Palm Pre hits eBay prior to official launch: just $900 and a fistful of shame
By Darren Murph 
posted June 5th 2009 10:51AM
posted June 5th 2009 10:51AM
[Via GadgetVenue]
posted June 5th 2009 10:51AM
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The phone can't be activated until tomorrow at 8am.
Totally worth the $900 then! ;D
You are assuming you would actually get a phone if you bought these. Why do you think that "CelltasticPrices818@ebay.com" has a real Prë? I could make a cardboard box and take a picture of it, too.
What you would most likely get is shafted... Caveat Emptor.
AND at 8am tomorrow you could just buy it for $549 without contract.
And yet, because of the stupid limited availability that Palm is apparently drumming up, some fools will pay almost double the amount just to feel cool around their friends when they use their Pre.
Have we decided if Sprint was selling these for straight $199?
@Joe, 300 out the door at the sprint store (and tax), 200 from best buy out the door.
All those Pres on eBay should be sold out by tomorrow. All the the enthusiastic Palm Fanboys on Engadget will be buying those up. And such a bargain at $900. It would be even funnier if some of you people sent your money and got a Pre box with a bar of soap inside. That would be a hoot.
I'll bet those five Pres represent Denver, Colorado's total allocation.
I'm sorry but this thing looks like crap. A toy at best. Palm will never compete with Blackberry. A bad phone paired with the worst service--Sprint. Now there's a losing combination. Sprint is ranked as one of the world's worst companies. I won't even begin to tell you of my horror stories with them. oh..my..gawd. T-Mobile FTW.
i'd rather get N97
I "might could" understand it too if it was GSM
Darren Murph: are you Southern?
Main Entry: col·lo·qui·al·ism
Pronunciation: \-ˈlō-kwē-ə-ˌli-zəm\
Function: noun
Date: 1810
1: a colloquial expression b: a local or regional dialect expression
2: colloquial style
(Thanks, MW)
http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors
I reckon ya'll could get one of them there Pre's directly. It is called dialect and I happen to think my southern drawl is quit charming.
Tegan and Sara, the Lost Forest Fones! Did you watch an episode of that? I think it was episode 3... (they're all on youtube pah) There was somebody who called and was "supposed" to be a Georgian accent who says "might could..."
x.x;
Mafia phone!
Come on. Everyone knows that the mafia only uses Winmo.
I would have to disagree. The mafia uses iPhones, because every other app on the AppStore is some sort of MafiaWars rip-off...
I don't think you need to play a game about being Mafia when you're actually in the Mafia. I certainly wouldn't want to play AaronWars. It would be boring.
Im excited about the pre and next iphone, id like both
I'm just waiting til the Magic hits Portugal. Since, to my regret, the Dream won't... I love that QWERTY keyboard!
I won't even try to get a Palm because that brand isn't even commercialized around here.
AH Yes! Thanks engadget.. I'm picking two up now!
this ebay guy has more Pre's than most Best Buys!
I thought sprint was selling this for around $550 without a contract tomorrow anyways. Although I guess some stores are only selling to new contracts and renewals. It still doesn't make sense because you can't use the phone on anything but Sprint.
I "might could" understand the poor grammar by Darren Murph.
I agree, we should "steer clear" of this guy, but in the meantime let's help advertise him with a post and a convenient link to his ebay sale.
Let me put it this way: would you prefer to know about a dangerous alley so you could "steer clear" or would you like to walk in to find out for yourself?
There's no way I'm going to justify spending that level of money on a Pre, but keep in mind that the no contract price for the phone seems to be around $850:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/04/palm-pre-stock-levels-at-best-buy-for-entire-us-now-leaked-in-fu/
Throw in tax, and in most states you're looking at over $900 for the phone.... Assuming you can get one this early.
With that in mind, it's not such a bad deal for someone with more dollars than neurons.
At some point don't you have to ask yourself, "hmmm... should I get this smart phone or a freakin computer? Maybe a Macbook perhaps?" Yea, I'd probably get the phone too.
@jacolnnn
So, was that supposed to be a dig at Macs, or are you just admitting you'd spend $700 too much on a phone? If it is that second, I'll sell you this old RAZR I've had laying around for $700...
@gib
He'd get ripped either way, so I guess he really doesn't care.
It's ok,
Theres some nerd or sucker with a credit card with 900 dollars of room on it that doesn't realize they won't get it before the average Joe walking into the sprint store does.
I need one of those phones but not for 900$ I would pay 549$.
So this should be the iPhone killer? Ok...
Of course it's an iPhone killer.
Even Chuck Norris is afraid of the Pre.
I'm afraid of nothing.
the packaging looks like a bunch of apple employees created this phone. oh wait......
Absolutely, and the package is just the beginning.
Who ever buys these things is a Moron, by the time this guy ships it out and you get it deliver, stores are gonna have tons of them in stock.
Hang-on, the iPhone was £599 (yes UK pounds) on eBay last year so what's Engadgets problem with the Pre price?
Hey if you look on the right hand side...you will see that it's only 4 hours to go before we can get this phone anyway...so I hope this guy can deliver faster than that :)
if you live nearby, i guess he can...
Good luck getting a CDMA phone with a flag IMEI activated, in other words good luck getting Sprint to Activate a phone that's probably missing from a stock room.
Palm pre Unboxing ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSbgMOCzn6w
I really can't believe that no one else has noticed or commented on this. I had to post this just to make sure someone noticed. Look at box in the bottom left of the picture. If you zoom in you will see in bold, capital letters:
DEMO DEVICE
NOT FOR RESALE
Anyone else see a potential problem when it comes time to activate these things?
Ha Ha! Nice spot. Celltastic has now changed the pictures on eBay to cover that up.
Hopefully the seller will use the money to buy new carpet.
Buddy, that's marble.
Wit fail.
i think i'll hold on to my $900, get one at the store with contract/rebate for less than a 1/3rd of that, and use the leftovers to buy like 3 or these when they come out http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/04/video-nvidia-tegras-gpu-gets-busy-with-hd-video-and-full-scree/
Watch out:
"No refunds are offered if items are received in the condition stated in the auction."
lol