Looking to buy an unlocked used 3GS, are they all also jailbroken?

[roisin and mac]

My iphone was stolen recently, and as I wasn't counting on upgrading until about a year later, the replacement will need to be a used one so I don't totally blow my budget I looked locally but there's nothing interesting, so my only choice is probably going online, which means ebay since I'm buying internationally.

I know I need one that's unlocked, because I won't be using it in the same country it's bought (and the odds of finding a phone locked to the specific network are slim to none). But I keep finding iphones that are marked 'unlocked and JAILBROKEN'. Trouble is, I'm not sure I want a jailbroken phone, because I've heard jailbreaking ends up causing all kinds of problems with the software, and I don't need that: for me, there's zero benefit in sacrificing any of the reliability I've come to know and love just for the opportunity to download a bunch of potentially lower-quality apps - not when there's so many interesting apps I can get without bending/breaking the rules (not judging those who do this in any way, just presenting my own perspective based on my own lifestyle).

The problem is that most of the phones listed as 'unlocked' also have 'jailbroken' in the description. So now I'm getting concerned that these two go hand-in-hand - like maybe, jailbreaking is one of the steps in the process of unlocking the iphone, so that by definitiion, an unlocked iphone is a jailbroken one?

And if so, what should I pay attention to when buying so that I can minimize the chance of getting a bad one? If not, can I ask one of these sellers to undo the jailbreaking somehow and just send the phone unlocked - is that a possibility? I'm reasonably experienced buying on ebay (studying feedback, etc) but this is the first large purchase of this kind, so ANY advice you can think of to make this work will be most welcome

 

[0007776]

I think most of the phones on eBay come from the US where Apple just started selling unlocked models a few days ago. If it isn't an official factory unlock it has to be jailbroken to be unlocked.
However if you look long enough you should be able to find one from outside the US which is factory unlocked.

 

[ratzzo]

That's probably because they used software unlock through jailbreak (along the lines of ultrasn0w). And because most people want their iPhones to be jailbroken, so if they are, they might sell their merchandise sooner, and so they just leave it jailbroken.

You can always restore the iPhone when you get it, and the whole jailbreak will diseappear.

 

[roisin and mac]

That's probably because they used software unlock through jailbreak (along the lines of ultrasn0w). And because most people want their iPhones to be jailbroken, so if they are, they might sell their merchandise sooner, and so they just leave it jailbroken.

You can always restore the iPhone when you get it, and the whole jailbreak will diseappear.

really? it just goes away, leaving behind no leftover issues? lol sorry about the non-technical language, I don't want to risk using a technical term unless I'm quite sure I know what it means, or I might end up looking like I know more about the subject than I really do and then I won't be able to understand all I need

Will I lose any of the backed up data that's still saved from my old iphone?

I think most of the phones on eBay come from the US where Apple just started selling unlocked models a few days ago. If it isn't an official factory unlock it has to be jailbroken to be unlocked.
However if you look long enough you should be able to find one from outside the US which is factory unlocked.

okay, so the bottom line is to look for 'factory unlocked' phones (will probably not be from the US); failing that or if they're too expensive, get one that's unlocked and jailbroken but restore it immediately to get rid of the jailbreak. Am I getting this right?

 

[eastercat]

That also kills the unlock, which kind of defeats the purpose for the OP.

ETA:
OP, a lot of the software-unlocked 3GS will use the ipad bb. You can't update via itunes. You have to use pwnage or snowbreeze to update. You also won't have gps. If you don't want this, you'll have to ask the seller what the bb is. 6.15 is the ipad bb.
Some sellers will try to pawn off a software unlock and sell as a factory unlock. To guard against this, you'll have to check the bb against the iOS. If it matches, you'll be fine. If not, the seller just ripped you off. Jailbreakmatrix has a list of the iOSs and their corresponding bb.

You can always restore the iPhone when you get it, and the whole jailbreak will diseappear.

 

[0007776]

okay, so the bottom line is to look for 'factory unlocked' phones (will probably not be from the US); failing that or if they're too expensive, get one that's unlocked and jailbroken but restore it immediately to get rid of the jailbreak. Am I getting this right?

the look for factory unlocked phones is correct, but if you get one that is software unlocked you have to keep it jail broken or you will lose the unlock. Also if you do get one that is jail broken and unlocked like another poster said ask what baseband it is on. Most likely it will be on the iPad baseband 6.15 which works fine but does have some issues, mostly no gps and you can't restore from iTunes only with custom jail broken firmware.

 

[briankeating]

I remember buying a new iphone 3 from ebay...after using the phone for about 3 months, someone told me that it was a used refurbished phone, i immediately got it checked with the apple store and indeed it was. I was shocked coz I paid the prize of a new one. But one lucky thing, is that I have not faced any problems with this phone.