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Buying a STOLEN Brand New Sealed in Box iPhone 4? HELP

I would never buy anything in the price range you are talking about from CL. However, if you insist, I would demand to meet the person first, in a public area, and ask to see and test the phone first. I would, like others have said, definitely run a check on the serial number, because if the phone has been reported stolen, the serial number is a good way to check.
 
let's get real, no legit person on craigslist is going to give you a copy of their driver's license with their home address and everything. If you ask for mine I would sell to somebody else instead because craigslists is full of wackos and crazies. To the seller, that wacko might be you!

edit: meet at an AT&T store and confirm
 
Is the iphone box still sealed? or has it been opened? I have never heard of iphones being given away as prizes. I used to work for a fortune 50 company and they gave ipod shuffles away to customers at new store grand openings during drawings on opening day. After a while thay had to start giving away other prizes because apple stopped selling them in large quantities for those purposes. Also, really, how would someone steal a phone from a retailer, they are locked up like gold. I think its so funny that people want to save a couple of bucks to get something and then it ends up being a PITA. If you want one just go buy it legit.

Cmon, buying an iphone from craigslist, just sounds dirty, iphones are sweet and clean!


*just re-read OP and see that he said sealed box. If Canadian Bell sells the iphone to run on their network, don't know, and they give one away to an employee, I find it very hard to believe there is not any kind of paperwork to go with it.
 
I think I have made a decision. There is a store on ebay called 2ndturncanada, they have sold over 20000 electronics and is a powerseller. Yesterday I bid on one of the 16gb iphone 4 for BELL, it is used but only for 2 months since the warranty lasts until June 22 2012. However it will cost me quite a bit more, the bid ended at 430 CAD and with the tax I am looking at a $480 total. I feel a lot safer with buying the iphone on ebay from this retailer than on craigslist... But it will cost me more.

Before I pay what do you guys think?

Thanks
 
Jewstin said:
I think I have made a decision. There is a store on ebay called 2ndturncanada, they have sold over 20000 electronics and is a powerseller. Yesterday I bid on one of the 16gb iphone 4 for BELL, it is used but only for 2 months since the warranty lasts until June 22 2012. However it will cost me quite a bit more, the bid ended at 430 CAD and with the tax I am looking at a $480 total. I feel a lot safer with buying the iphone on ebay from this retailer than on craigslist... But it will cost me more.

Before I pay what do you guys think?

Thanks
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I think that with all rumors suggesting that the iPhone5 will be announced within the next month, you're paying way too much for an out of date phone... but that's just me.

At this point, the longer you wait, the lower the prices will go. Hundreds of thousands of people will be trying to dump their i4s as soon as the i5 is set.
 
Jewstin said:
I think I have made a decision. There is a store on ebay called 2ndturncanada, they have sold over 20000 electronics and is a powerseller. Yesterday I bid on one of the 16gb iphone 4 for BELL, it is used but only for 2 months since the warranty lasts until June 22 2012. However it will cost me quite a bit more, the bid ended at 430 CAD and with the tax I am looking at a $480 total. I feel a lot safer with buying the iphone on ebay from this retailer than on craigslist... But it will cost me more.

Before I pay what do you guys think?

Thanks
Click to expand...

If $30 is "quite a bit more" you shouldn't be buying an iPhone.
 
miamialley said:
I don't get it. Why the rush? Wait a month or so and the 4 will come down in price.

Regardless, don't buy the sketchy phone.
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Wow good point, I just did some research and I found out it is very likely Apple will release a budget 8GB iPhone 4 for roughly $400 new. I am going to wait it out now :D.
 
I probably stuff all the time off ebay and craigslist. If I don't know for a fact that it is stolen I don't care...and neither should you.
 
Jewstin said:
....it is used but only for 2 months since the warranty lasts until June 22 2012....

Before I pay what do you guys think?
Click to expand...
You might want to double check, if it was purchase as long ago as June 22, 2010 and had the Apple Care extended warranty then it would still show as under warranty until 2012 but be 15 months old!!! :eek:

Dave
 
I know a legit girl that won a Verizon iPad2 16GB 3G (she works at a Verizon store, it was some kind of Verizon employee contest). She was selling it for 400. Kinda silly price to sell it at, but she seemed believable.
 
Okay, maybe this is sexist, but it's still true. How many women steal phones? If she's over 30 and your comfortable with it then that definitely doesn't seen like a risk to me. As I said, it is kinda sexist but it's also true.
 
