Getting a $350 discount on an iPhone

For a video producer one of the many great things about an iPhone is that it’s an iPod that you can load your videos on to and then carry them around with you. You can have your demo reel with you at all times ready to show it anyone you can get to watch it.

On the other hand two of the worst things about the iPhone is that it costs a lot more than most other phones ($600) and you have to sign up for a two year contract with AT&T.

At one of the parties I was at up in San Francisco last week I ran into a guy with a new iPhone who said he had an interesting way to get a cheap iPhone. I asked if he knew someone at Apple and he said, “No.” but all it took was just a little bit of time and a credit card.

The first step he said was to visit a site like Pricegrabber and find the best deal on a new Blackberry Curve 8300 Smartphone. Once you find the best deal, which right now looks like it’s a FREE Blackberry Curve 8300 Smartpnone with a $150, mail-in rebate. Make sure it’s from a well rated dealer then buy it. Next sign up for the cheap activation then wait for the Blackberry Curve to arrive in the mail.

Once the Blackberry Curve shows up, place an ad on Craigslist to sell it for $350 or $400. Keep in mind the more you charge the longer it will take to sell but it should go pretty quick right now. He then went on to say that lots of guys drop their phones in the toilet or break them and they are locked into a two-year contract with AT&T and if they go back into the AT&T phone store they will have to buy a new smartphone at full price ($495 without activation) because Blackberry Curves are subsidized by the carrier so they are more expensive without the two year contract and if you just dropped your new Blackberry Curve down the drain you have to pay full price to replace it because the don’t sell Blackberry Curve Insurance. So getting a replacement for $350 is well worth it. Next he went on to say that once you’ve sold the Blackberry Curve for $350 or more take the cash, go to an AT&T or Apple Store and buy a new iPhone then transfer the service contract you had on the Blackberry Curve to the iPhone by signing a new Two Year contract that cancels out your old one. Keep in mind I haven’t done this so I don’t know that it works for sure and I don’t know if it’s illegal in anyway but it sounds like you could save $350 on an iPhone.

Hanging out in San Francisco

Spent the last couple of days in San Francisco. Had several meetings and picked up a few consulting jobs. Went to the Laughing Squid Party party last night. I saw David Spark and a ton of other Web 2.0 types.