Introduction
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, then you know the preorders for the iPhone X went live last Friday. So first off, let’s recap what happened last Friday at midnight.
11:55PM PST – Verizon went live early. Some were able to preorder
12:00AM – Apple site and store app still “under construction”
12:05AM – Best Buy goes live but charges $100 more (F U BBY) if you pay for the full priced Verizon version (which is the only version you want to buy.) People use Discover or Citi to pricematch using the cc’s price protection
12:06AM – Apple store app finally goes live. Already a 2-3 week wait. Apparently some people got in earlier than that if they were on Windows and Chrome. It seems word got out that the app was the best place to buy and so it must have got slammed.
12:15AM – Best Buy still shows pickup available on 11/3. Guess people didn’t want to pay the extra $100 or didn’t know about credit card price match. Best Buy starts to cancel orders for people who ordered too many.
12:??AM – Sams’s Club goes live and sells out really quickly
12:30AM – Apple now showing 4-5 week wait and that’s where it held through the morning
Version variants
First off, if you bought a Sprint one, that’s gonna be the worst resell, so cancel your order. If you bought from the carriers (ATT & T-Mobile,) those will be locked, so you’ll have to find someone that has one of those carriers. If you bought FROM Verizon, that phone should be GSM UNLOCKED, so you can sell it as “Verizon GSM Unlocked” to attract buyers who want to flip overseas. If you bought from Apple, the only version that you could have bought was T-Mobile without entering in carrier login info. They SHOULD BE unlocked (box will ship with T-Mobile SIM,) but if it’s not unlocked, you’ll have to find a buyer on T-Mobile. If you bought the Verizon version from Best Buy, you can flip these as “Verizon GSM Unlocked.”
Where to sell
I’d stay away from Ebay for this one due to a high likelihood of being scammed. If you go online, I hear Swappa is a pretty good marketplace. For me, I’m going to go the Craigslist and FB route. Have people bring ONLY CASH (no Venmo or anything else) and meet me inside my bank’s lobby. Most buyers should come to you since they are more desperate. If they bring cash, have the both of you walk up to the teller and have the teller check to see if the cash is real. Some police stations have meetup points as well (Google for those.) Don’t meet anyone at night! Only in a public place! Your safety is top priority; not money! Remember, if you don’t get any hits worth pursuing, you have 14 days to just return the phone.
One thing I think that hurts the Verizon phone this time is that supposedly the Sprint Phone is the same this time.. I’m not 100% sure.. but…
Verizon should be slightly better if only because it is optimized for Verizon rather than crappy Sprint.
I’ve been told by Sprint I can give it/sell it with the SIM inside and it won’t automatically activate on my phone when turned on. Both my phones are gone to the store I know but… my local Apple store had a MONSTER line of people sending phones most likely to asia somewhere.
I think $100 profit is “OK” if the buyer doesn’t flake and you can sell it in a convenient safe environment.
How are folks doing with their reselling of these? I’ve had mine posted on CL and FB since pre-order and haven’t had a single person contact me and I’m selling the Verizon 64gb in Silver which should be popular.
I’ve noticed the prices on my local, big metro CL are really starting to creep down, some as low as $1200 (which in my high tax state doesn’t leave much room for profit).
Any others with similar experience?
yeah not looking good locally here in seattle. maybe wait until after today when ppl find out apple stores are oos
I haven’t picked mine up yet from BB. I’ll just wait until (IF) someone contacts me before I pick them up.
Yep.
Keep in mind that Best Buy (and probably other stores) has a $35 restocking fee on cell phone returns, even for Elite tier members.
When I went to pre-order, the only options on the Apple Store for me were to replace the phone on my verizon account or buy on an existing wireless account. Did I miss another option somewhere? How would you disassociate the phone from your current account before selling?
That’s why people were buying the T-Mobile version off Apple. I don’t know what to do in your case since I’ve never had Verizon.
