Warning to eBay iPhone Buyers

[Nagooya]

I heard on the radio that at the Apple store they will make you open the iPhone box and activate it at the Apple store or AT&T store so that you can't sell it on eBay for some astronomical price. I'm not sure how reliable this information is, but i thought i would pass it on, and i think this information does sound believable.

 

[cmschmidt]

activating a phone with a sim card does not require opening the box. the imei is usually on the outside of the box, and at most they would probably make you activate the sim. there's no need to physically open the box.

however, carriers usually do this anyway to make sure the phone actually works and was activated properly.

 

[siurpeeman]

what about online buyers who receive an unactivated phone? i'm going to doubt any unofficial iphone information until the product launches, and you should too.

 

[applehero]

I believe it. Every phone purchase I have made, they have activated the phone before I left the store. Seeing how you need iTunes/iTunes acct in order to activate the iPhone, I could see at&t just registering the sim and ESN/IMEI into their system and then you can complete the activation process through iTunes.

We'll find out soon.

 

[Nagooya]

Hmm... i didn't think about buying them off the Online Apple store. So either that info is wrong, or maybe they won't let you buy it off of the website because you have to activate it. And i'm not a big phone person, so could you explain how the sim card would work?

 

[DMK]

I heard on the radio that at the Apple store they will make you open the iPhone box and activate it at the Apple store or AT&T store so that you can't sell it on eBay for some astronomical price. I'm not sure how reliable this information is, but i thought i would pass it on, and i think this information does sound believable.

What part of "requires a 2 year contract with AT&T" do people not understand ?

 

[cmschmidt]

Hmm... i didn't think about buying them off the Online Apple store. So either that info is wrong, or maybe they won't let you buy it off of the website because you have to activate it. And i'm not a big phone person, so could you explain how the sim card would work?

the sim basically contains all your account information. without the sim inserted you basically have a dead phone. it will look pretty but not make any calls. the account is activated and the information is written to the sim. whenever you want to change phones, you simply take the sim out and it has your account info on the sim. the sim can also be used to store data (contacts, etc..)

 

[cmschmidt]

What part of "requires a 2 year contract with AT&T" do people not understand ?

again. the 2 year contract requirement may have been removed as there is no longer any mention of it in commercials or iphone ads. nor was it included in the fine print of yesterdays press release.

 

[Nagooya]

About the 2 Year Activation, they removed that from the commercial's so that 2 Year Activation may not hold any truth anymore. Thanks for the sim card explanation.