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New iPhone 5s models on Swappa

maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
Original poster
May 3, 2009
74,588
44,872
I have a question regarding what I see on swappa. I'm looking for some phones for my twin daughters and stumbled upon a seller with a good track record selling "New (Resale) condition for $284" iPhone 5s. Now Apple sells them brand new for 450.

What am I missing, i.e., why is he selling them at 284. Does this smell too fishy?

I'll be posting a question or two to him, regarding the price but I wanted members here to chime in.

I'm only now trying to figure out how much I should expect to pay for a 5s or a 5c for my kids.
 
In my country these prices are normal on the grey market.
You can easily find a brand new 6s Plus 64GB sealed in the box starting at 720$ when they retail at 1,060$.

:)
 
Newtons Apple said:
The price would scare me off but you never know.
Click to expand...
I've always gone by the mentality of if its too good to be true then it is and TBH, this is approaching that threshold. I guess I may be putting too much trust in Swappa and the idea that they only have clean phones to sell (clean in the sense its not stolen, locked or otherwise fraudulent).
 
If you can get the IMEI and run it through whatever carrier they are on. Or call your carrier's customer service and give them the IMEI and see if they are financed on the guy's account.
They won't give you any of the guy's account info. But they can check to see if the phones are financed.
You do have some protections from PayPal. I think you have 40 days of buyer protections to return the phones through them.
 
jamezr said:
If you can get the IMEI and run it through whatever carrier they are on.
Click to expand...

You need to provide the ESN number when selling a phone on Swappa and they use that to see if its clean, isn't that the same thing?

You're right about PayPal though I think they extended the protections beyond 40 days.
 
maflynn said:
You need to provide the ESN number when selling a phone on Swappa and they use that to see if its clean, isn't that the same thing?

You're right about PayPal though I think they extended the protections beyond 40 days.
Click to expand...
They do have to provide the ESN (Verizon, Sprint) or IMEI for GSM phones. But they don't do as thorough a check for financed phones. They just check for blacklisted phones for non payment or that are stolen. I bought a phone that was financed from Swappa. I contacted the seller and he was in the process of paying the balance off so all was good.
[doublepost=1453294160][/doublepost]I have bought and sold a number of phones on Swappa. Besides the one issue i mentioned already, I have had good experiences on that site.
If the seller has been around for a while and has good feedback, then you are probably safe.
Check eBay too. Their buyer protections are the best around. So you are pretty safe in that regard. You can return the product for any reason and get a refund on eBay.
 
maflynn said:
I've always gone by the mentality of if its too good to be true then it is and TBH, this is approaching that threshold. I guess I may be putting too much trust in Swappa and the idea that they only have clean phones to sell (clean in the sense its not stolen, locked or otherwise fraudulent).
Click to expand...

Swappa seems to have the trust of most who have used it so even if something was wrong, I think they would make it right.
 
Newtons Apple said:
Swappa seems to have the trust of most who have used it so even if something was wrong, I think they would make it right.
Click to expand...
I've bought and sold on Swappa and I definitely have more of a peace of mind with them but that doesn't mean I shouldn't be vigilant. ;)
 
maflynn said:
I have a question regarding what I see on swappa. I'm looking for some phones for my twin daughters and stumbled upon a seller with a good track record selling "New (Resale) condition for $284" iPhone 5s. Now Apple sells them brand new for 450.

What am I missing, i.e., why is he selling them at 284. Does this smell too fishy?
Click to expand...
That's interesting to me, as someone hacked into my AT&T account last week and started up a new line of service, buying an iPhone 5s.

I couldn't understand why they'd buy an iPhone 5s instead of a 6s, but ... I guess they're all just as easy to resell. Wonder if they're dumping them on Swappa for that cheap?

AT&T credited me everything back (except the hit on my credit score from the credit check). I immediately changed my password (from a 1password-recommended 16-digit random one to a Safari-recommended random one). The next day, I got an email from AT&T's website that someone had changed my new password. I called in before they could buy another phone. No clue how they were able to get either of my passwords. Waiting to see how it goes today.
 
Last edited:
The thing that raises the red flags is he has a couple of 5s phones for sale as New. He did respond to my query:

It's exactly what it means. The phone is new. Never used or activated. It's been opened just to snap the photos.

You can either pay 450 or 284, you're getting the same thing.
Click to expand...
 
OP: that ad says new condition, not new phone. And it's a resale, not a first sale. Sounds like he means it's a nice, new looking used phone. And $284 is not low for a mint 5s on Swappa currently.

And as mentioned above, Swappa doesn't check to see if the phones are still tied to a contract. Heck, I've even had to return phones bought on Swappa that were still active on another line. Swappa only refunds the $10 fee they have in it. You have to recover the rest from the seller yourself, or with PayPal's help.

