Gonna eBay my Nexus One, Need Advice
So I leapt from an AT&T-flavored Nexus One to a T-Mobile Nexus S, impressed to see that the N1 is still fetching, even used, over $400 on eBay. I could use that cash and I don’t have much use for the phone anymore but I’ve had no selling experience. Couple questions regarding how to characterize the phone in terms of wear and tear and whether or not to include extras.
Starting with the extras, I’ve got two spare batteries, one OEM the other Seidio. Instead of the 4GB it came with I have a 16GB Sandisk presumably of the same class. I’ve also got a class 6 Transcend 16GB chip which benchmarking has affirmed as being legit. Somewhere I’ve also got that Nexus One car dock which cost me maybe $75 and it’s sweet except the plastic on the top cracked apart, though it’s still usable, and perhaps if I call HTC they may give me a new one. Anybody happen to know if HTC would give me a new one and if so would its inclusion in the listing make enough of a difference, a fresh one, to be worth the time it would take to get it?
I wouldn’t mind hanging onto that 16GB class 6 chip as down the line it may come in handy, but if it would bump up the price a good bit then I’ll part with it instead of just parting with the unspecified but lower-classed Sandisk 16GB chip I picked up at Radio Shack (or I should offer both)?
Can’t find the damn phone sleeve, but I’ve got everything else.
Regarding wear and tear, when I unstrapped my insane helmetcam adhesive, I pulled off a tiny chip of the paint or whatever on the back battery cover. Pretty superficial.
The other shortcoming is that there’s a tiny scratch on the screen but it’s pretty unnoticeable unless you shine something bright on it and hold it at a certain angle. You have to be looking for a scratch to find this scratch. You could barely feel it with your fingernail but not with your finger. Here it is taking with a flash:
And without the flash you can’t see it (it’s a centimeter to the left of the tip of the red line. The other marks aren’t scratches, just didn’t bother to clean it perfectly:
Other than those two blemishes the phone is otherwise mint.
The phone itself, as I said, has an AT&T-flavored radio meaning you’ll only get 3G on AT&T’s network but it will at least work on EDGE with other GSM networks. It’s unlocked for carriers, bootloader, it’s rooted; currently running Android 2.2 (Froyo) with a recent nightly of Cyanogenmod. Should I flash Gingerbread maybe? If so, CyanogenMOD, another popular custom or a stock-like version?
I am prepared to throw in my Gizmo5 account if you think that would help beef up the demand. Would Craigslist make more sense? Maybe I should just link this article in the listing? Does it help that I’m a rockstar here, sort of like selling a Stevie Ray Vaughn-played Fender with some “character” scratches? Thanks fellas.
Doug Simmons
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Doug Simmons
Biographical info.. hmm. I have a history of not being able to strike the balance between what is "safe" to put into these forms and what is, in my mind at least, funny. Can't do it.
I would put it on eBay and post it on Craigslist with a link to the eBay auction and a asking price on the CL ad. I’d say the phone is in excellent condition with those 2 marks. I don’t think it’d matter what 16gb card you throw in as most people don’t know what the classes mean. I’d throw in all the accessories you can find cause the more thats with it, the better. About the ROM, state that you can either put Gingerbread(state that its the newest OS), CyanogenMOD(state that its easily themeable and one of the fastest), or you can flash it back to stock. In terms of how you’d start the auction, I suggest putting a buy it now of what you want and a starting price of .99 cents cause that’ll get more attention. But be ready to pay the sellers fees when you sell it cause that can get quite expensive.
Sounds like a solid plan, I appreciate it and may roll with every tip you gave me.
Regarding again the two blemishes, you really would, even conservatively, call it used/excellent? Should I just note the chip and scratch without those pictures or with? Want to be completely honest, though without shooting myself in the foot.
I would put in our (COUGH!) forums and then put it on XDA. My feeling there is you will sell it to someone who knows what rooting and custom ROM’s are and you will not have the explanation time when you get a potential buyer.
I’d imagine at this point that the majority of the people trying to hunt down a Nexus One have been on XDA before and at least vaguely know what rooted means or that there’s something called Froyo and another called Gingerbread.
It’s out-spec’ed by plenty of phones that, with contract, are cheaper, have a warranty, it’s just that this particular phone is a top shelf phone with a lot of shelf life and it’s development this and Google that more than any other phone that gets 3G on AT&T, and Google stopped selling them. This phone will remain great for a long time. It’s the M1911 of smartphones. They should have called it that, maybe switching the M with a G.
I’ll put it on our forums if you don’t mind, though linking to ebay, but isn’t it a faux pas to try to sell stuff on XDA? Cross-posting is a faux pas, so were I to do that, which forum would make sense?
I’d better try to unload this thing quick in case AT&T or whoever debuts a phone at CES that further dethrones the N1.
If you post it on eBay I would follow Jake K’s suggestions, except for the .99 starting price. Yes, the bidding will probably go up to several hundred dollars, but it will only cost you like .50 or .75 to put in a starting bid on something like $199.99 (.99 listing is free). If only one person bids. $1.25 you are obliged to sell for that price. Device accessories are like car accessories, they lose a lot of value once you drive out of the showroom, but they will help to close a deal. Include photos of the nicks & scratches (.20 per) so there are no excuses for anyone wanting to return. If you have never sold anything on eBay before, many bidders will be very leery of you. That’s another reason to not start the bidding too low. Definitely include a “Buy it Now” for maybe just a tad less than you would be willing to get for it. Much easier that playing 20 questions with a multitude of bidders and less chance of needing to relist the item. Of the 20 items that I have sold, about half went as buy it now’s. Once the first bid it placed though, the buy it now becomes void. Still another reason to not start at .99. Gives someone time to ask a question and then just decide to fork over the cash and not wait for the auction to end. Not sure about your $400 price, but autographed by Doug Simmons. Who knows. Maybe one of your fans will want to shoot a video of your Nexus being dropped into hot oil. As long as they pay your price, whatever.