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ebay posts

iPhone 3GS prototype scooped up at airport, now on eBay

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 3rd 2009 at 2:03PM

Seriously folks, what's up with these prototype iPhones falling out of nondescript white vans and ending up on eBay in the shadiest of manners? Just months after we saw an original iPhone prototype (ancient OS included) pop up on The 'Bay, now we've got one of the world's first iPhone 3GSs on there as well. According to the highly ranked eBay seller, the "guy" he "got it from" actually stumbled upon it at an airport, and rather than doing the nonsensical thing of hitting up lost and found, he decided to make the most of the sudden opportunity. According to the new owner, an Apple Genius has confirmed that it is an iPhone 3GS, but due to its prototype nature, they can't help him get past the "Connect to iTunes" screen. In other words, it's an incredibly rare brick. If that sounds like just the thing to complete your collection, you can visit the road to overpaying through the read link below.

[Via ElectricPig]

Palm Pre hits eBay prior to official launch: just $900 and a fistful of shame

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 5th 2009 at 10:51AM

Look, if this were one of those elusive GSM Pres, we might be able to understand this. But seriously -- $899.99 for a Palm Pre that you won't get until launch day anyway? 'Course, there are those certain folks that are born everyday, but we couldn't caution you enough to steer clear here. After all, lines won't even be a problem come tomorrow, right guys? On another note, how did some chap from Encino end up with five of these gems? White panel van delivery or something?

[Via GadgetVenue]

Google's altruistic Ion giveaway instantly rewarded with blind greed

by Chris Ziegler, posted May 28th 2009 at 7:03AM

Call it a sign of the times, call it a Google I/O attendee who just didn't really like the Ion, call it an overabundance of Western-style capitalism, call it man's almost instinctive need to generate profit -- whatever the case, one of the 4,000 specially-branded Ions given away at the conference this week is now available to the highest bidder. Never mind the fact that it's an I/O special edition, though -- outside of this particular device, we're not sure where you can find a 1700MHz 3G HTC Magic at any price, so we're sure this is going to be worth plenty of cold, hard cash to plenty of people who aren't in San Francisco at the moment. Oh, and don't worry if you miss out on this one; we'd be shocked if there weren't others in the pipeline.

[Via TmoToday]

Keepin' it real fake, part CCXIII: Magic trick goes awry on eBay

by Darren Murph, posted May 20th 2009 at 9:59PM

Sigh. Where to begin? It looks like a Magic, it smells like a Magic, but the perfectionist in us fully understands that it's absolutely not a Magic. The self-proclaimed followup to HTC's G1 has itself an impostor, and that very shammer is parading around on eBay for the low, low price of $122.99. Granted, that doesn't buy you an HTC logo, Android or 3G, but hey, it just might fool a few folks on the subway. Take it from us, though, it's totally not worth the risk of embarrassment.

[Thanks, Jeremy]

Zen-filled Aspire One netbook makes VAIO P look cheap

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 27th 2009 at 12:09AM

Oh, right -- we forgot that Sony's not actually considering the VAIO P a "netbook," but for all intents and purposes, it is. That being said, this highly decorated Aspire One easily blows the pants off of the aforesaid Sony, ringing up at $3,000 (minimum) on eBay. Why so pricey, you ask? No, there's no liquid nitrogen-cooled Core 2 Quad within, nor will you find a CrossFireX graphics setup. What you will see, however, is hours upon hours of TLC poured into this one-of-a-kind machine by Japan's own UFO-Hayashi. Still, for three large this better come bundled with peace, love and happiness for as long as the owner draws breath -- something we're definitely not seeing in the video after the break.

Continue reading Zen-filled Aspire One netbook makes VAIO P look cheap

Freescale-powered LimeBook hits eBay for astronomical price

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 7th 2009 at 8:33PM

China's Tsinghua Tongfang has had quite the difficulty launching any of its Lime-splashed gear here in the United States, and while it has bothered to show up at CES the past two years, we're still waiting for the LimePC UMPC and LimeBook netbook to arrive in proper fashion. Evidently, one eBay user reckons that Americans really will pay anything so long as something's considered "rare," as the Lime OS-packin' LimeBook -- which was spotted in January in Las Vegas -- is being offered up for US delivery at $500. Yeah, 500 smackers for an unproven, practically unheard of Freescale-powered netbook with a 9-inch display, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, a 32GB SSD, WiFi, 1.3 megapixel webcam and the Linux-based Lime OS. Anyone feel like burning through some discretionary income in order to let us know what the feeling of ownership is like?

[Thanks, Joseph]

NES Joystick Test Cartridge lands on eBay, complete with lowest replay value ever

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 29th 2009 at 9:02PM

Not that we haven't seen some pretty crazy Nintendo gear fetch some pretty crazy prices on The Bay, but this is definitely amongst the weirdest. Shipping directly from the frigid tundras of Fairbanks, Alaska, this Joystick Test Cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System will undoubtedly spend a record low amount of time within your still kickin' NES console. Put simply, these carts were passed out to game stores for them to test out their NES machines, and after they were done, they were instructed to ship the cart back to the Mushroom Kingdom. Clearly, one renegade employee shoved it in his coat pocket and made a beeline for The Last Frontier. Surely all that's worth $1,050, right?

[Via TechEBlog]

Canon EOS 5D Mark II flash drive: just 21.1MP shy of awesomeness

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 27th 2009 at 9:23AM

You could say that this is the perfect USB flash drive for existing EOS 5D Mark II owners. We'd argue, however, that this is the perfect USB flash drive for those looking to just live vicariously while not shattering the bank. 'Course, $129.99 for a 4GB USB key is pretty absurd, but at least that gets you Live View and a 1080p movie mode. Er, wait...

