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Why would someone pay close to $500 for a used iphone 4S??

Want300 said:
About 3 months after I upgraded my first gen iPhone to an iPhone 3G, I dropped it on the sidewalk. Needless to say, the screen was cracked pretty badly. An Apple rep gave my incorrect information about having Apple replace the screen for me. In the end, I convinced Apple to sell me a new one at the upgrade price ($324 with tax). I turned around and sold the cracked iPhone on eBay for like $450 I think. I got paid to get a brand new phone.

My Dad's friend's 32 Gb iPad 2 fell off the roof of his car as he drove to work and got bashed up REALLY bad (this is why you don't put stuff on the roof in order to fish out your keys and unlock the car). Destroying the glass and the LCD of the iPad and put a small dent in the casing. He found it when he got home from work on the side of his street. He bought a new one, and asked me to see if I could get the pictures off of the busted one for him. After I did, I asked if I could have it thinking I may see if could fix it. I realized I did not have the time to fix it and sold it on eBay for $321 (started the auction at $1).
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Lol, I think you forgot to remove 4 in front of $450 for the iphone 3G. I did not even think iphone 3g was still around? Apple still sells them?
 
turaco said:
in that case......I remember the 3G was a pretty hot phone back in the day, it certainly does not surprise me...
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Yea, this was when they were hard to come by without a contract. I almost set up a system with a friend to buy iPhones, cancel the contracts, unlock them, and sell them on eBay. At the time, I would have made about $250 (minus eBay fees, so probably $180) a phone with very little effort. I was in college so I did not want to crush my bank account like that in case something bad happened.

EDIT: Something tells me it was more than that though. Maybe it was $350... Either way, doesn't matter.
 
alent1234 said:
the amazon penny pricing is only for new customers on a carrier. and if you cancel your ETF is like $600 instead of $350
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Sometimes it's for all users upgrade or new. Plus after 181 days the secondary etf is waived.
 
sakau2007 said:
Because the user knows that they are getting a product that will be supported for a while longer. I could buy a Galaxy S3 and not even be sure of that.

When 20 new phones come out on your OS every year instead of 1, the result is shorter device shelf life. Just like when only 10% of your userbase adopts the newest OS, developers can struggle to program apps tailored to your device.
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Those are excellent reasons.

I've purchased 2 iPhones on eBay. The first was for a 32GB black Verizon iPhone 4 w/bad ESN(bad due to non-payment of cell service) for $240. It was only 3 months old and in immaculate condition. I use that one has a dedicated iPod Touch.

After playing around with it, I couldn't help think how convenient it would be if I could also use it as a phone. So I went back to eBay and picked up a brand-new-in-the-box 32GB black AT&T iPhone 4 for $310. Using it with StraightTalk for the past 3 months and just unlocked it today.

What I've discovered is that there is often a lot of emotion wrapped up in bidders when they bid. They've been watching an auction for a few days and they get emotionally invested in the auction that when they go to bid, they'll keep upping their max bid to avoid losing it. The result is that winning bids can often be inflated.

Patience is the key.
 
onthecouchagain said:
Apple's prices are pretty insane.

http://9to5mac.com/2012/07/26/apple-makes-as-much-profit-on-one-iphone-as-it-does-on-two-ipads/

They make anywhere from 49-58 percent profit from a single iPhone sale. The high end of that is nearly 60% profit.

Quite a premium.
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Profit- or money that will go towards R&D, licensing, marketing, customer support, the stores, company overhead, and so on... you know, the things that are the reasons behind why they sell so well and why they retain their value better than other phones.

But then, I'm not really sure what you bringing up their profit margins have to do with this thread.
 
I just sold my wife's 2 year old 16gb iPhone 4 on eBay for $250 plus $10 shipping. She wanted a white 4s and was upgrade eligible so got her a new one for $199 plus tax. So her 2 year old phone, that cost us $199 2 years ago, just got her a new phone with a little extra left over....... I love iPhone resale value.
 
cyks said:
Profit- or money that will go towards R&D, licensing, marketing, customer support, the stores, company overhead, and so on... you know, the things that are the reasons behind why they sell so well and why they retain their value better than other phones.

But then, I'm not really sure what you bringing up their profit margins have to do with this thread.
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Your not sure what the cost of the phone has to do with its resale?

Profit is profit. You can have 0% profit and keep a business going, my company has done it in very slow times a few years ago the rest of the expense (other 40% in this case) is what pays expenses, salaries, insurance, parts, labor, electricity etc etc everything. We only cut profit on a few jobs just to keep employees busy and paid.

Generally profit margins that high are for rare things, precious things, etc.

From a sales perspective if I sold you a common item with a 50% profit margin I ripped you off. Then again if everyone was selling that item for the same profit what can you do? Your options are suck it up and take it, or don't buy it...
 
Am I missing something here? It's an iPhone 4S. The cheapest this can be purchased retail is $650. With taxes, we are just under $700, possibly over, depending where you are. If the phone is like new, $500 is a cool $200 below retail. FWIW, that is just about what people are asking for them locally on CL as well. I guess I just don't understand why the buyer "overpaid". That's basically market value.
 
mjpearce023 said:
A no contract 64gb 4s is 899 new. So 500 is a decent price since its 400 off the brand new price.
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maybe I'm missing something, but where did he say it's a 64? I'm assuming 16gb here, which puts the off contract price at 649...still a $150 savings, so not too hard to see why the buyer paid that much

also, the 64 is actually $849 new
 
Wirelessly posted

The OP seems to be questioning why someone would buy off contract.

For someone who travels between countries a lot it's a god-sent to have a factory unlocked smartphone.
 
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