Not sure who you're replying to, but this thread died 5 months ago.Wrong. Actually you can reset AND restore an iPhone without all of those things. When you do it through iTunes it will wipe your phone clean BUT it looks like a new phone until you pass wifi settings and then the activation lock is still there.
Plus there are some interesting hacking software that will remove the activation lock as well. Mind you a solution to get you past the activation lock so there are ways for every damn thing. You just have to super glue your devices to your hand.