Buying an iPhone 6 Verizon or Apple Store?

i heard if you buy the semi newer sim free iPhone 6 from the apple store now a days, it will be whitelisted (meaning it will work on) Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, etc.

this means that you can use this iPhone to switch from Verizon to Sprint and back.

this makes it highly desirable when it comes to selling it.

when the launch day iPhone 6 came out it was not whitelisted to sprint or verizon, there was a loop hole where the t-mobile iPhone 6 would work on verizon, but it was not official like it is now.

if you buy the phone from verizon, you won't be able to use it on sprint. because sprint will see the serial # as a non sprint phone.

i would buy the sim free iPhone 6 directly from the apple store. go to sprints website / a sprint store, to see if they say the iPhone is compatible, to make sure, i am sure sprint will say its supported.

even if you never want to go to sprint , the ability for someone else to use it on sprint in the future would be a big selling point.

However:

now if we are talking about a subsidized and discounted verizon iPhone where you get a discount for a 2 years contract. i don't know of any advantages at the verizon store versus the apple store. , apple store probably would take paypal and have different financing offers, and the verizon iPhone you would get would not be whitelisted to work on sprint.

I chose to buy a no-contract "Sim-free" phone directly from Apple. You must pay the full, unsubsidized cost, but there are advantages such as no carrier contract and full world-wide radio band capability (with the possible exception of China). I suspect that this phone would sell for a premium on EBay if I ever needed to sell it. I ended up changing from Verizon (after 12 years with VZW) to ATT for several reasons- better cellular signal at my home, much better plan with 20 GB data, etc. the Sim-free iPhone will work with any carrier, of course. Think freedom - switch carriers at any time.

If you need to buy with a carrier subsidy, you would probably do OK with the Verizon-sold phone. It will work with Verizon or a GSM carrier (ATT, T-Mobile) in the U.S., if needed in the future. I think that the only difference between the Verizon iPhone 6/6+ and the Apple-sold Sim-free model is the extra cell radio bands. These include some bands used by Sprint and other bands used in some foreign countries (Australia+ others) in the Sim-free model.

The Apple-sold Verizon model and the Verizon-sold model are the same.

However, these days with T-Mobile driving down the prices of carrier plans, it can really pay to be off-contract. It has been my observation that ATT has been more aggressive than Verizon in matching T-Mobile's promotions.

Though I do like to buy them at Apple, all Verizon Wireless iPhones are sim unlocked so it really doesn't make a difference.