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After months of being hidden by HTC and after a long-awaited announcement, someone is putting their HTC Merge up for sale on eBay before HTC even has a chance to release it. It’s the Verizon-branded version that we’ve seen strut its stuff in countless pictures and a few videos. The seller – xyellowfrizbee, who has a feedback score of 10 – wants $550 for it, but is allowing people to bid on it. (There’s a reserve price that needs to be met, also.) From the listing’s description:
This is a mint condition actual working HTC Merge. I have only used it for 2 days, and it was to install a Shinomi screen protector on it. Everything works great! Currently no one on Verizon has this device. It is not even released yet. Be the first and only one to own it. The device has a clean ESN and will activate fine.Includes:
-The Phone-8GB Memory Card-Shinomi Screen protector installed-Shinomi Carbon Fiber series body protector-Chargers-A Charging Dock-A standard black case made for the HTC Merge
Not sure I’d be comfortable taking a pre-release phone into a Verizon store for activation, but someone’s willing to. 6 bids have already been placed and it’s now sitting at $152. The auction ends February 28th if you want to get in on it. [Thanks, Ignacio!]
Carbon Fiber? no thanks.
wow that guy is getting some free big advertising for his auction!!!
Safe to say who ever has this shouldn’t and activating it would be a terrible idea..
You just got this guy some nice traffic to his auction
Now at $415.00…
Lmao hey now! I activated it just fine without going into Verizon, thank you very much.
yeah you dont need to go to verizon to activate your handset…just dial *228 and hit option 1.
This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of that’s forsale on Ebay. This phone probably has a trillion problems anyways!
Thats a very weird assumption. I have run into no problems using the device. A lot of people want the HTC Merge, just because you dont certainly does not make it stupid.
Of course the seller is going to claim its a great deal, but I think its very stupid.
There’s a very obvious reason why the real Merge hasn’t been released yet, because it has too many problems.
I wouldn’t want to buy a beta phone, especially when I can get a finished and almost bug free phone for the same price.
lol…i betcha the reserve will be upwards of $750…people on ebay have weird ideas about what second-hand products are worth
Thats what I love about T-Mobile, no worrying if the phone has a clear ESN. Just pop the sim card in and go.
:D
@going_home
also makes it that much easier to steal. quick google/xda search and i can find out how to factory reset most android phones. even the typical dumbass thief knows what google is.buy a sim card at your local stop n rob for 7 bucks and your golden
@ Joe, your “obvious reason” that the phone has too many problems have no foundation. The phone is working 100% and the only reason it wasn’t released, if you even checked on any news, was to preventing the phone from cannibalizing on the sales of Verizon’s own droid line. If you can’t afford it, dont know other products as if you know anything about it.
@Joe, actually, there are much more plausible rumors going around as to why it was delayed. Don’t bid if you don’t want it. I haven’t found anything not working, so I don’t know where you got your theory from.
Nope. Reserve was $400. Pretty fair if you ask me considering thats what retail would have gone for. I have important things that need to be paid off (car and college), so a new phone isn’t really my priority right now.
@yellowfrizbee- if u don’t mind me asking how is it that u got ur hands on a pre release model of the HTC merge?
*typo on last line:
If you can’t afford it, then dont’ talk as if you know anything about it. That’s commonly called talking out of your ass because you want it and you can’t get it.
@ Quentyn: No need to go to a store for activation. Just call in the ESN or you might be able to factory reset and auto-activate it via Android setup.
I bet it’s a Chinese knock-off. You’d be amazed at the sheer quantity of fake electronics on Ebay. That or it’s a test unit and as others have noted, it’s full of bugs. I wouldn’t trust it. Play it safe and buy from a reliable source. Feedback score of only 10….another red flag.
I’d bet you a grand that it isn’t. It is the device that was sold to reviewers on sites like engadget and android central to do an early review of.
It’s now up to 560 dollars with 15 hours left to run
Mike V is correct. It is not a knock off. However, it is certainly a pre-release device. That being said, the unit I have seems to be a pretty final build. I havent run into anything weird. This isnt uncommon, actually. A lot of times pre-release device go floating around in the wild. Many people sell them to developers and websites though. I tried to sell it to a developer so the future Merge owners could get root earlier, but he was late in replying to me and its already on ebay so. Not to worry though, im sure this device will get root quickly. Woulda been awesome if it could get a head start though!
Quick question though, I had the buy it now at $550….why didnt bidders just buy it now instead of continuing to bid over “the buy it now” price???? Not that im complaining. Just weird of the bidders. Oh and just because I missed it: My feedback is great..I only use ebay every so often, so I dont have the quantity in feedback, but if you look, I have the quality. Of the 10 feedback scores Ive received, I have 100% positive feedback, and there is a reason for that.
Bid ended about 30 secs ago. Ended up selling for 600 bucks. Not a bad deal if it was legit
If I picked up this phone on ebay, would I be able to insert a Straight talk sim card (from a nokia e71), and thereby use it, and Straight talk’s unlimited plan. Further more, is the cdma chip in the phone unlockable? If that’s the case, will it be the first phone in America that can manually switch between both networks?