Unlocked BlackBerry Z10 sells for $1,725 on eBay

February 1, 2013, 8:00 PM

A few yet-to-be-released BlackBerry Z10 smartphones are on sale on eBay Inc. in the U.S., and one sold for $1,725 on Friday.
The BlackBerry Z10 is one of two new smartphones announced by the company formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd. RIMM , which changed its name to BlackBerry.
The new smartphones are based on the company’s next generation operating system, BlackBerry 10, and the launch was seen as a bet-the-farm product line for the struggling company. Read RIM is betting the house on BlackBerry 10.
The BlackBerry Z10 is the company’s smartphone without a physical keyboard, but with a large touch screen and other new features that have received good reviews.
The Z10 which sold for $1,725 was offered by a seller in Laguna Hills, Calif., who would only give his name as Cameron. He said he got the early release version of the Z10 from the January 30 launch in New York and other cities. These new smartphones will not be available in the U.S. until sometime in March.
So far, many of these unlocked Z10s, which can be used without a carrier contract, are going for high prices on eBay. Another one has 13 bids and on Friday, had been bid up to $1,725.00. By comparison an unlocked Apple Inc. a AAPL +3.19% iPhone 4s was being bid at about $300 on Friday on eBay and an iPhone 5 was being bid up to $525.
Perhaps some of the phones are for sale by bloggers unconstrained by ethics, or executives  in the tech business who were invited to attend the BlackBerry events on January 30. Others may be coming from independent software developers who got copies of the phones for developing apps are putting them up for sale.  New electronics products, such as yet-to-be released smartphones, are often sold at high prices on eBay before they are officially available.
BlackBerry officials did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s not clear why some consumers would pay this much for a yet-to-be released, unlocked BlackBerry.  The high prices on eBay could be indicative of a huge pent-up demand for new BlackBerries in the U.S. A worst-case scenario could be that some people may want them as collectibles if they have a pessimistic view on BlackBerry’s chances for future survival.
– Therese Poletti
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