I received my iPhone 4 today from Apple, and I got it at the $199 price since I was eligible for an upgrade. I have decided that I'm more than happy with my 3GS because I don't want to deal with all this reception/yellow/fragility/etc nonsense and it would be better off for me to just sell the new 4. Since the phone is still sealed, can I sell it as it is and the new buyer can plug it into itunes and enter his phone number? Or is my phone number or information and the like already attached to the new sim card?
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Selling a sealed iPhone 4
- Thread starter vse8824
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My understanding, based on the hassle that I encountered activating an iPhone 4 that I purchased with my wife's upgrade, is that the sim is pre-registered to the phone number on which it was purchased. When the new buyer goes to activate, iTunes will attempt to activate on that number. That will not only cause the new buyer problems, it will cause you problems as well.
The phone's IMEI number is attached to the sim which is attached to your AT&T account. IF you ship it out with the sim and the person activates it, your 3GS will stop working and the person can call any where in the world and you will be responsible for the charges. Open the box, take out the sim, ship and enjoy the extra $$ in your pocket.
Sorry but this is just not TRUE!
There is nothing stored on the iPhone 4 or the new Micro SIM. The information is only parked on your AT&T account and only if you purchase an upgrade of an existing line. When you connect the iPhone 4 to iTunes a connection is made to the Activation server and based on the IMEI of the iPhone your existing phone number is pre-popuplated into the iTunes activation screen and you can't just type in a different number.
In the case of the OP, the person can't activate the iPhone 4 with the included Micro SIM if the OP does not share the last 4 digits of their SSN and their Billing ZIPCODE. They just need to call Customer Care and provide the IMEI and the ICCID from the new "Unused" Micro SIM to the Care rep if they are going to use AT&T.
For the OP: if you decide to open the phone and activate, there is no need to include the Micro SIM as it can't be reused for phone service by the person that purchases your iPhone 4 via eBay once you deactivate it. AT&T will not allow a SIM of any type to be reused once it has been deactivated. Yes, it would be helpful for you to provide the deactivated Micro SIM to a buyer. They can use it to unlock the iPhone 4 should they need to do a "restore" in the future. Since, by default it will be relocked to AT&T and want an AT&T SIM to do the device unlock (not a carrier unlock, just the device). It was helpful with the original iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and now the iPhone 4 but again you don't really care.
Note: I would suggest that you consider selling locally and having the buyer open the sealed packaging while you watch just to protect both parties shoud there be any disagreement about what is / was in the box.
Dave