Update : saw your new post. I'd pass.
 
maflynn said:
The thing that raises the red flags is he has a couple of 5s phones for sale as New. He did respond to my query:
Click to expand...
What's his feedback? Is his feedback linked to eBay too. Sometimes between the two you can get a good idea what you're getting from the seller. I would ask point blank. Are they brand new or refurbished/reconditioned warranty replacements.
 
maflynn said:
I have a question regarding what I see on swappa. I'm looking for some phones for my twin daughters and stumbled upon a seller with a good track record selling "New (Resale) condition for $284" iPhone 5s. Now Apple sells them brand new for 450.

What am I missing, i.e., why is he selling them at 284. Does this smell too fishy?

I'll be posting a question or two to him, regarding the price but I wanted members here to chime in.

I'm only now trying to figure out how much I should expect to pay for a 5s or a 5c for my kids.
Click to expand...
The seller bought the phones for $150 when VirginMobile was running a promotion, then opened them up to unlock them. There's nothing fishy here, he is actually making a profit of $134 on each phone.

Here is the link of $150 promotion for iPhone 5S, it's currently out of stock:
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/shop/cell-phones/iphone5s-gray-phone/features/#

I bought two brand new iPhone 5Ss for $150 as well and just unlocked them for $15 each. It ended up costing me $165 each which is a great deal. This actually is a fair price for a 3 year old model. $450 is absurd for such an outdated hardware
 
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jamezr said:
What's his feedback?
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He's fairly active (73 sales) and his ebay feedback appears to be very good as well

dark_knight177 said:
The seller bought the phones for $150 when VirginMobile was running a promotion, then opened them up to unlock them. There's nothing fishy here, he is actually making a profit of $134 on each phone.
Click to expand...

Ok, that makes sense.
 
maflynn said:
I have a question regarding what I see on swappa. I'm looking for some phones for my twin daughters and stumbled upon a seller with a good track record selling "New (Resale) condition for $284" iPhone 5s. Now Apple sells them brand new for 450.

What am I missing, i.e., why is he selling them at 284. Does this smell too fishy?

I'll be posting a question or two to him, regarding the price but I wanted members here to chime in.

I'm only now trying to figure out how much I should expect to pay for a 5s or a 5c for my kids.
Click to expand...
Was this boost mobile model? they were brand new for 150$ on boostmobile site and some people had success unlocking them. :)
 
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maflynn said:
He's fairly active (73 sales) and his ebay feedback appears to be very good as well



Ok, that makes sense.
Click to expand...

Just my 2 pennies as someone who sells and buys on Swappa quite regularly. If he has solid Swappa/eBay feedback I would not stress too much about it.

I know there are quite a few resellers on there that resell unused/used corporate phones, without seeing the post I'm not 100% sure if that's the case here.

In the event this does goes south Swappa has VERY responsive staff and I'm certain they'll fix it. Not only that but you also have the PayPal protection as well.
 
I7guy said:
One is also warrantied by the manufacturer and one is not. Depends if that counts for something for you.
Click to expand...
Both are warranted by manufacturer. How do you know they are not? Are you the seller? Do you have a crystal ball?

I doubt the seller sat on brand new iPhones for more than a year just to make sure the warranty expires. As i explained earlier the seller bought the phones during the VirginMobile promotion for $150 each brand new. Considering the promotion just ended, the phones still have one year warranty minus a couple of weeks
 
dark_knight177 said:
Both are warranted by manufacturer. How do you know they are not? Are you the seller? Do you have a crystal ball?

I doubt the seller sat on brand new iPhones for more than a year just to make sure the warranty expires. As i explained earlier the seller bought the phones during the VirginMobile promotion for $150 each brand new. Considering the promotion just ended, the phones still have one year warranty minus a couple of weeks
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So if you buy a random phone off the street, Craigslist, swappa , eBay etc Apple will apply a standard one year warranty to the phone that they didn't sell?
 
I7guy said:
So if you buy a random phone off the street, Craigslist, swappa , eBay etc Apple will apply a standard one year warranty to the phone that they didn't sell?
Click to expand...

Apple did sell it. They sold it through an official dealer or Apple store. That's when the warranty begins. When you buy it off the street has no effect on the warranty.
 
I7guy said:
So if you buy a random phone off the street, Craigslist, swappa , eBay etc Apple will apply a standard one year warranty to the phone that they didn't sell?
Click to expand...

Well Apple or the carrier sold the phone originally so whatever remains of the 1 year warranty goes with he phone. If for whatever reason these phones are 2 years old then no there isn't going to be a warranty remaining.

The OP can ask the seller for the serial number to check the warranty status.
 
kupkakez said:
Well Apple or the carrier sold the phone originally so whatever remains of the 1 year warranty goes with he phone. If for whatever reason these phones are 2 years old then no there isn't going to be a warranty remaining.

The OP can ask the seller for the serial number to check the warranty status.
Click to expand...
So that's really the answer, the warranty should be checked prior to sale to see
If the warranty is valid.
 
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