What's the deal with eBay iPhones?

[email68]

Any idea why sellers are listing brand new unopened 1.1.2 iPhones for more than the Apple Store?

Why would anyone buy these?

I could see if it was an older model that could be software unlocked but these are not.

 

[bigandtasty]

Because people in China and Japan are buying them up

 

[anthonymoody]

Many of them are being sold along with a turboSIM (or similar) which supposedly works as a hardware unlock, at least for 1.1.2 OOB.

 

[Consultant]

Well due to the high ebay and paypal fees (about 7% for something in the price range of iPhone), it's just simply not possible to sell a brand new item for the same price as retail. Thus to break even the seller need to add at least 7% to the retail price...

 

[devilot]

Because people in China and Japan are buying them up

And possibly elsewhere where iPhones are not yet or won't be sold. My own relatives asked my father to bring an iPhone back to Taiwan on his latest trip out there.

 

[Vasileios]

No iPhone in Greece

...cause there are hundreds of countries where you can't buy an iPhone from Apple stores. I live in Greece and we don't even have an Apple store!!!

So everybody is buying from eBay...