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How much would you pay for an unlocked Iphone 3G??

V

vtmikevt

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 11, 2007
138
0
So I'm in Belgium right now and the iPhone goes on sale tonight at midnight (called Mobistar and it's on a recording). The cost is nearly $830. I fly back to the US at 9:30AM CET to arrive 12:30PM EST.

Anyone think it's worth buying 2 and selling them in the US?

Another question: are these iPhones unlocked or what? They must have different firmware or something or are all US iPhones unlocked but they won't let you out of the store unless you activate them?

EDIT: I can also possibly buy it through my company to avoid paying the 21% VAT (tax)
 
hi...

it seems as if they weren't unlocked from the time you purchase them. you need to register your imei number at apple and a few day's later you will get a notice from apple to reset your iphone using itunes. after this it should be unlocked.

i'm also very interested in buying one in belgium or france (i hope there it will also cost "only" € 615 like in belgium because it's easier for me to get there). can you please drop me a message if there were any problems while you purchase them in the shop or after.

i'm from austria, but i don't want to get into a new 2-year-contract because i will travel alot over the next year(s), so i don't want to pay the exorbitant roaming fees.

cheers,
flow
 
£650 for two 16gb

well that's how much i paid to a relative in Geniva (Swiss com is selling on paygo for £300ish each, and unlock will be released soon enough)
 
Xplicit said:
0 - n o p o i n t o f v o i d i n g c o n t r a c t a n d w a r r e n t y
Click to expand...

You won't void your warranty. Not in the UK anyway. Hardware has to be replaced if it is faulty regardless of what you do with the phone. The only thing they can exclude from that is damage caused by unlocking (e.g, bricked phone) or water damage, as this is classed as accidental damage, rather than a fault. Even if O2 tell you otherwise, they *have* to honour the hardware warranty for up to 6 years if it is proven that the item was faulty as a result of poor assembly/substandard parts etc.
 
Buying a legally unlocked, paying the full price that is, in Europe will give you a one year warranty by Apple, so if you have a problem in the US it will be just like it's always been with macbooks, wherever you are you can get assistance.
in Italy iPhones are going to cost a little less than in Belgium/France/Germany, 499€ for the 8Gb and 70€ more for the 16Gb.
But I don't get it, is AT&T that bad compared to T-Mobile?the iPhone plans you have are envied by the whole world..
oh,in Italy and I guess in all Europe, electronical items have warranties from 2 to 3 years of warranty, don't know what's going to happen with the iPhones..
for the last year you could buy unlocked 2.5Gs for 499 and 599 and if it had any problems they handed you a new one..
 
I don't find AT&T to be that bad in the US. I don't understand the large need to have another carrier. I have a Blackberry on T-mobile with my company that I'd like to replace with an iPhone.

I don't see myself gaining much profit for all the effort required to get one tonight. I'll grab one when I land in the US at a much lower price.
 
vtmikevt said:
So I'm in Belgium right now and the iPhone goes on sale tonight at midnight (called Mobistar and it's on a recording). The cost is nearly $830. I fly back to the US at 9:30AM CET to arrive 12:30PM EST.

Anyone think it's worth buying 2 and selling them in the US?

Another question: are these iPhones unlocked or what? They must have different firmware or something or are all US iPhones unlocked but they won't let you out of the store unless you activate them?

EDIT: I can also possibly buy it through my company to avoid paying the 21% VAT (tax)
Click to expand...

Why would you sell them in the US? They won't work on T-Mobile, only on AT&T.
 
vtmikevt said:
I don't think that's true. There is no AT&T in Belgium. They work with any company's SIM you put in.
Click to expand...
You will get neither 3G data nor visual voicemail on T-Mobile in the US. Nobody is going to pay $800 for an unlocked iPhone, even if T-Mo had the right kind of 3G network.

Those interested will undoubtedly find the tools to do it themselves, for free, and save themselves the hassle of shipping and customs delays. There are cheaper unlocked iPhones from elsewhere in Europe, should anyone want to buy a factory-unlocked model for some reason.
 
matticus008 said:
You will get neither 3G data nor visual voicemail on T-Mobile in the US. Nobody is going to pay $800 for an unlocked iPhone, even if T-Mo had the right kind of 3G network.

