Trying this again as eBay refreshed the page just as I was finishing.
I buy, sell, repair and refurbish mobile phones. Samsung are my speciality. I am constantly trawling through the auctions looking for something that I can do a bit of work on and flip.
Recently I have noticed a group of sellers on eBay Australia selling "Brand New" "Sealed" Samsung Galaxy S10s, S10+ and S10es. You can't help but notice them because 4 sellers have 20 listings each. The other thing you notice is the outrageous price. $450-$650 for a 4 year old, nothing special Samsung?
The next thing that jumps out is the boxes. Some people like buying things that comes with their original boxes, some people like keeping their original box so when they one day upgrade they can get a touch more money out of the sale. That's where reproduction boxes come in, when both parties have no boxes.
Alibaba's Boxes:
Samsung's:
Let's continue.
A photo of the phone from the listing:
I know that sticker is impossible to read, but it says SM-G975U. U in the model indication it was North American and running a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor (which is actually the desired one). The Australian (among other countries) was model F and had Samsung's Eynos. The Qualcomm of that era was not built to be compatible with other countries networks: differen't 4G channels, no GSM. However the sellers up until recently were still selling them as local models - the listings just state the model number now. Not that they can't juggle two of each network once like ours can.
A buyer clicked on pretty quick:
Due to the sheer amount of accounts they have, and how many countries they operate in, it's hard to track down the feedback sometimes - but I think these two cover it pretty nicely.
"Buyer never read the description as it was clearly mentioned that phone was x display" https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/255616156979
Unfortunately I am unable to track down the feedback from a few weeks back where a guy went into thorough detail about how poorly the phone was refurbished. I'm still looking.
And just a couple more cherries on top;
The security stickers on the bottom of the box? Purchased online - first result on google even with the right keyboards, they feature an old Samsung logo that was changed in 2005. I have an S9 and an S10 box in front of me that has the new logo and style of sticker.
White "S10+" text on the front indicated colour white, not blue on a barcade unique to these guys phones.m No idea what the barcode is for - likely covering something printed on the box.
Well I hope you enjoyed my summary of what I've been watching on eBay for the past 3 weeks - these dudes selling old warn out phones that have been rolled in glitter and sold for more than a premium. I sell high end, meticulously cleaned and/or refurbished highly desirable models that are always in demand and never make as much as I should on them. And these guys are straight up selling secondhand **bleep**.
Do yourself a favour: Don't buy a sealed phone if it's not available to still buy off the shelf sealed. Or at least, don't buy a S10 series from eBay anywhere in the world. I can't even fathom how they could refurb so many of them.
I wasn't sure if I was allowed to name their names in here so I didn't.