Why do you use the term “Verizon GSM Unlocked”? It makes it sound like only a GSM network operator SIM would work. Verizon device is unlocked, period. GSM/WCDMA/LTE.
Not sure if you can take that Verizon phone to Sprint and activate it on Sprint.
Why is Sprint the worst resell? Aren’t the Sprint and Verizon versions both universal CDMA/GSM with the difference only being that one ships with a Sprint SIM and the other a Verizon SIM? I noticed if you order an AT&T X from Apple it says “GSM” in the description while the Sprint and Verizon X isn’t labeled CDMA which leads me to believe it’s both.
I’m curious about this too… all the things I’ve read have pointed to all of these being unlocked as long as you buy them from Apple. The only difference is that the respective carrier’s SIM card will come with it. One of my friends in China asked me to buy him one and considering I’m on that free Sprint for a year plan, that was the only option available to me.
Vinh, can you elaborate on this a little more on why you think Sprint is the worst version? I would think especially if you take the phone overseas, it shouldn’t be a problem at all.
Let me clarify. If you bought direct from Sprint, I don’t know if they are GSM unlocked or not. I just know Verizon ones are GSM unlocked no matter where you buy. It’s still a bit of a mystery if the ones you buy from Apple will be truly unlocked or not.
Thanks for chiming in with follow-up… I’ll give him fair warning and see if he wants to proceed. Resale is a lot higher in China.
eh, i could only make on the unlocked ATT iphone Xs – not too worried, im sure there are plenty of ATT folks who want it; those traveling will shoot for the GSM unlocked phones
So I have Sprint — I’m on the free unlimited for a year — Sprint is terrible but 3 lines for $12.75 all in per month can’t be beat — much worse than Verizon where I was at. I’ll probably switch to AT&T next summer and join with whatever promotion to finally take advantage of my Access more free phone, and after jumping on the merry go round, I’ll switch back to Verizon and probably stay for a while.
Sprint iPhone X, (when bought from Apple) my understanding this year, is that it is unlocked (like the Verizon) . However, there are some things you need to be careful about — especially if you’re on the free unlimited BYOD plan. (please do your own due diligence)
Upgrading to a new phone voids your free year, so don’t do it. and don’t do it by accident either!
When you buy the iphone X from Apple, it comes with the SIM in there.. so make sure whoever you sell it to… take it out and doesn’t activate it. Maybe Sprint can undo the upgrade, but it’s going to be pain . Whatever profit you make from selling the phone won’t be worth losing the free year.
I’ve sold my phones both already…. to a vendor I’ve sold to dozens of times (one of the advantages of sometimes selling on ebay). My profit is on the smaller side, but I’m selling to someone I have a history with. I’m selling both phones for $2600 gross… it’ll come out to about $2500 net… so about $300+ profit for the pair (+ clearing through 2/3 of a signup bonus!). But they’re both sold to a trustworthy source who is allowing me to remove the SIMs before I ship.
Here’s the verbiage I’m going off of: After 10/1/17, you can upgrade to a new Sprint phone by leasing or purchasing it in monthly installments – you’ll still enjoy your free year of service. Any upgrades prior to 10/1/17 will require a plan change to Unlimited data, talk and text and you’ll lose the remaining free months in your year of free service.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/13/15792628/sprint-free-year-unlimited-service-deal-promo
So as long as you upgrade after 10/1/17, I think you should be OK and still be allowed to remain on the free plan.
i believe that only applies if you upgrade with a lease or monthly payment purchase that benefits sprint — as opposed to buying the phone outright. The Sprint rep told me I would lose my free plan — but the rep could be wrong of course.
Interesting data point… TBH, I’m extremely dissatisfied with Sprint’s coverage in Socal – although I’m told it’s just bad everywhere – and almost wonder if it’s not worth it to add another line to my parents Verizon family plan and just expense the whole bill to my business. Guess I’ll let the cellphone gods make the decision for me.