I've been looking at purchasing an unlocked iPhone from ebay since the current 1.1.2 FW has not been unlocked. On ebay however, I see some phones with 1.1.2 that the sellers have claimed to be unlocked...how is this possible if 1.1.2 has not been unlocked? Also, do you think it's worth the ~$600 for an unlocked iPhone from ebay? Thanks!
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Questions about unlocked iPhones on ebay
- Thread starter asdfTT123
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Ebay sellers are pretty sleazy and can be very vague. It could be remnants of iphones on 1.1.1... Anyway, is it worth it for 600? Depends to be honest. I unlocked my phone with the 1.0.2 and I unlocked a good coworkers phone as well for about $20 and a $4 burrito since I'm cool with him. Depends on who you know. I'll do it for you however, like I told my coworker, there are always risk and I can't guarantee that your phone will be bricked (although even bricked phones who initially were upgraded and broken can be brought back to life). That or you can buy a used iphone, unlocked. I'd sell you mine for the right price 
It is possible to unlock an upgraded 1.1.2 iPhone, but not an out of box 1.1.2 iPhone. This is because an upgraded phone would have originally come with firmware 1.1.1 or earlier, and therefore would have bootloader 3.x even after upgrading the software and firmware to 1.1.2.
This may explain what you're seeing on eBay. It may also be that when some people say "unlocked" they really mean "activated". Before you make a purchase, be sure that the description very clearly says "SIM Unlocked for any GSM SIM worldwide" or something of that nature.
As to your question of if it's "worth it"... I guess that's up to you. I bought a locked iPhone for $600 back in July, and I think it was worth it. It all depends upon how bad you want an iPhone