Hey guys, I'm am in need of a little help. I recently pre-ordered and iPhone 4 and looking to soften the blow I decided to sell my old 3GS. In the interest of keeping my eBay listing accurate I have a few questions: 1. When I activate my new phone, the old 3GS will be without a contract and essentially a bid iPod Touch correct? 2. How can I make sure only reputable buyers buy it? Can I require a certain amount of feedback? 3. What should I require in my listing as for shipping, as in insurance, signatures and such? That is all for now and any help would be greatly appreciated as many of you seem to be ebay vets. Thanks! EDIT: I forgot to mention that I will be unlocking it, for however that will affect the questions...
1) Well, sort of. Assuming you didn't buy it unlocked, it will be locked to your carrier, so anyone else on your carrier with a working SIM can shove it in and use it as a phone. 2) I have my settings so that I don't accept bids from anyone with more than 3 bid retractions in the last month, or negative feedback. You can't specify X feedback except for negative. I also try and set my auctions to PayPal only for the protection. Furthermore I state that I only accept bids from people with confirmed addresses. Which leads me to... 3) I only ship using a trackable method with signature so I have proof of delivery, and I will only ship to the confirmed address listed in their PayPal. It's more expensive and limits payment options, but it protects you from scammers who try and claim they never received it -- especially when combined with requiring bidders to have a confirmed address. There's almost no wiggle room to get scammed this way. It may mean it's a little harder to sell, but you have the peace of mind in knowing that whomever you sell to probably won't try to scam you, and even if they do, you have ample evidence that everything is kosher on your end.
Thanks for the great advice! I forgot to mention that I am unlocking it. Will what affect my first question. And what will happen to the sim card that is in the the phone already when I activate a new one?
Don't give your SIM with it. That's a security risk. It'll be deactivated once you activate your new one, but if you have any contacts stored on it, they'll still be there. Whoever is buying it probably has their own SIM they plan to use in it, and if they don't, they'll have to get one from their carrier. Unlocking it will ensure that the phone part will work on most standard GSM carriers, but if it's a jailbreak unlock, it'll be lost the first time the buyer upgrades the firmware, and they'll have to wait until a new baseband unlock is affected for the new firmware before they upgrade, assuming they're aware of that sort of thing -- otherwise, unless they're using it on the carrier you use, they'll be screwed, even if they restore to the old firmware. (Baseband upgrades persist; you can't roll those back.)
Alright take the SIM out, check. So, basically warn them to not upgrade without making sure all is clear? I mean I have not unlocked before, but I have read a fair amount through my own jailbreaking endeavors, and as long as the phone is not update, you are fine, correct?
Correct. As long as they don't update the firmware -- at least not without being aware of what's required to unlock when a new one becomes available for any new firmware version -- they'll be fine.
No problem. Good luck with the sale; I'll be unloading a couple when the iPhone 4 finally hits my shores.
Good luck! Just sold mine and made enough to pay for my new iphone 4 and some sushi for lunch! I think making a youtube video showing the good condition I had my 3GS in and showing it working helped a lot to secure some serious bidders...
