The fervor surrounding the Nexus 5 is fierce. As we anticipate the release of the next Google smartphone, we’re also prepared for the Play Store to be absolutely crushed by the traffic it sees. One eBay-er is confident they can get through the checkout process, and with a multitude of devices.


An eBay listing for the Nexus 5 has popped up, and will allow you to “Buy It Now” — for $650. For well above the starting price of $349 (the listing is for the 32GB variety, which we assume will be $399), you can make sure you get your order in for the Nexus 5. Of course, this is all very suspect.

While the markup isn’t anywhere near the $1,000 we’d seen the Nexus 4 at last year after launch, it’s still a hefty price for the Nexus 5. Then again, that price is fair market value for an unlocked, off-contract device — we’re just spoiled with the Nexus pricing strategy.

The other issue is availability. Though the eBay listing is a “Buy It Now”, that’s not to say this person can even get their hands on the device, much less that many. Currently, the item has five available, but if last year is any indication, many users had their Play Store carts emptied for no apparent reason. The servers couldn’t handle the load, and it all went haywire.

There are also a lot of very strange “reviews” which don’t seem to correlate to anything other than speculation the device will be great. So, we have a listing for devices via a source many had issues getting last year, a huge markup, and reviews for something nobody has. Whatever is going on here, one thing is certain: it’s Nexus season.

19 COMMENTS

  1. So I took this as 4 paragraphs of calling that particular ebayer a fraudulent asshole out to scam people, and under that pretense the entire thing was fantastic

  2. I swear if I can’t buy a Nexus 5 because these assholes are trying to make a quick buck I’m going to angry. And you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry! ggggRRRRRRRRRROAR

  3. oh these assholes again…
    I feel bad for people who have to spend $650 on the Nexus 5. They pay the “seller” $200 for almost nothing.

  4. I live in Ireland and if it wasn’t for people like this guy i wouldn’t be able to get my hands on a nexus phone for months possibly even up to a year after release.

    As we know google play stores are region specific and it is very difficult to get around this to purchase devices. So ultimately i end up digging through eBay looking for the best possible price i can get. I have had to do this with the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4 and both new and old Nexus 7.

    $600 = €450 and for me this is still cheaper than if i was to try to buy a Note3, S4 or even an iphone off contract from a phone retailer.

  5. We should all not purchase any of the phones from these bastards even if it’s officially sold out. Let them cry with all the phones they are not supposed to have till the end of their life.

  6. Dude, look closer before you write the post, that is a Nexus 4 posted with a Nexus 5 picture…

    Quoted: “MPN:LGGoogleNexus416GBUnlockedBlack”

    • You should look a little closer before you post, RollingRock. The description clearly says “This is a pre-order for the brand new Nexus 5!”

  7. Report item.

    Catagory: Listing Practices

    Reason: Fraudulent listing activites

    Detailed Reason: You suspect that a listing is fradualent

    Ebay has banned these types of listings going all the way back to the original iPhone, and that was an announced product.

    “Apple iPhone Pre-Sales are prohibited. This highly-anticipated device will be in high demand after the US release on June 29th, 2007. Prior to the release of similar high-demand electronics, we saw a high number of well-intentioned sellers unable to meet their pre-sale obligations to buyers due to restricted supply, as well as an increase in fraudulent listings for these items. To prevent similar problems with the iPhone, eBay is prohibiting all pre-sales of this device.”

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