT engineer who works in Japan.Several of the Chinese waiting in line spoke neither Japanese nor English.

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