Buying phones on Ebay...

[yacob.naif 10+ year member]

i actually just got a motorola phone

it's a e850 i think from verizon

and i like it a lot better than most of the other phones i've owned, minus the mentioned p910i, but unfortunately i had to get rid of that when my family switched to verizon

i had a small ericsson, the older little blue model from at&t, and that was my 2nd favorite so far, but the battery life sucked

nokia phones are solid, but usually pretty big, and don't have many features

lg phones are small, have lots of features, but are built really cheaply, and have poor reception in my experience

they all make decent high-end phones, but for the midrange 200-500 dollar phones, there's tradeoffs for every brand...

 

[phildapimp89 10+ year member]

Anyone done it? What should I pay attention to? I have Cingular, so if I get a cingular compatible phone and pop my sim card into it, should it be good to go? And what does it mean when they say the phones are "unlocked"? Is this what I need, or should I just buy a regular phone?

I bought a cheapo Kyocera off Ebay, it works great. Used it with US Cellular. As long as it has the US Cellular sticker still on it they will hook the phone up for like $20.

 

[.::DuD3::. 10+ year member]

i thought about trying to get one of the new razors with the motoplayer. they're like $200ish, and you can load up songs from your computer to use as ringtones.

 

[brynm 10+ year member]

If your interested I've got an unlocked nokia 3220b sitting here collecting dust, nice little camera/video phone with some cool features. It will work on cingular, t-mobile and others shoot me an offer if your interested, I'd only charge actual shipping, still have the original box, and all books and goodies that came wtith the phone.

http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/3220/0,2803,feat:1,00.html

Sorry for the finger prints on the phone. I have the sim card (it's for a roger's at&t network in canada but the phone would work for you.

 

[bumpinne0n 10+ year member]

I tried to buy a phone off there this time last year. I bought it, received it, called to activate it and was told the ESN was not clear. I had to send it back to the seller. Appearantly someone had asked the seller for the ESN, called Sprint and activated it, then called back to Sprint a few days later and reported the phone as "stolen" so they got a free phone under their insurance plan. That's how it was explained to me anyway. I was lucky and got a full refund from the seller.

I'm not sure how Cingular works as far as the whole ESN thing goes, but if they're like Sprint, I'd probably try to buy a phone in the store instead of ebay.