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September 23, 2007

eBay + iPhones = $$$

If you are in the U.S., you should totally get into the unlocked iPhone ebay business while you can. I decided I wanted to get an iPhone now before it's locked back down with the next firmware update so I've been watching iPhone auctions on eBay very closely for the past 2 days and man, people are making a killing selling them.

Just as an example, between 10:00 pm and 12:06 am last night/this morning (US pacific time), there were 35 completed auctions for 8gb iPhones on eBay, 8 didn't sell because those sellers were dumb enough not to ship internationally (that's where the demand is, people!). Out of the 18 who do ship internationally, only 1 did not sell (most likely because the seller was too greedy and wanted $648, including shipping, for the phone). The other 17 sold at an average price of around $560 (high of $607 and low of $507, again, including shipping). That's about $70 in profit after you subtract eBay/PayPal fees and shipping cost. Do that 10 times a day and you have made $700 (and believe me, you can easily sell 10 a day). The only problem I could see would be getting enough phones to sell. I wonder if Apple Stores frown on people who come in and buy 10 phones a day, every day.

And it's nearly risk free. Like I said, except for a couple of sellers who wanted too much, every auction I've watched (that ships internationally) in the past 2 days sold. Aim for about $70 to $80 in profit and you can probably sell as many iPhones as you can get your hands on. Even in the unlikely event the iPhone eBay market suddenly collapses for whatever reason, you can always bring them back and get a full refund (don't open them to unlock until they've sold, obviously).

So go after work tomorrow and buy 15 phones. Spend half-an-hour when you get home to make the listings on eBay. Do one day listings and you'll sell them out by the following day. Another hour or so to unlock the phones and to pack them in boxes for shipping. Bam! A thousand bucks. Not bad for a few hours of work.

Wash, repeat and go buy yourself something pretty (or better yet, buy me something pretty). And if you put the phones on a credit card with mileage rewards, you'll rack up major miles for this racket.

By the way, who wants to help me buy an iPhone???

Filed Under: Technology
Tags: apple, ebay, iphone, money

Comments

Posted by: Rajiv Aaron Manglani at September 25, 2007 3:29 AM

Hmm, I have sent out stuff internationally on Ebay before, and sometimes the risk is with the customs. (Canada is especially evil). I guess if I specify that I won't be held responsible for any custom fees then I can do it. Have you gotten yours yet? If not, I don't mind getting you one.

Posted by: Yi at October 5, 2007 6:07 AM

Customs Canada is indeed extremely evil—bunch of money sucking vampires.

I've bought and sold a number of items internationally on eBay. I've never heard of the sender being responsible for duties, though. It's the recipient's responsibilities to pay that, as far as I know.

No, I haven't gotten one yet. Thanks for the offer to help me buy one, but at the moment the iPhones are locked up again. I don't think there's a way to determine whether an iPhone bought at an Apple Store right now contains the old, unlockable firmware, or the newer, locked firmware. So until it's unlockable again, I will have to hold off on purchasing one. I should have asked earlier for help in getting one.

Posted by: Yusheng at October 5, 2007 9:00 PM

pretty genius idea.. but its one of those idea's in which you need money to make money...

Posted by: DomenicY at October 28, 2007 6:52 PM

Completely agreed. iPhone craze is still very evidence in Hong Kong and even in US, UK, Germany and I am sure later in France (where they are getting the official stocks first).

In China, China Mobile and China Unicom are moving slowly. China Mobile and China Unicom both were saying they do not share subscription money with phone manufacturers (i.e. this case APPLE). China Mobile is rumored to have 350 million accounts whereas China Unicom have 135 million accounts.

But I got a feeling if China Mobile as not back down on their stance, China Unicom might be the one who will go with APPLE being a smaller provider in China but still HUGE in terms of the world iPhone pie (the APPLE i factor is a worldwide phenomenia even though iPhone itself is relatively expensive in terms of the whole mainland Chinese population).

Well, I guess APPLE has twisted most countries' mobile giants' arms to their benefit so far. Let's hope we will get the proper 3G and 5MP cam phone soon in Asia as these are really important features that were missed in the iPhone.

Right now, all my friends are only really into the iPhone!!!

Posted by: Wing Liu (LIAO) at November 16, 2007 3:53 AM

buy you something pretty... HA! if i actually had some motivation, i might actually try something like this and if i actually netted the kind of money you're talking about, i'd DEFINETLY buy you something pretty.

Posted by: joy at January 19, 2008 4:15 AM