Those interested will undoubtedly find the tools to do it themselves, for free, and save themselves the hassle of shipping and customs delays. There are cheaper unlocked iPhones from elsewhere in Europe, should anyone want to buy a factory-unlocked model for some reason.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Not worth the trouble at all.
 
the cheapest contractless iPhone in the world seems to be the swiss one,300£?375€ or 560$ and supposing someone has to pay for shipping and has to gain something an american person interested in this item would have to pay about 650$ in the best case, for an unlocked, uncovered by warranty iPhone..while in Europe as far as I know contracts are not used too often unless you're a businessman or someone else is paying, you get smarter cheaper offers with prepaid options, even for data(not unlimited in Italy) or text/phonecalls..in the US everyone has a contract, maybe starting as kids your parents want to control your credit or something, and you get to pay for a contract even when you have a lousy 30$ Motorola..
back to the price,650$? wouldn't it be eventually cheaper to buy an iPhone in the US,pay the first month and then break the contract and pay that fine, if it's less than 400$ I guess you can still consider yourself lucky paying less than for a european iPhone...well,it's still chinese,but imported from Europe
 
svndmvn said:
the cheapest contractless iPhone in the world seems to be the swiss one,300£?375€ or 560$ and supposing someone has to pay for shipping and has to gain something an american person interested in this item would have to pay about 650$ in the best case, for an unlocked, uncovered by warranty iPhone..while in Europe as far as I know contracts are not used too often unless you're a businessman or someone else is paying, you get smarter cheaper offers with prepaid options, even for data(not unlimited in Italy) or text/phonecalls..in the US everyone has a contract, maybe starting as kids your parents want to control your credit or something, and you get to pay for a contract even when you have a lousy 30$ Motorola..
back to the price,650$? wouldn't it be eventually cheaper to buy an iPhone in the US,pay the first month and then break the contract and pay that fine, if it's less than 400$ I guess you can still consider yourself lucky paying less than for a european iPhone...well,it's still chinese,but imported from Europe
Click to expand...
The Swisscom iPhone is not unlocked. It just doesnt come with a contract. + the warranty is still valid since it applies to the hardware, not the sim card within. If you virginize the phone before turning it in they'll fix it for you.
 
frosse said:
The Swisscom iPhone is not unlocked. It just doesnt come with a contract. + the warranty is still valid since it applies to the hardware, not the sim card within. If you virginize the phone before turning it in they'll fix it for you.
Click to expand...

I know it's not unlocked but like someone from UK was saying earlier you could eventually buy it for 300ish£ and then unlock it, and like it sometimes happens using ziphone especially you might have some problems with it,freezing on you and such, not letting you re-virginize it and therefore having to go to switzerland or whatever, without knowing for sure if you'll get free assistance..and if you're in the US I guess you'd need a contract with AT&T for assistance, i could be wrong though..if you're lucky enough, you can pay it 650$ and then have it taken a look by someone at the genius bar showing your swiss check..still,the only guaranteed unlocked iPhones will probably be available in Italy,Belgium,France and maybe Germany
 
I'd be surprised if you can get more than $500 for an unlocked 3G in the US after the initial craziness is over. Not worth the hassle IMO.
 
svndmvn said:
I know it's not unlocked but like someone from UK was saying earlier you could eventually buy it for 300ish£ and then unlock it, and like it sometimes happens using ziphone especially you might have some problems with it,freezing on you and such, not letting you re-virginize it and therefore having to go to switzerland or whatever, without knowing for sure if you'll get free assistance..and if you're in the US I guess you'd need a contract with AT&T for assistance, i could be wrong though..if you're lucky enough, you can pay it 650$ and then have it taken a look by someone at the genius bar showing your swiss check..still,the only guaranteed unlocked iPhones will probably be available in Italy,Belgium,France and maybe Germany
Click to expand...
Yep. But one should never use ZiPhone any more as it ****s up your phone, like you say. ALWAYS use Pwnage Tool from iPhone Dev Team. With Pwnage you never ever have to re-virginize either, so Pwnage is the way to go.

The unlocked ones from italy, belg, france etc will prolly be VERY expensive, so Swisscom is the way to do it :)
 
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