Selling an iPhone on Craigslist — “No Receipt Needed, If You Know What I Mean”
7:38 am, May 8th, 2008, Leander Kahney
It seems there’s lots of people desperate to get their hands on unopened iPhones — even a couple of weeks before older models are outdated.
A couple of months ago I bought a 16-Gbyte iPhone at the Apple Store, thinking I’d upgrade from my original 8-Gbyte iPhone. But then rumors of the iPhone 2.0 started catching fire, so I didn’t open it. With the release of a 3G iPhone looking likely in early June, I thought it better to wait.
Trouble is, I waited too long to return the unopened iPhone to the Apple Store, which has a two-week return policy. So earlier this week, I put it on Craigslist for $550 ($50 over retail) and crossed my fingers.
Boy, was I surprised. I’ve had several offers, many of them for the inflated price. Most of these buyers asked me if I had more than one phone.
The first offer came in just a few seconds after I posted the ad. The buyer, who I’m meeting this afternoon, wrote: “I will need as many as you have. no receipt needed if you know what I mean.”
The iPhone must be headed overseas. Apple has a policy limiting sales to five iPhones per customer — checked against their credit card.
I’ll be asking the buyer some questions this afternoon about his interest in buying multiple, unopened iPhones.
Link to “iPhone wanted” ads on SF Craigslist.
Posted by Leander Kahney in iPhone | Comment on this article
I was in Shanghai, China last month, and iPhones were EVERYWHERE. And 8GB model sells for about USD$600. Since there’s no official channel for them, they all must have arrived via the methods you’re talking about.
I knew that gray market imports were happening, but there were SO many iPhones, it made me do a double-take when I thought about the scale on which it must be happening.
Methinks you won’t have trouble getting rid of yours!
Josh Bancroft, on May 8th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Two things:
1) Craigslist often has scamers so watch yourself. Meeting with someone in person is a good idea, as long as it isn’t in a dark ally, if you know what I mean.
2) My German friends have been trying to get me to buy iPhones and ship them over there to be “jailbroken” and sold on German ebay for a profit. When one actually came to visit he bought three while he was here (one with a prepaid credit card).
“But Germany already has a legitimate supplier of iPhones!” I hear you cry. Well, in case you haven’t noticed, the USD is in the trash can right now; and that’s before I start using hyperbole. Also, due to excessive sales taxes and Apple execs denial of purchasing power parity the iPhone is WAY cheaper here.
Church of Apple, on May 8th, 2008 at 9:30 am