# Ebay, is this as good a deal as it looks?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-is-this-as-good-a-deal-as-it-looks/352319>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 12, 2006, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-is-this-as-good-a-deal-as-it-looks/352319 "2006-04-12T02:33:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Aceospades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Aceospades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aceospades)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-is-this-as-good-a-deal-as-it-looks/352319/1 "2006-04-12T02:33:16Z")

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I’m in the market for a new service plan. I’m with cingular right now (old AT&T customer). I like the phones from Sprint. I went into a sprint store down the road and got a little sticker shock. So I came to ebay and looked around. I found some really good deals (compared to the sprint store) but then I found an auction from this guy: [sprintnetwork](http://stores.ebay.com/Sprint-PCS-Wholesale-Distributor) He has the two phones I want (a900 and the a920) for only .99 each. Am I missing something here? What’s the down side? Instant rebates, good feedback, and free overnight delivery. I wanted to run it by you guys and see what everyone thinks. Thanks.

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2006, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-is-this-as-good-a-deal-as-it-looks/352319/2 "2006-04-12T03:44:53Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Pre-Approval Requirements:
> 
> Customers signing up for a new line of Sprint service (customer getting a new Sprint number)  
> Customers adding an additional lines to their Sprint account  
> Transfering a line to Sprint from another carrier (Not available for Nextel customers)
> 
> You can only get pre-approved only if you meet the terms listed above. Please email or call us to be pre-approved.

It requires a specific service plan with probably at least a year or two commitment. If you like the plan it might be an excellent deal, but the point is that the cost of the plan will soon swamp the purchase price of the phone in most cases the dealer gets big kickback from Sprint for selling the plan. That’s why phones sold without plans are so insanely expensive at retail.