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penajmz

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Sep 11, 2008
3,797
4,029
New York City
If anyone has ideas please share. This time around with no preorders and not being able to get off work I couldn't get one day 1. Now I want to know how I can get one ASAP. Any recommendations?
 
Last year the iPhone 5 launched Sep 21st and they started reservations 4 days later on the 25th. Hopefully they do that again soon, but it will be still really difficult to get one at this point unless you wait in line early (or get lucky in the middle of the day) or are willing to wait until October.
 
Check the Apple store regularly. They get daily shipments but they don't know when and you practically have to be in the store at the time to get one.
 
If anyone has ideas please share. This time around with no preorders and not being able to get off work I couldn't get one day 1. Now I want to know how I can get one ASAP. Any recommendations?

They get new shipments every day. Line up before the store opens sometime this week and you will get one. MAybe not the gold one, but you will get one.


Maybe.
 
Last year the iPhone 5 launched Sep 21st and they started reservations 4 days later on the 25th. Hopefully they do that again soon, but it will be still really difficult to get one at this point unless you wait in line early (or get lucky in the middle of the day) or are willing to wait until October.

I hope they do too. I know they update inventory at 10 PM daily and I successfully got a 5 when it was in high demand last year by selecting pick up in store right after 10 PM one night.
 
I hope they do too. I know they update inventory at 10 PM daily and I successfully got a 5 when it was in high demand last year by selecting pick up in store right after 10 PM one night.

Yup, my friend got it that way as well but you have to do it literally at 10pm on the dot.
 
Well thanks guys. I will check with the local Apple stores here. I'm sure the 5th ave. one should receive a nice amount of phones daily so I will with them. Thanks!
 
You might want to try building one. ;)

I would personally try out an Apple Store, Best Buy or another store that allows for reservations. If you can get a reservation, it will generally be the fastest way as they set aside shipments for reservations first. Good luck!
 
Radio shack. They have had them since launch but haven't been advertising. Check out your local store
 
Well thanks guys. I will check with the local Apple stores here. I'm sure the 5th ave. one should receive a nice amount of phones daily so I will with them. Thanks!

5th Avenue gets a lot of phones, but also a lot of tourists. My advice is to try Grand Central. I was there last year at 2pm on Launch Saturday and they happened to get a shipment in. They don't have the same crazy crowds as 5th Avenue or UWS because Grand Central is a functioning train terminal.

Also, it's best not to be picky about capacity or color. In Chicago yesterday, the store I was at had plenty of AT&T models, so long as you wanted 64GB Space Gray. They had plenty of Verizon phones, so long as you were OK with 16GB or 32GB Silver. They had no "T-Mobile" phones available but those in the know just bought the AT&T or Verizon models. I don't know about Sprint.
 
Wait in line up front just before the nearest Apple Store nearest to you opens tomorrow.

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Okay, if they do not deliver tonight. Plan for it on Tuesday.
 
5th Avenue gets a lot of phones, but also a lot of tourists. My advice is to try Grand Central. I was there last year at 2pm on Launch Saturday and they happened to get a shipment in. They don't have the same crazy crowds as 5th Avenue or UWS because Grand Central is a functioning train terminal.

Also, it's best not to be picky about capacity or color. In Chicago yesterday, the store I was at had plenty of AT&T models, so long as you wanted 64GB Space Gray. They had plenty of Verizon phones, so long as you were OK with 16GB or 32GB Silver. They had no "T-Mobile" phones available but those in the know just bought the AT&T or Verizon models. I don't know about Sprint.

So you're saying a "device only" purchase of a verizion phone, once restored in iTunes, will also be an unlocked gsm phone? If I found one I could use this with my AT&T sim before my tmo-unlocked is delivered?
 
So you're saying a "device only" purchase of a verizion phone, once restored in iTunes, will also be an unlocked gsm phone? If I found one I could use this with my AT&T sim before my tmo-unlocked is delivered?

No need to restore. Just pop open the SIM tray, replace the Verizon SIM with your AT&T SIM and start it up.

I'm running LTE on AT&T right now on my "Verizon" iPhone. It's identical this year to the AT&T and T-Mobile except the CDMA radio is turned on. That wasn't the case last year, since the Verizon iPhone 5 didn't support AT&T or T-Mobile's LTE bands (though you could use AT&T HSPA+).
 
Order one online as a backup. Then drop by the store periodically throughout the week. If you get one early, cancel the online order. If not, you've got one coming online. If this is for some reason an "emergency" and you need a new phone asap, then get to an Apple Store at like 6AM tomorrow. They'll have new shipments in, and if you're the first one in line, they'll probably have most of them.
 
Agree with one above, go to your local radioshack. Their not allowed to display that they have them yet you have to ask. They obviously don't get very many or various colors but they'll have some.
 
Yup, my friend got it that way as well but you have to do it literally at 10pm on the dot.

Does anyone know if they are allowing this this year for the 5s? I did it last year for the 5, just haven't seen anyone actually do it this year yet.
 
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