Question about selling an iPhone on eBay

[m021478]

Can someone please validate (or dis-prove) the following information I found online:

Question: Let's say I bought my iPhone last year and I want the iPhone 3G. Can I give my old iPhone to my sister or sell it on eBay?

Answer: No, once an existing iPhone user activates service for an iPhone 3G, their first-generation handset will be unusable as a phone. You won't be able to replace it with another AT&T SIM card and use it to make calls. This also means that you can't buy an old iPhone on eBay and expect to activate it on AT&T's network. However, you can use it as a media player and a Wi-Fi device for browsing the Web.​

Does this mean that if in a year I want to upgrade to the newest and greatest that comes out down the line I can't resell it? That would totally blow. Is this the case?

 

[lindsayanng]

thats just not true. The first generation iphone that you would give to your sister would ONLY need a new SIM and a contract with ATT (and even then you can jailbreak to use on other carriers)

The iphone 3G has mixed messages, and some people feel that in order to purchase an iphone you HAVE to have a contract renewal or a new contract, i also think this might be rumor. I can imagine that Apple would NOT want to loose revenue on people wanting to buy them as gifts, so i think that just replacing the SIM on the new 3G iphone would be the same as the old one.. but that is just my opinion..

but you DEFINITELY could give the OLD iphone to someone, or sell it, and just take out the SIM and the buyer (new owner) would just have to go to ATT and get a new sime\

 

[SFStateStudent]

I second that^^^b/c I just got off the phone with AT&T with that issue in mind. My Mom will become the new owner of my current iPhone, and since she's with AT&T already, she'll just pop-in her SIM card and activate with iTunes. She'll go with the data plan, and she could care less about 3G and unlimited text messages.