Are Samsung Galaxy s5 still being made/manufactured?

I have sent the following message (through eBay) to several of the sellers at the $170 price point:

1.How are these "New?" It is my understanding that these phones are no longer manufactured.

2.a.Are you guaranteeing that these are actual OEM chargers and batteries?

2.b.If so, how old are the batteries (mfr date)?

I (and I am sure many others) might be willing to pay you your premium, but only if you could actually guarantee such things.

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Only one of the sellers (mistyelectronics) came even close to addressing this point specifically in their FAQ or Questions About Item sections:

Why is this in an open box, or non retail box?

mistyelectronics : Most phones that become available on the market are no longer sold in stores. They are discontinued, and then sold in bulk , to wholesalers like myself, and I either pack them in open retail boxes or a non retail box. The quality of the phone however is exactly like that sold in stores before being discontinued to make way for newer models.

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All the rest just had the following standard response:

What is the condition of this item?

[seller name] has listed this item as New.

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FYI, these are SM-G900T for T-Mobile (and should work on Metro PCS, my carrier). There are also some more listed, anywhere from $180-300, but the $170 price point seems to have the most numbers available for sale at this time. Again, these are supposed to be New In Box, with all accessories.

I will update this post later with results / replies (if I get any, lol).

Thanks for quick replies, guys.

I have a couple thoughts. First, when buying (typically, used) phone off eBay, I generally don't like to buy from people (usually companies) selling hundreds of phones. You have no idea what you are really getting. Especially with a used phone, where the described condition of "good" (with little to no further detail) is highly subjective. I prefer to buy from an individual, selling a single phone, who has posted a number of good quality pictures of the exact, actual phone that you are buying. Instead of some meaningless stock photo. That's just sort of a personal preference of mine.

Second, @Hadron , you make a good point about the battery. And I share your concerns. Even if it was a New Old Stock in box OEM phone, the battery probably would be degraded by now. Or they may have replaced them with who knows what. I recently went down that rabbit hole looking for a battery for one of our other s5s recently. There seems to be no way to tell what you are getting in this market, even straight from Amazon themselves people have been getting fakes apparently, much less anything off eBay. The fact that these people are allowed to list these phones as "New" should tell you everything you need to know about how much I trust eBay. Not that Amazon is any better, apparently. So what I ended up deciding to do was to buy an ANKER s5 battery. At least that's a brand that I know and trust. I figure that's better than taking chances with mystery "OEM" batteries that likely are nothing of the sort.

So, when you put that all together, there seems to me to be no way to verify that these $170 phones are actually New Old Stock, and if they are, what sort of shape the batteries are in. Or if replacement batteries, what they are. Or what the chargers are, etc. So, what I think I will do is just find what looks like a good individual listing for a single phone in what looks to be good shape, and plan on maybe buying another ANKER replacement battery for it at some later date. Phones like that can be found much less that $170 and I don't think I see much reason to pay that premium. Especially since those $170 sellers seem to be essentially straight up lying (should be listed at best as New Old Stock)!

PitCarver said:

I've got several years and a lot of time on my S5, and hate the idea of giving it up.

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As I mentioned in OP, I am not really interested in buying anything newer than an s5, they are still great phones (especially running Lineage OS, mine is plenty fast) and have replaceable battery and SD card. I will not buy a phone without those features. So, I'm right there with you on that one man. I love my s5 and plan on keeping it a while longer! Maybe until the Purism Librem 5 comes out!

Update: I only received a couple replies from my several inquiries. One was quite snarky (mistyelectronics, perhaps I should publish it here for giggles) and one other who simply replied "read the ad."

It appears to me that these sellers of "new" phones are quite simply just lying. At best they should be listing these as "New Old Stock" or "Refurbished" as they have not been manufactured for years.

My advice is not to pay their premium and just find an honest individual seller of a single phone and deal with them directly. Hell, even if you pay the same or more for the phone, I would buy from someone who has it listed as "Used" or perhaps "Refurbished" or "New - Other" etc. as I believe very strongly not to reward businesses who lie by giving them my hard earned money, and I encourage everyone else to do the same!

I'm not buying it. If you read the comments carefully, there are a couple negative ones where they say they checked the ESN and it showed history on a carrier. I just think it's more likely that most people buying these phones are simply not as exceedingly careful (autistic? OCD? lol) as I am, and don't know what to look for, and just rate 5 stars and off they go with their "new" phone, than that these are actually new phones. Also the comments about opening the boxes, etc., etc. and all the little details I have seen through this whole process.

Maybe they are "new" been sitting on a shelf and so they are opening them to swap batteries though. Which would make them like I said "New Old Stock" or "New Other" and NOT "New." Also in that case, who knows what kind of batteries they are putting in, fakes are everywhere. Therefore I stand by my assertion that these people are simply lying. Occam's razor. Just because you/I/we are honest people, doesn't mean there aren't dishonest people out there, and especially where monetary gain is involved.

I could be wrong though. I'm really curious to hear what @PitCarver reports back after he has received his, I hope he doesn't forget about us in this thread.

dontpanicbobby said:

They're not lying.

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And what are you basing that opinion on? Faith in the good of your common man? I'm sorry but I remain unconvinced by the mountain of evidence and investigation you have provided.

Except most seem to have been opened. And if "New Old Stock" then battery issues (see above discussion). Anyway, I'm not going to re-hash the whole thread because you couldn't be bothered to read it fully and just decided to post your opinion, based on nothing.