Alex LuftA piece of the web dedicated to me… by me!

It was dark and we met in an alley.  I pulled out the item and was handed four paper bills: three $100s and one $50.  Holding the cash in my hand, I thought: “What if it’s fake?”  Read on…

Yepp, that’s right.  Today is the day that will be marked on my imaginary “items-sold” calendar when I sold my iPhone.  That is, the iPhone 2G/EDGE, 8GB model - unlocked.  The entire process was actually quite intereseting, as the buyer contacted my eBay listing for the phone asking if I would sell it for $250.  The buyer was local and was willing to meet me at any nearby public location where the transaction could take place.  He left his phone number in the eBay message.  Being very tempted to walk away with cold hard cash (and no eBay/PayPal fees), I bit at the bait and called.

I told the buyer that I wouldn’t sell for less than $350 - as similar models were going for about that amount on eBay at the moment.  On top of that, I kept my iPhone like a baby and it never left a case during its life.  The buyer agreed and now - 3 hours later - I’m sitting here, typing this, with $350 in cash.

I’m planning on buying the iPhone 3G tomorrow - with an AT&T plan.  I’ll go for the 8GB model again, since that fits my needs until Apple has a 120GB model that keeps my music collection.

A word of advice for anybody planning on doing something similar (i.e. a cash transaction).  Make sure you either know how to check for cash being “real” or have one of those magic “reality-check” markers used to accomplish the task.  When I saw three $100 bills and one $50 bill in front of me, I immediately thought (and panicked): “What if I walk away from here with nothing more than colored papers?  When I go into the bank tomorrow and deposit this, what if the teller tells me, in a courteous yet strict tone, that my money is not “real”?  Then I would be a fool.  So I said I wasn’t comfortable taking the money in its current form and went with the buyer to get change from local shoppes.  After getting the sale amount in ten 20s, a 100, and a 50, my fear was calmed and I walked away.

P.S. the buyer didn’t simply “buy the 3G” because it was a birthday present for a relative and that relative needed to use the phone overseas.  Thus the need for an unlocked version.  And we didn’t meet in an “dark alley” but rathe in a well-lit strip plaza with many people.  Hey, I needed to get your attention somehow.