Buying iphone on ebay? other?

[mtcowdog]

Hello. I'm looking for a 32gb iPhone 4 (Verizon). I've been using the original Droid (rooted with cyanogenmod) for quite awhile. There are many things I like about android and if Verizon had a nexus phone, I would consider it. Never going to happen. But, I am also apple-ized in my computing (macbook pro + ipad; wife has macbook pro + iphone4) and find myself smitten by how much I like my wife's iphone.

What I want to do is pick up an iphone and keep my upcoming Verizon upgrade open for a future iphone version (or whatever stokes my tech geek fire), ideally next summer. With 1-year Verizon contracts going away and apparently never available for the iphone anyway, I guess I'm looking to buy a phone outright.

I see lots of iphones on ebay. Any advice for how to buy an iphone off ebay? I know I need a good ESN, but I suspect that is nuanced. Or are there better places to buy? I'm in Montana, so buying local (e.g, craigslist) is highly unlikely.

I plan to jailbreak and will engage in the forum (enjoyed androidcentral and droidforums for the droid). I assume I want to start with a clean iOS so I have a good backup image. I post that here, thinking that may have some impact the iphone I buy?

Thanks for any feedback!

 

[dsmith3427]

I was in the same boat you are in in March but I came from a Blackberry. I purchsed mine off of EBAY. I believe I paid 400-420 (16G). As long as the poster says the phone has a clean ESN and you pay with Paypal I don't really see any issues.

 

[sting7k]

Just stick with the general rules of eBay and you will be fine.

 

[mtcowdog]

Thanks. I'll have at it.