Once you’ve upgraded to an iPhone 3G, you may be wondering what to do with your first-generation iPhone. Turns out there are a lot of options, from gifting it to someone else, turning it into a iPod touch, or selling it.
If you’re feeling so overwhelmed with joy and the milk of human kindness after your iPhone 3G upgrade – or just have a kid who’s been bugging you for a cell phone – you can pass your first-generation iPhone on to a friend or family member.
All you have to do is this:
Upgrade to an iPhone 3G and move your phone number to the new phone. This will require moving the SIM card from the old phone to the new one. AT&T or Apple will help you with this at activation.Give your old iPhone away that lucky person. They should go to an AT&T store to explain the situation and get a new SIM card. This should be free. They then take the iPhone home and activate it through iTunes using the standard first-generation iPhone activation process. They can even port an existing number to the new phone during this process or with AT&T’s help.Reportedly, an iPhone can be turned into an iPod touch – that is, an iPhone with no phone service, after an upgrade to an iPhone 3G.
Your SIM card, which contains your phone number, will go into the iPhone 3G, sending all phone calls there. But if you want to continue to use your iPhone as a media player, contact/calendar device, and WiFi-connected Internet device, you can.
You shouldn’t need to do anything. Just turn on your iPhone after the SIM card has been removed and the iPhone 3G activated and you should have a like-new media player on your hands.
It’s suggested that you upgrade to the iPhone 2.0 software before upgrading to an iPhone 3G, as iPhones without SIM cards may not be upgradeable – this isn’t clear yet, but should become clear once the iPhone 3G is launched. Still, this is a neat way to get a second iPod out of your iPhone 3G upgrade, or to have another iPod to hand off to a friend or family member.
If you’ve just forked over $200 or $300 for a new iPhone 3G, you may want to recover some of that money by selling your old iPhone. You’re likely not going to be alone in that plan, so don’t expect to make a ton of money on the sale initially.
Still, if you set your price reasonably, it’s likely that you’ll be able to sell the phone without too much trouble. When looking for places to sell the iPhone, consider old standbys like eBay and Craigslist. For those stores, be sure to take advantage of other people’s knowledge and tips to get the best price and smoothest transaction.
Since eBay and Craigslist are so widely used, you may want to consider some smaller online stores where there may be less competition. In that case, seek out cell phone or Mac-specific online resale opportunities.
Just like with old iPods, there are a number of businesses that will buy you first-generation iPhone so they can sell it to other people. If you just want your money fast and don’t want the hassle of dealing with sellers on eBay, consider one of these sites.
All of these sites base their pricing on their demand and the condition and capacity of your iPhone. These prices are snapshots in time - check the sites for the most up-to-date pricing.
Expect more of these programs to show up as the migration to the iPhone 3G accelerates.
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