iPhone news, reviews and how-to's since 2007
Apple today announced a 16GB iPhone, which is immediately available from the Apple Store for $499. Now that the iPhone’s storage capacity has doubled, many of us who want to upgrade are left with 8GB iPhones and wondering what to do with them.
Unfortunately, Apple will not let you trade in your old phone for a discount on the new 16GB iPhone, so what to do with old iPhones if you’re looking to upgrade?
Now may be the best time to get a cheap iPhone on eBay. Since the iPhone came out, eBay sellers have struggled to sell the item at high profits on the online auction site, for a couple of reasons:
Effective yesterday, eBay is prohibiting sellers from pre-selling the iPhone prior to the device’s June 29 release.
Previously, eBay allowed a number of listings where sellers promised not to accept money until they had the iPhone in-hand. Now they are erring on the side of caution:
Prior to the release of similar high-demand electronics, we saw a high number of well-intentioned sellers unable to meet their pre-sale obligations to buyers due to restricted supply, as well as an increase in fraudulent listings for these items.
If you can’t wait ’til June to get your hands on an iPhone, this 3D paper iPhone model on eBay might hold you off.
The item is a digital download “of the PDF file used to create the 3D model,” according to the auction.
On top of the cardboard iPhone sold on eBay, there have already been $18,000 in iPhone-related sales on the popular Internet auction site, according to auction research analysts at HammerTap.
HammerTap’s Jen Cano said, “People are so excited about new and innovative product releases like the iPhone that sellers find any way they can to make a profit off that excitement and according to the research, anything iPhone related sells for an average of $35.”
For example, one domain name, “www.iphoneforcheap.com�, had 11 bids and sold for $41.
Don’t be the idiot who pays $200+ for this cardboard iPhone that’s selling on eBay with 55 bidders so far and over 2 days left to bid.
It’s not that the cardboard iPhone replica is a scam or that the seller is unreliable. It’s just that, believe it or not, the cardboard iPhone does not have a multi-touch screen, and it can’t make phone calls, play media, or go online.
The winning bidder is sure going to have a lot to talk about with his friends in June when he doesn’t have the dough to shell out for a real iPhone because he wasted it all on this piece of junk.
