The most annoying product ever to come out from an Elon Musk company is now in the hands of some 1,000 lucky buyers, with 19,000 more people waiting to receive their $500 flamethrower that’s totally not a flamethrower. And guess what: Some of those early buyers are already selling the fire-spitting device on eBay for thousands of dollars. Because of course they are.
As we already saw, Musk doesn’t seem to think that the flamethrower poses any danger to anyone, and hopefully he’s right. But with 20,000 such flamethrowers set to reach the hands of consumers without any kind of oversight, it all sure looks like an accident waiting to happen.
The fact that some buyers are looking to flip their devices for thousands of dollars doesn’t sound good either. Because whoever ends up paying thousands of dollars for a toy-like fire-spitting gun will undoubtedly want to find reasons to play with it. Because it’s so cool, am I right?
People are asking as much as $20,000 on eBay, per CNN, with more affordable auctions listing prices that start at under $3,000. The instruction manual for the gun alone sells for $250. Ouch! And you’ll certainly need the instructions to make sure you go through this:
Terms & conditions for “Not-a-Flamethrower”
Please use as directed to avoid unintentionally burning things down. For simple & concise instructions, we drew upon wisdom in great Dr Seuss book “Green Eggs and Ham”. #ThrowFlamesResponsibly pic.twitter.com/kgj8W8EOLJ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2018
Luckily, it appears that the listings aren’t getting much attention from buyers, which is definitely good. Keep not buying Musk’s Not-A-Flamethrower for as long as possible, please.
Musk’s flamethrower was launched as a marketing gimmick, and as a way to raise money for the Boring company. Of course, that probably wasn’t the only viable way to raise money for a company whose day job is actually not very boring at all — reinventing personal transportation.
