If you sell your iPhone 4 before activating, how much $ do you owe AT&T?

[soupcxan]

I ordered an iPhone 4 from AT&T for $199 as an upgrade on my line, I'm out of contract. I don't have a data plan today. If I want to sell the iphone before I activate it, what is the total that AT&T charge me? $199 + $325 ETF? Or $599 as the unsubsidized price? Either way, will I still be responsible for paying the $15/mo data plan?

If you pay $599 for the phone and ebay it for $800, that's only $200 profit before ebay fees ($50) and paypal fees ($24), so now you're looking at $125. Am I missing something? Flipping the phone hardly seems worth it - basically you would have sold your 2 year contract renewal benefit for $125 which is much less than the discount you'd get from taking advantage of a subsidized phone. I guess if you are sure you won't want to upgrade for the next 2 years it's free money, but what if you lose your phone or something?

 

[tesilential]

You will have to pay the monthly bill for that line for 24 months.

You can drop the data simply by calling up after a month, and you can avoid the $325 ETF fee by not canceling the line.

 

[mistertomlinson]

You'll get more with a Buy It Now price. There's always someone with plenty of money that isn't interested in the time involved with bidding... and if your description has quality, you'll more likely make a sell. So many people slap one image of their phone up and toss a 2 sentence description out, when they'd likely make more if they spend a little time. I always upload several pictures at multiple angles in good light so you can really see the details. I also include my username on paper in a couple of the images. Don't skimp on the description and make it pretty. I usually include a thorough description of my item followed by a few stock shots/description from Apple. I like to use a page theme too... I can guarantee you'd make over $1,000 if you took the above advice, assuming you have ample positive feedback and you don't wait too long after receiving the phone.

It seems the average auction price is ~$800, but I've seen plenty go for over $1,000. I've been thinking about selling my iPhone 4 as well, considering you could very well make enough money to buy a no-commitment priced iPhone and a 16GB iPad. You just gotta go without a phone for another month or so.