Water damaged iPhone5...worth $300+ on Ebay??

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Andy22

Golden Member
Jun 8, 2001
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So, jumped in a pool with my iPhone 5 in my pocket. Stayed under for about two minutes. Left it off and immediately put it in rice the first day then silica gel packets AND rice for 3 days. That did not work. No signal whatsoever when plugging it in or charging it. I assume it's a paper weight now. I try a local iFIX it shop who says it's about 50/50 that they can fix it. He offers to buy it a few times if they can't get it fixed. I say let's try and get it working first but the idea of someone buying it dead with water damage seemed odd. So I came home and googled it and various companies will buy it for between $100-$150. But on Ebay they (water damaged iphone5's) are being bid up to and over $300.

Why would someone want to pay that much for it? Is it a scam? The idea of recouping that much money from my stupidity is very appealing but I don't want to follow one bad mistake with another!
 

NutBucket

Lifer
Aug 30, 2000
27,053
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My guess is they (the buyer) will clone the serial numbers onto a stolen phone.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
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Apple hardware is almost always held at a premium. Also, the fact that you can take any non-working iPhone into the Apple Store and have them hand you a new one for $199 (iPhone 4S and below) or $229 (iPhone 5) is probably the biggest reason why people buy them. $300 + $229 < $649
 

Insomniator

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2002
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Apple hardware is almost always held at a premium. Also, the fact that you can take any non-working iPhone into the Apple Store and have them hand you a new one for $199 (iPhone 4S and below) or $229 (iPhone 5) is probably the biggest reason why people buy them. $300 + $229 < $649

o_O

Even if you have no real proof of ownership? Just break an Iphone and they give you a heavily discounted replacement?
 
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