If I sold my iPhone 3G on eBay.....

[DeaconGraves]

On most other respectable forums, posts like this get deleted. Does no one remember the debacle at Howard Forums when MobiTV tried to shut them down alleging that HoFo was encouraging people to rip them off?

Ah, but there's no ripping off here. At least not of AT&T. Let's go through this step by step.

- OP buys 8GB iPhone for $200. Signs two-year contract with AT&T. (Currently out $200)
- OP sells 8GB iPhone on Ebay. OP said he thought he could get between $700-$1000 for the phone, so lets say he gets $850. (Currently up $650).
- OP has to pay Ebay fees. Lets say $4.00 for the insertion fee and the final value fee of about $31.00) (Currently up $615).
- Presumably, the buyer is going to want to use PayPal, and lets assume he uses a credit card as opposed to an automatic bank deduction. That's another 4.9% charge for $41.65. (Currently up $573.35).
- OP buys himself a shiny new 8GB/16GB iPhone for $400/$500 (Currently up $173.35/$73.35).

So, if OP can only sell his first phone for $700, he either losing $76 or makes $23 (depending on the size of the 2nd). If he makes $1000, he makes between $223-$323.

Meanwhile, AT&T still rings him up for $70 bucks a month, and perhaps has the 2nd buyer on contract as well.

So, I ask you, who's ripping off who?

 

[ALittleDrive]

Exactly!

Ah, but there's no ripping off here. At least not of AT&T. Let's go through this step by step.

- OP buys 8GB iPhone for $200. Signs two-year contract with AT&T. (Currently out $200)
- OP sells 8GB iPhone on Ebay. OP said he thought he could get between $700-$1000 for the phone, so lets say he gets $850. (Currently up $650).
- OP has to pay Ebay fees. Lets say $4.00 for the insertion fee and the final value fee of about $31.00) (Currently up $615).
- Presumably, the buyer is going to want to use PayPal, and lets assume he uses a credit card as opposed to an automatic bank deduction. That's another 4.9% charge for $41.65. (Currently up $573.35).
- OP buys himself a shiny new 8GB/16GB iPhone for $400/$500 (Currently up $173.35/$73.35).

So, if OP can only sell his first phone for $700, he either losing $76 or makes $23 (depending on the size of the 2nd). If he makes $1000, he makes between $223-$323.

Meanwhile, AT&T still rings him up for $70 bucks a month, and perhaps has the 2nd buyer on contract as well.

So, I ask you, who's ripping off who?

Exactly, dude, now AT&T has yet another iphone customer, another 2 year contract! Why would they care?? They should encourage it.

 

[ALittleDrive]

Exactly, dude, now AT&T has yet another iphone customer, another 2 year contract! Why would they care?? They should encourage it.

The only person getting ripped off is the person who pays $700-$1000 for the dam iphone. Though, in some countries where it is not available or where the currency is worth much more than the dollar, it is probably worth it! Everybody wins!!

 

[CluTcH]

i just sold mine on ebay for $899. but you have to be careful because that was my 2nd listing of the iphone 3g. Some guy first bought it for $1059 and supposedly lived in texas but said he was on a buisness trip to Australia and wanted me to send it to his son in vietnam. First of all i immediatly put a stop to this because paypal called me and said it was fradulant and refunded the dude his money because he wanted me to send it to an unconfirmed paypal address which meant once the guy recieved it in vietnam, he could say he never got it because i wouldnt have sended it to the confirmed address and he would be refunded the money and have my iphone. 2nd time i shipped it to a confirmed paypal address in spain. So just be careful when selling and call paypal to verify the payment before sending it off.

Also i'm not going to be lying to get my next iphone 3g because im on a family plan and my brother dosn't want one so im just going to upgrade it off his line and switch it over to mine. i already cleared it with AT&T. So im going to be putting the money i earned in a savings account to buy a Macbook pro for college in next spring plus im getting a free iphone 3g. yea for me and good luck to you

 

[CD3660]

...not to mention the dishonesty involved in the proposed scheme!

Sorry if this caused a stir, but I was posting late at night (U.K.) after a very long Monday at work and may have misunderstood the earlier posts. I rather assumed that the truth would not be told to AT&T in order to get the replacement iPhone.

I may be wrong but I would be extremely surprised if AT&T would happily sell a second subsidised iPhone to someone who openly confessed to having sold his/her first one on eBay for a profit. Can you imagine the conversation:

Customer:
' Excuse me, I've just sold my 10-day old iPhone 3G on eBay for $1,000 so that I could make a quick personal profit, and I'd like to replace it with another subsidised iPhone. Is that a problem?'

AT&T:
'Not at all Sir, we are perfectly happy for you to make a profit out of a product that we have subsidised. I'll just get you another one from the back. You will, of course, have to start your contract again, but the new contract will end just 10 days after your original contract would have ended anyway. Thank you for your business. Please call again'

 

[sparkyms]

Haha, yeah. Surely ATT are going to ask questions about where your iPhone 3G went, and why you want to buy a new one with no contract. They're not just going to sell you a phone for $399/$499 with no questions asked.

You could probably say you broke it and binned it I guess, but if you say you lost it couldn't they block the IMEI of the phone and then the poor bastard who bought the phone can't use the damned thing?

That, would be bad times.