[Via Zungua]

Macbook with Apple logo-turned-LCD now on eBay, naturally

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 15th 2009 at 12:21PM

Not that we can really blame the guy or anything, but don't think that the selling of this machine at this point in the history of mankind is any sort of coincidence. Literally two days after we took a glance at this very Macbook -- which had its Apple logo replaced with a bona fide, completely functional LCD -- it's up for auction at eBay. We know, the economy's a little rough right now, so we'll chalk this one up to a creature of the entrepreneurial spirit and move on. But yes, you should be prepared to pay top dollar (or learn how to mod) if you're dead set on being its next owner.

iPhone prototype caught on video

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Mar 10th 2009 at 9:46AM

We found a quick video of the iPhone prototype that you've probably already bid on. The excitement is palpable as the person on screen clicks his or her way through menu items, checks out mobile web pages and generally does the sort of things that we imagine one does with a test unit. No doubt your curiosity's been piqued, and we don't blame you. With a current bid of $2,000 and over thirty-five hours left on the auction, this is probably as close as we'll ever get to the thing. Video after the break.

Update: Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later: it looks like Apple's lawyers had the auction (and the accompanying YouTube video) pulled. It was fun while it lasted!

Update: Thanks to our main man Steve, the video is back up... for now. See for yourself after the break.

Continue reading iPhone prototype caught on video

iPhone prototype surfaces on eBay, aims to fetch a pretty penny

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 9th 2009 at 7:42PM

Okay, so we'll go ahead and crush a few dreams up front -- there's nothing here that proves this isn't some funky KIRF iPhone or just an ad hoc or jailbroken app making things look completely funkadelic. Now that our skepticism is out in the open, we'll be honest and say we really, really hope this is legitimate. According to the eBay description, this here iPhone prototype was constructed a few months prior to the real iPhone's release, and it actually powers on, makes calls and receives SMSs. It sports a totally beta plastic matte screen, and the software is obviously pre-release. Oh, and the best part? The auction winner also scores a second beta phone that won't turn on (yet), but we're sure the right tweaker could fix it up into the most amazing secondary phone the world has ever seen. Forget all that bad economic news you've been hearing -- you best bring the bring the bank if you're thinking seriously about claiming this.

[Via iLounge]

Prototype Apple Interactive Television Box up for auction: there goes your savings

by Darren Murph, posted Jan 23rd 2009 at 11:07PM

From what we can gather, even Apple purist Jeremy Mehrle doesn't own one of these ultra-rare set-top-boxes, and if you think you're the only Apple fanboy out there eying this one seriously, we fear you'll be sorely mistaken. This prototype Interactive Television Box was crafted in or around 1994 and was designed to deliver content to one's TV by connecting to a central server and downloading content. Thus, the unit itself doesn't boot into anything nor does it feature an internal hard drive. Still, DIYers and collectors alike will have a hard time passing up the opportunity of snagging this piece and turning it into a makeshift iTunes server, but given the remarkably low $249.99 buy-it-now price, we'd say that window of opportunity may not be open for long. Oh, and Apple TV -- you ain't got nothin' on this in terms of desirability. Sorry, bub.

[Thanks, Marc]

Mysterious pink iPhone 3G hits eBay, cue onslaught of rumors

by Jacob Schulman, posted Jan 2nd 2009 at 3:11AM

Say wha'?! An iPhone in a hue other than black, white, or silver? While a red model has been rumored since before the 3G even launched, we've never thought about a pink one -- let alone one hitting eBay. The text on the back of the device convinces us that this isn't a simple ColorWare job, but there aren't any photos of the back of the packaging either. Our take? Some OEM in Asia whipping up custom colors. But hey, Macworld's just under a week away, so who knows?

Update: Go ahead and put those horses back in the stables folks, folks: Cole commented to point us over to an eBay auction for a rather familiar looking and decidedly aftermarket pink back cover. So, don't go expecting a first-party pink iPhone at Macworld, but if you hurry up and bid now you can have yourself the most fabulous handset at the show.

[Thanks, Gav]

Slot loading Xbox 360 enjoys its 15 minutes, heads to eBay

by Darren Murph, posted Dec 14th 2008 at 5:43AM

There's a good possibility you felt some sense of jealously when eying RDC's meticulously modded Xbox 360, and now you can act on said envy thanks to the supreme convenience of the online auction house known as eBay. That's right kids -- the slot loading Xbox 360 that was shown here just under a month ago is now on the auction block, and the $250 minimum bid means that you're paying a ridiculously small premium for all the blood, sweat and tears that were undoubtedly poured into this creation. Of course, that figure is apt to head skyward in a hurry, but maybe that would encourage you to get off your keister and craft one yourself. No time like the present to beef up that weakening DIY muscle.

[Via Xbox-Scene, thanks Aguiluz]

Modder haphazardly shoves an N64 into a Wii shell

by Darren Murph, posted Nov 21st 2008 at 1:42AM

We'll be frank -- there's nothing particularly elegant about the Wii64, but it is unique, so we just have to pay attention. Without any rhyme or reason, this here modder decided it best to gut the internals of his Wii and replace them with the innards of an N64. Of course, he could've just referenced someone else's work for getting an N64 controller to play nice with Nintendo's latest, but we suspect that just wasn't the itch he was trying to scratch. The current bid is just $49.99, so those intrigued enough to actually have it shipped to their house can bid away.

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]