Early iPhone Buyers Strain to Resell Them Online

Many people who lined up to be the first buyers of Apple Inc.'s iPhone made good on promises to try to flip the gadgets online at inflated prices, but a quick buck appeared out of reach for many.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Many people who lined up to be the first buyers of Apple Inc.'s iPhone made good on promises to try to flip the gadgets online at inflated prices, but a quick buck appeared out of reach for many.

Auction Web site eBay had more than 400 listings for iPhones just two hours after the combination mobile phone, Web browser and music and video player went on sale on the U.S. East Coast.

But the vast majority of offers failed to attract even a single bid, and many of those that had were not yet above the list prices.

A handful of offers did draw enthusiastic bidding. One eBay auction had attracted 35 bids and a leading offer of $1,520. Another was up to $960 with 25 bids.

The iPhone is available at Apple and AT&T stores in two models costing $500 and $600 depending on whether it has 4 or 8 gigabytes of memory. It requires a service contract from AT&T Inc. that runs at least $1,400 over two years.

Online classifieds site Craigslist had 404 iPhone listings for New York City, with most seeking about $1,000 and one optimist wanting $10,000 from "collectors only."

Copyright 2007 Reuters.

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