Jewstin said:
So is it true that if she has the serial number she can take it back and also if it is stolen there will be no warranty?
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If it's stolen you will have more problems than no warranty. It is illegal to buy stuff you know are stolen and think is mostlikely stolen.
 
Jewstin said:
The phone was initially selling for $500, I talked to her and dropped her price to $450.

So is it true that there is no 100% safe way to buy a BNIB iPhone 4 from craigslist?
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wordoflife said:
Nope.
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How so? There is a 100% safe way to buy a brand new iPhone from CL. I don't think this is the listing though.

maximus96 said:
let's get real, no legit person on craigslist is going to give you a copy of their driver's license with their home address and everything. If you ask for mine I would sell to somebody else instead because craigslists is full of wackos and crazies. To the seller, that wacko might be you!

edit: meet at an AT&T store and confirm
Click to expand...
Let's get real, some do. I have a sales receipt and a driver's license of a guy I bought a motorcycle from. I also had a 3-day return warranty that we drafted up and the cost of the bike was only a couple hundred more than that phone. A legit person on craigslist wanting to make the sale will pony up info or they'll wait for a buyer who isn't so worried.
Badandy said:
If $30 is "quite a bit more" you shouldn't be buying an iPhone.
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That was my thought as well. I think others have nailed it. There is too much of a push to buy a phone that I think will be updated in the next 2 months. Why bother?

A Macbook Pro said:
Okay, maybe this is sexist, but it's still true. How many women steal phones? If she's over 30 and your comfortable with it then that definitely doesn't seen like a risk to me. As I said, it is kinda sexist but it's also true.
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You can't be ****ing serious. Many women commit crimes of theft. An over 30 woman does not make it safe. It's not sexist, your train of thought is inane.
 
iisforiphone said:
no am not i was quoting the guy who thought Bell Canada didnt exist why would the OP say Bell if he mean ATT, do some people think every poster is from the US?
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No, it would be ignorant to think every poster is from the US. However, someone from the US may not know that Bell is alive and well up north. The respondent could have also thought the OP was of the older generation who really do think of AT&T as Ma Bell. I can see both sides, don't get so upset over a simple mistake. :rolleyes:
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_10 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E600 Safari/6533.18.5)

I stopped after the 3rd page, but I don't think a reciept is required. I sure as he'll have never provided one for the 50+ smartphones I have bought and sold with people over the last year or two. If it feels wrong tho, well you be the judge. Most people I've sold phones too seem comfortable so it seems to be no big deal for them.
 
I would never give my real address to someone I was buying or selling something from on Craigslist, eBay, or any other online service, way too dangerous! Name and phone number, yes, but address? No way!

As for Ma Bell, my aunt and grandmother worked for Southern Bell and I still often call AT&T "Ma Bell" just because that is where it started and that's what I grew up calling it. I live in North Carolina, why would I have any reason to know that there was still a Bell carrier in Canada or anywhere else for that matter? The first thing I thought when I read the OP was that he was referring to AT&T as Bell, I think any reasonable person who lives in the United States could think that.
 
iisforiphone said:
why do you think Bell means ATT?
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because he's American.. the US is the only country in the world. :rolleyes:

OneMike said:
I'd say talk to the person and make a conclusion off that. I wouldn't rule out a purchase just because they didn't have a receipt.
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only one person with this reasonable answer?

i have an iPhone but i don't have a receipt, does that mean it's stolen?

also, lol @ my company never gave away phones so this sounds fishy.
 
Jewstin said:
Before I pay what do you guys think?
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When you buy or bid for something on eBay you enter into a legally binding contract that says you have to buy what you bid for if you win. You are breaking a legal contract if you don't and it is likely eBay will block your account/seller will take action. You need to be sure before you bid on eBay. Non-paying buyers on eBay are a pain for sellers. To list a 500$ iPhone it will cost about $30 in listing fees all up and even if you don't pay for the item the seller still has to pay.
 
macingman said:
When you buy or bid for something on eBay you enter into a legally binding contract that says you have to buy what you bid for if you win. You are breaking a legal contract if you don't and it is likely eBay will block your account/seller will take action. You need to be sure before you bid on eBay. Non-paying buyers on eBay are a pain for sellers. To list a 500$ iPhone it will cost about $30 in listing fees all up and even if you don't pay for the item the seller still has to pay.
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That's actually not true. I'm a Top Seller on eBay, I get flakes all the time. You have to wait 8 days on eBay. You wait 4 days to send them an email from eBay (and thus open a case), then once that email is sent, they have 4 more days to pay. If they don't pay after those 8 days, eBay will refund your fees. So, no the seller doesn't have to pay. It still sucks though.
 
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