by Patrick Altoft on March 23, 2007
An iPhone sold for $1125 to an unsuspecting eBay buyer earlier this week and it seems that quite a few other users have decided to join the iPhone eBay money train.
Searching for the iPhone on eBay today gives over 300 listings and, as you can see from the screenshot below, somebody has been paying for a LOT of premier listings.
The iPhone isn’t on the market until June and the pictures on eBay just show a cardboard model of the iPhone rather than the real pictures. Why doesn’t eBay do something about this?
Interestingly the iPhones mainly seem to be coming from one seller who has 100% positive feedback from a lot of transactions.
Update According to a post on the eBay forums the iPhones are due to a hijacked account.
by Patrick Altoft on March 21, 2007
Some unlucky customer in the US has just paid $1125 for an iPhone on eBay with the promise of immediate shipping.
The unscrupulous seller, rgonzales23455, from La Quinta, CA, United States said he had 6 iPhones for immediate shipping:
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.
I would have expected the winning bidder to know better.
by Patrick Altoft on March 1, 2007
As iPhone fever builds we spotted an eBay seller taking advantage of the buzz and selling a cardboard model. The current bid stands at $150 with over 50 bidders so far.
The description of the cardboard iPhone states:
Isn’t it pretty? You’re bidding on a papercraft Apple iPhone with a fully charged battery in it, in a brown box I got from Apple Sacramento.
The iPhone doesn’t come out until the summer, so have fun playing around with this, impressing your friends!
This post has kindly been updated by Rob an expert on batteries and battery recycling. Rob works full time in the battery recycling division at WasteCare.
by Patrick Altoft on February 9, 2007
Vodafone launches eBay Mobile” title=”Vodafone launches eBay Mobile” align=”right”>Vodafone has this week launched three killer new mobile services. We have already covered Vodafone Myspace and Vodafone YouTube Mobile and now Vodafone have announced eBay Mobile.
The new eBay mobile service will allow customers to keep up with purchases whenever they wish and wherever they are and can be downloaded using Vodafone Live! or embedded in new handsets. Initially the service will only be launched in Italy but it will be released around Europe later this year.
A Vodafone spokesman commented:
As we move closer to the convergence of web and mobile, it is essential that we can offer our customers, leading Internet based services, such as eBay, in an easily accessible way. There is a strong demand from eBay users to benefit from a mobile application where they don’t miss the end of auctions and bid back when they are outbid. Today’s announcement offers just that and gives Vodafone customers a great service and a clear advantage allowing them to make the most of their time.
The announcements this week are very good news for Vodafone. By leveraging strong online brands they are making Vodafone handsets more useful and more desirable without having to make large investments in building services of their own that may or may not be a success.
by Patrick Altoft on August 7, 2006
eBay has joined the recent efforts by the mobile phone industry to prevent handset theft.
Along with the London Metropolitan Police eBay have banned the sale of handsets that are barred, a common indicator of a stolen phone.
Whether eBay will be able to police the ban remains to be seen but at least its a step in the right direction.
by Patrick Altoft on June 7, 2006
UK mobile phone operator, O2, has released statistics about the usage of its i-mode operation. Over the first seven months of the service the most popular destination was eBay and the most used feature was email.
Email and eBay are the top attractions for mobile phone users, according to UK network operator O2, after monitoring the first seven months of i-mode operation.
Savvy eBayers are making use of the service to make late bids on auctions without having to wait near a PC for the crucial last few minutes.
Larger content providers, like eBay, have set up dedicated i-mode sites and are apparently “reaping the rewards both in terms of new customers for their new services and in terms of actual returns”.
O2 are not expected to make large profits from the i-mode service and appear to be running it as way to entice new customers and prevent existing users from moving to other networks.
