Buying a used Nexus on craigslist

[sq33]

Hi,

So I met a guy from craigslist at a Verizon store who said he had a Nexus for sale. When the salesperson tried to activate it, there was a balance (huge number) on the account. The guy said he would get back to me when he clears it up. He texts me saying he unlocked the phone and using my SIM card will work in it? Is he full of baloney?

 

[jhawkkw]

Hi,

So I met a guy from craigslist at a Verizon store who said he had a Nexus for sale. When the salesperson tried to activate it, there was a balance (huge number) on the account. The guy said he would get back to me when he clears it up. He texts me saying he unlocked the phone and using my SIM card will work in it? Is he full of baloney?

It's likely. If this is a Verizon version, there's no point in sim unlocking it because it only supports one LTE frequency. The Sprint version wouldn't work on LTE due to a different frequency, so that would be worthless. The GSM version is already sim unlocked, and wouldn't work on Verizon anyways due to different technology.

If they didn't pay their balance, the ESN would be blocked and you wouldn't be able to activate it anyways. I would try to meet up at the Verizon store just like you did before and try to activate it before the sale transaction gets done.

 

[sq33]

Does it make a difference that I already have a 4G phone and can just put my Sim card in the nexus?

 

[jhawkkw]

Does it make a difference that I already have a 4G phone and can just put my Sim card in the nexus?

If the device is clean, and the sim card is the same size as what the nexus takes, it should be fine. If the device is blacklisted as being either stolen or because the owner hasn't paid their bill, it won't activate.

 

[GandalfTehGray]

Id check out swappa.com too. That guy sounds too shady for me

 

[streetfish]

I'm selling my Verizon GNex in case you are interested:

http://androidforums.com/classified...-galaxy-nexus-samsung-pogo-pin-dock-ebay.html