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Help with selling iPhone 3G with maximum profit?

B

BoxerRumble

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 16, 2010
38
0
Hey everyone,

I am brand new to the forums and hope to learn a lot from these forums. I just ordered an iPhone 4 and I am hoping to sell my iPhone 3G 8 GB OS 3.0, black on eBay once I receive the phone.

I have a couple of questions with the process since I want to sell it for as much as I can (who wouldn't?). I know I should have sold the phone a few months ago when they were fetching better prices but was busy with some stuff.

Now, I know when I post on eBay, I am going to post with a bunch of nice pictures to show the phone's condition. I will write a brief description and also take pictures of the iPhone with the included accessories. I have the original box, charger/usb cable, earphones, and some of the wrapping. I did lose the clothe. I am going to include a case and maybe the car charger.

Anyways, I have a few questions about preparing the phone for sale. Now, I've read that jailbroken/unlocked phones get the best prices so I want to keep my phone with the same OS and jailbreak. Some questions I have are:

1. How do I prepare the iPhone to ship to the new buyer?

2. How do I know if my phone is unlocked. I think I jailbroken the phone with redsnow, I have cydia and installous on there, and I have tethering. I do not know if it's jailbroken. The OS is 3.0. Most of the stuff that I have were done by my brother or sister.

3. What is the process I should follow to sell the phone? Is it even possible to keep my phone as it is now (OS 3.0, jailbroken/ unlocked?) but also have my information safe such as deleting all photos, contact information, etc.

4. Do I send the sim card to the buyer or keep it? I guess if they want to use it on ATT they are going to need a sim card? Are the phone's information (contacts, photos) stored on the sim card or no? Does the sim card only pertain to the actual cellular service and not serve as flash memory?

I have been reading about selling the iPhone but it did not pertain to my specific situation. If I can't keep my current OS and jailbroken status and having my settings deleted, is it possible to erase all my information and restore it with the newest OS , 4.1? and then jail break it?

Sorry for the long post, and thank you for taking the time to read it and help me.

Mike
 
1. Just like you would ship anything else. Put the phone in its original box. Then put that in a bigger box and stuff with newspaper or popcorn or another filler to secure it in the box.

2. How do you "Think" you jailbroke it. If it has cydia on there then it is jailbroken. But it may not be unlocked. First you jailbreak then you unlock it. If you are not sure then it is probably just jailbroken.

3. Go to Settings --> General --> Reset and select "Erase All Content and Settings"

4. Never ever give someone a SIM card. The will need to go to ATT and get a new one or use their existing active one. Your iPhone 4 comes with a SIM card. Just destroy the one in the 3g. It will be no good once you activate your iPhone4
 
In my past experience free overseas shipping and an item description full of hyperbole has netted me the most $$$ on apple upgrades.

I know it may seem bad but sometimes I go into the completed auctions in eBay(advanced search show completed), find the auction that sold for the most money and wholesale cut and paste their HTML. I have noticed that posting an ad with a nice layout nets more profit. Especialy on craigs list. It is worth the effort to research what listings worked and which didn't. The completed listings search is a hood tool for that.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

If I do the erase all content and settings, won't they erase the jailbreak and force me to restore with the latest OS?
 
Be super careful about overseas shipping, lots of rip-off stories (STFF). I recommend a meet-in-person deal for cash on CL, FWIW.

I sold mine to a guy in Aruba (no, not Van Der Sloot), and was nervous the whole time about getting an email from Paypal later telling me the funds were bogus after I'd already shipped, but I got lucky, he has scruples.

Save yourself the dice throw, go CL.
 
Go with Craigslist kijiji or whatever, i personally avoid the hassle of selling through ebay.
 
I agree with deesea. Use Craigslist or Kijiji. Not only will save the hassle of shipping out (working in the shipping charges with your price, insuring, and making sure it gets there), as this is a local service, but you will always find someone who'll want to buy your item for the asking price and it's cash transaction. Money in your hand, not waiting for something to clear or dealing with credit cards. Tip: Make the price a little higher than what your willing to sell it for, at least that way you can bring it down, if the person asks if your willing to sell it for cheaper.

I've sold plenty of items through Craigslist and Kijiji, at always at asking price. Plus,they come to me, or I go to their place, or we meet at an agreed location. Never more than a 20 min drive, and often it's within walking distance of me. Gotta love the local aspect.
 
Yeah, definitely avoid online auction places cuz you re gonna have such a headache shipping it. I sold my refurbished laptop over ebay some time ago and it got lost during transport :mad:
 
Hm, thanks for all the replies guys. I will put it up on craigslist for a week and some days to see if I can sell it there. If not then I'll have to go ebay. I've sold a laptop on eBay and got lucky with a legit buyer. I read all the horror stories and I really do not want to sell it through eBay, but if I can't sell it locally I'll have no choice.

I emailed eBay about seller protection and how to avoid the "I received an empty box" scam. Let's see what they have to say..

Although I must say eBay, well, mostly PayPal sucks with customer service and helping you out.

I was scammed once through Paypal, the only reason why I got my money back was because my credit card company had my back.
 
What if the person wanting to buy a used iPhone doesn't want a cell phone contract and plans on using it with Wifi apps and as an iPod. Don't they still need the SIM card so they can sync it with iTunes?
 
Resist said:
What if the person wanting to buy a used iPhone doesn't want a cell phone contract and plans on using it with Wifi apps and as an iPod. Don't they still need the SIM card so they can sync it with iTunes?
Click to expand...


That's their problem! Never give up your sim card!
 
Resist said:
But the iPhone doesn't store your personal information on the SIM card.
Click to expand...

thats not your problem, its theirs. just to be safe, take it out. let them deal with a SIM card for it. They prolly have one already anyways. and if they dont, they can go get one.
 
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