I bought an iPhone 11 Pro Max 512GB off ebay

[jcy]

The ebay seller shipped it from Hong Kong, and it was delivered by air freight and USPS. It took 3 weeks for delivery after ordering it.

The box says copyright 2019, so this has been sitting for quite a while. Shockingly, it was at about 50% charge.

$556 total cost.

 

[Hall]

Cross your fingers it's not a counterfeit.

 

[Pablo]

I'm skeptical as heck.

 

[mitsuman47]

OP is a brave soul.

 

[I<3oil]

#1: why are you buying an iPhone 11?

#2: why would you pay $556 for that?????????

 

[alarmguy]

Cross your fingers it's not a counterfeit.

I doubt it very much. The phone is 5 generations old, at that price I am sure it is legit.

A respectable iPhone 13 is much newer and can be bought cheaper at Best Buy today and with your choice of colors.
(oh I just noticed he bought an iPhone 11 Pro, this 13 isnt a pro)
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-iphone-13-5g-128gb-unlocked-midnight/6417788.p?skuId=6417788

 

[JavierH19]

Check how many charge cycles are on it and the battery health. Also check the front and rear glass and shiny frame with light reflection to see if there are any micro scratches. I almost doubt it's a real old stock device. Was probably polished up and resealed to make it look new as that's a scam that I've heard of happening. Doesn't apple have a way of checking when an iphone was first used or activated?

 

[Hall]

I doubt it very much. The phone is 5 generations old, at that price I am sure it is legit.

When I say counterfeit, it could also be used or "refurbished". Pricing it cheap would be a giveaway that something is fishy, so price it more reasonable and gives it more legitimacy.

I can't think of any good reason to buy such an old model either.... iOS 18 only goes back to iPhone 10/X models so the next iOS could drop the 10s and 11s. I'm curious what the charge cycles say like @JavierH19 mentioned.

 

[dishdude]

There's no way that sat for 5 years and still has 50% charge.

 

[Urshurak776]

When I say counterfeit, it could also be used or "refurbished". Pricing it cheap would be a giveaway that something is fishy, so price it more reasonable and gives it more legitimacy.

I can't think of any good reason to buy such an old model either.... iOS 18 only goes back to iPhone 10/X models so the next iOS could drop the 10s and 11s. I'm curious what the charge cycles say like @JavierH19 mentioned.

Apple said IOS 18 is it for iphone 11. So.....this phone is already on it's last update.

OP - I would be very concerned with security if you use this for any banking, shopping, etc. Once apps are updated past IOS 18, they will probably cease to function on this phone. Honestly, see if you can get a refund. This isn't going to play out well.


https://endoflife.date/iphone

 

[JavierH19]

There's no way that sat for 5 years and still has 50% charge.

Yeah. I know these have a little clock that runs when it's off to keep time and date and by now the battery should be far lower than that or dead. I think it was one of those fake "sealed new unopened" scams. Hong kong is a red flag. Probably shipped from hk but came from china.

 

[IveBeenRued]

Maybe OP is buying this to get a newer phone with trade. T-Mobile will give $1000 credit towards a 16 Pro purchase for trading in an 11 Pro right now. Thats the only reason why anyone would be crazy enough to pay this kind of money for an ancient used phone.

 

[mitsuman47]

Maybe OP is buying this to get a newer phone with trade. T-Mobile will give $1000 credit towards a 16 Pro purchase for trading in an 11 Pro right now. Thats the only reason why anyone would be crazy enough to pay this kind of money for an ancient used phone.

More likely scenario: OP fired up his recent purchase, it pulled an E.T. and phoned home, the CCP located him, and now he’s building iPhones in a sweat shop factory in Zhengzhou.

 

[Rand]

This is sorta odd. No good reason to buy an 11 max, no deal, might be fake, might be used(likely)

 

[jcy]

There's no way that sat for 5 years and still has 50% charge.

Yeah. I know these have a little clock that runs when it's off to keep time and date and by now the battery should be far lower than that or dead. I think it was one of those fake "sealed new unopened" scams. Hong kong is a red flag. Probably shipped from hk but came from china.

Your presumption is that the clock is always running, but you can see from the filenames of these analytics logs that some have 1970 for a datestamp

Also, for everyone wondering I bought the last iphone that is 4G only. Keep that mm wave 5G trash out of my head!

After initial charge of the phone, it forced an update to 17.6.1 which does not seem to have a way to check battery charge cycle count like it was possible in older versions of ios

 

[KrisZ]

Must be for a collection or something like that, because paying over $500 for an almost obsolete phone from the OS perspective and planning on using it makes no sense.

 

[dishdude]

Also, for everyone wondering I bought the last iphone that is 4G only. Keep that mm wave 5G trash out of my head!

Oh boy.

 

[alarmguy]

@jcy
What does the phone say for battery life?
Settings>Battery>Battery Health

For the record, I was sure it was a legitimate phone and you just proved it being it updated.
Hong Kong is an affluent country (if you can call it a country)with a median income of double that of an American. It is a luxury goods, Haven.
I suspect you will still get about five years of updates from Apple

 

[jcy]

@jcy
What does the phone say for battery life?
Settings>Battery>Battery Health

For the record, I was sure it was a legitimate phone and you just proved it being it updated.

Yea, seemed pointless to explain code signing
Anyway, it says 100% so nothing very insightful

 

[alarmguy]

@jcy very good. I’m sure you’re going to enjoy it. I expanded my post above your reply.
You have me thinking now as I have a regular iPhone 13 at 89% battery if I could find a mint condition pro 13, I might be tempted to purchase it and sell this one off