March 25th, 2007
iPhones Sold on eBay … I Have a Nice Bridge for These Bidders …
By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
There’s no doubt there’s a craze over the iPhone, but a little … er. common sense, please … as they say, “there’s a sucker born every minute.”
Those 23 people bid on the much-ballyhooed Apple iPhone on eBay this week, and the high bidder paid $1,125 for one of the six phones the seller, rgonzales23455, had on auction. The problem is that the iPhone isn’t scheduled to ship until June. And when it does, it will have a retail price of $499 for a 4GB model and $599 for an 8GB model.
“Please note: I have 6 of these phones available for immediate shipping. I accept Paypal only for this auction. Free shipping via USPS Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation. Will ship immediately after payment clears Monday – Friday,” rgonzales23455 said in his auction listing. Source: ComputerWorld
We Say: Naturally, once informed of the auctions, eBay shut them down, and the seller did not respond to emails. On the other hand, the high bidder did, and he didn’t feel he was taking a chance, because of Paypal’s insurance, which covers up to $2000. He said “Besides, there are rumors of iPhones being shipped as early as early April, and there’s always a chance this seller managed to get one somehow.”
I suppose that’s possible, but even if you got one so early, it would a pre-production ROM, and likely perform poorly because of that. And you wouldn’t be able to get a ROM upgrade … and until they release a maintenance release, you’d have to scrounge for the released ROM as well.
Now, about that bridge …
» Something Had to Give: iPhone Work Delays Leopard » Blog Archive Alice Hill’s Real Tech News - Independent Tech says:
[…] We Say: Also known as, “this was a lot harder than we thought” or “we have a lot more bugs than we expected”. Of course, it could be that what I just said … applies to Leopard rather than iPhone … and this is just a way to save face at WWDC. Assuming it is really an iPhone issue, BTW, those buyers who bid on iPhones on eBay … as I said then, I don’t know what they were thinking. That was 3 weeks ago, which is a long time in cell phone ROM time … there’s no way the phone would have worked well even if those bidders had gotten a “real deal”. Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
April 12th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
» Buy It Now! — iPhone Sold on eBay for $800 (about that bridge) » Blog Archive Alice Hill’s Real Tech News - Independent Tech says:
[…] You may recall my post in late March about eBayers and iPhones … at that time I was willing to sell them a bridge, but now … since we know the iPhone is due out late this month, this isn’t so bad. But wait, the seller said, “this phone is ready to ship”. Eh? An eBay auction for a brand spanking new Apple iPhone has just ended for $800 dollars. The phone was put on the auction block on May 27th at 11:59 AM PDT and was quickly bought at 3:20 PM for the $800 “Buy it Now” price. Source: TG Daily […]
June 1st, 2007 at 6:58 am
iPhones Sold on eBay … I Have a Nice Bridge for These Bidders says:
[…] By Michael Santo Executive Editor, RealTechNews. There’s no doubt there’s a craze over the iPhone, but a little … er. common sense, please … as they say, “there’s a Browse […]
December 30th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
IPhones says:
[…] iPhones Sold on eBay … I Have a Nice Bridge for These Bidders By Michael Santo Executive Editor, RealTechNews. There’s no doubt there’s a craze over the iPhone, but a little … er. common sense, please … as they say, “there’s a […]
January 20th, 2008 at 4:43 am