Just wondering if any you guys have ever bought a phone off eBay ? My contract is coming to an end and the new contract deals I'm seeing are just ridiculously expensive this time round, plus they now all state that the monthly fee ( usually well over £50 ) will increase each year ! So iv started looking at just buying the phone outright and getting a sim only deal. i have noticed there are some really good deals on eBay, the particular phone I'm after ( Samsung Note 4 ) can be had for £100 less than it would be in most phone shops, the sellers have all good feedback and clearly sell lots of phones but i don't know I'm just a little concerned at how much cheaper they can provide the phones compared to the shops. Phones are listed as brand new sealed in box, they also sell refurbished phones which are very cheap but no keen to go down that route.

What do use think too good to be true or have any use bought phones from eBay and its worked out ok Range Rover Vogue 2006 4.4 AJV8 | Buckingham Blue | Parchment Leather | Supercharged Grill+Side Vents | CA02 HEY ( NOT 02 PLATE )

ebay prices are attractive but if you pay a little extra from a high st shop you can physically take it back if it goes faulty...... ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
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thats the thing though with phones nowadays if they go faulty the shops don't want to know and just refer you to apple or sunsung etc. Range Rover Vogue 2006 4.4 AJV8 | Buckingham Blue | Parchment Leather | Supercharged Grill+Side Vents | CA02 HEY ( NOT 02 PLATE )

stan wrote:

ebay prices are attractive but if you pay a little extra from a high st shop you can physically take it back if it goes faulty......

They are cheap on eBay as people are selling them out of their front room and don't have overheads, I've bought a few over the years with no bother.... There is the argument that buying a refurbished one is better than new as you know it has been looked at buy a real person and checked to make sure it works OK, I've had several iPhone's go bad after a short time and been replaced with a refurbished one that has then gone on to live a long and happy life....

If your worried about it breaking get insurance, i's amasing how easy it is to drop a broken phone....  Pete
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2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
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-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

It pays (haha haha) to shop around the various websites. In the past I found that the Dutch Marktplaats was usually cheapest and I got both my S and S3 from there. It may be a bit hard for you since Marktplaats.nl is in Dutch. My point is, don't just look at EBay, also look at Gumtree and whatever others are in the UK or delivering to the UK. Do make sure that you are not getting a model that is for a specific market, not sure if the Note 4 is but just check.

Another tip, I just rooted my S3 with a custom Lollipop ROM and that gave it a new lease on life. It is much faster and more pleasant to work without once the Samsung bloatware is gone. I have a work Note 2 that is still within warranty but I already have the custom ROMs for it downloaded . MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

I just bought mine from the apple store but have bought and sold them on the bay over the years (sold a good few Pink and D&G razr's a while back.

Just make sure its sim free and all good.

Sim only deals can be a minefield now as some try to tie you into a 12month contract for a few quid off. My advice is do monthly as if they offer cr@p service you can jump ship. I moved from O2 to GiffGaff then to Three. The deal i get is pretty good and covers everything i use for £25 a month and has feel at home which saves a small fortune itself you visit their supported countries even just once. FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

The prices you see on ebay for new phones will be close to the trade price of the phone when bought from a UK distributor by a wholesaler. The mark up the high street stores and networks put on them is normally around £150-£175 for high end phones (note 4, s6 etc). This doesn't apply to iphones becasue Apple regulates the market and prices. I used to work in the phone industry and when the Note 3 came out my cost from distributor was 375+ vat and the cost in CPW for sim free was £690. The ebay sellers will still be making a nice profit. Only thing to be aware of with Samsung products is to make sure it is a European model ideally UK spec. A few years ago Samsung messed around with some software that effectively simlocked the phone to the country of the sim you initialised with so if you put in a UK sim it locked to only use on UK networks which upset a lot of business travellers who swap to a local sim when abroad for cheaper rates etc. Samsung have now stopped doing this and on the Note 4 there shouldn't be any issues because it was developed after this trial. Its more an issue for Note 3 and S4. 2008 TDV8

My French bought S4 is on Orange France. After six months I got an unlock code from them and when in UK swap to a Tesco PAG without problem. John
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I bought a iPhone 4 S off a guy on Fleabay who had just had an orange upgrade and didn't want it. 5 Yrs later still steaming on! Never had a problem.