My iPhone (aka the $400 cigar)
So Sunday I was smoking a cigar and cooking a steak on the grill. Utilizing my iPhone's countdown timer to remind me to flip the steak, I set the timer and put the phone in my coat jacket and sat down on one of my patio chairs. The iPhone slipped out of my pocket and fell about 2 feet to the concrete below. Now - I have dropped my iPhone at least a dozen times from even greaters heights but except a few nicks and scratches on the case - everything has been ok. But it was not my lucky day as the beautiful glass on the touch screen cracked. Hence the $400 cigar smoking experience.
Here are a few pictures of the phone
So I headed out to the Apple Retail Store and went to the Genius Bar to find out the news that I was already expecting to hear. The glass is not covered by the warranty and it would cost $250 for Apple to replace the glass. Well, given the delay for the repair and the fact that a new iPhone was only $399, I purchased a glorious new iPhone and headed home to investigate other options. I did find some online places which sell the OEM touchscreen/digitizer/LCD and they want about $150. After watching a video of the repair - there was no way that I would do it myself to save approximately $100.
While reading one of the websites on repairing iPhones it mentioned that people were selling cracked iPhones on ebay. Only in America I said to my self. Intrigued I decided to check it out and yes people were selling them and even more amazingly people were buying them for 50-75% of the cost of a new iPhone. So I took a few pictures of my old iPhone and put the phone on ebay for $0.99 opening bid with a Buy-it Now price of $315 plus shipping. Well less than 48 hours later - the phone sold for $315. Amazing. So that $400 cigar smoking experience now only cost $85 plus tax. I also found on eBay that people will buy new and used iPhones for lots of money. Apparently due to the low US dollar against the British pound and the Euro - people from overseas want to but the US version and then I guess they unlock the iPhone to use with the carrier of their choice.