How are the sellers sourcing phones?

[vakharia 23]

I am creating this thread to understand what are the different methods by which various sellers on forums such as these are sourcing mobile handsets and then selling them in India. Most of the handsets are imported (mainly from US).

1. Either they are carried by someone in which case there is limitation on the quantity that they can get into the country. OR

2. They are imported by paying duty through forwarders like shopandship.com or hopshopgo.com or others. OR

3. They are somehow smuggled into the country by someone else and perhaps then purchased by the sellers OR

4. Some other channel not known to me.

Also, what are the risks in buying such phones, even from those who are selling them here for a long time?

Note: I don't want the discussion to be targeted at a certain seller on this or any other forum.

Fair and objective discussion is my only motto.

[shreesh 406]

option 2 is correct

[nishsuxx 193]

Option 2 and 1 whenever possible...

[ami1 237]

This seems to be a big secret. I have never figured out how the US CDMA phones are sold so cheap here.

Shipping/Duties etc is all right, but how do the sellers buy the phones in the first place when these are on Contract in the US ?

Unlocked versions are very expensive and the sale prices here on rimweb are usually much much lower.

But obviously what ever it is, it is Great for us to try out fairly new handsets cheaper than any one else !

[vakharia 23]

This seems to be a big secret. I have never figured out how the US CDMA phones are sold so cheap here.

Shipping/Duties etc is all right, but how do the sellers buy the phones in the first place when these are on Contract in the US ?

Unlocked versions are very expensive and the sale prices here on rimweb are usually much much lower.

But obviously what ever it is, it is Great for us to try out fairly new handsets cheaper than any one else !

In this case, the phones are blocked by US carriers and the contract is somewhat broken by the first buyer in US. I don't think the sellers here state that (though it does not have any technical implications to use the phones here, but what happens when someone takes that phone to US and puts in a SIM card there and gets caught? Is that possible?

[admirer2000 100]

This seems to be a big secret. I have never figured out how the US CDMA phones are sold so cheap here.

Shipping/Duties etc is all right, but how do the sellers buy the phones in the first place when these are on Contract in the US ?

Unlocked versions are very expensive and the sale prices here on rimweb are usually much much lower.

But obviously what ever it is, it is Great for us to try out fairly new handsets cheaper than any one else !

US subscribers under plan are able to pay & dispose after declaring their Cell phones are lost / damaged / changing to other model - I think so.

I bought for my own use thrice (one phone each time) thru http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites#US and got them once thru a friend (htc DInc1) & self Twice (htc DInc-2 & S3) from USA. US NRIs discourage buying from Craigslist, as the cash transaction is risky there / some of the seller doesn't have any traceability / No warranty.

[jatinjoshi 1]

one option is that if you are us subscriber and covered under contact. you just have to report your handset as lost. they will add $6 and issue you a new phone so you have phone for $6

[kshah 452]

One or two handsets may be available as lost handset. Majority of seller who sells new handsets bring paying all taxes. Only tax they do do not pay is vat. (PROBABLY)

In US dealers get handsets at good bargain against bulk commitments so they make profits and sell of buyers out side US.

On many handset even warranty is available if sent to USA.

In us one can loose handsets for limited number of time. Later they do not get insurance. They pay us $ 5 PM to cover loss of handset.

[Guru Gopal 589]

if it is cdma phone you can check it is good esn or bad esn.

http://checkesnfree.com

if it is bad esn. then it may be breached contract or reported stolen (correct if I am worng)

In so far GSM phones

https://prod.eie.net.au/portal/template/MYMIMEIInquiry.vm

But is always better to check with checkmend report.

Checkmend report is not free. Check ebay.com or ebay.in for this service.

if it is proved bad esn, the phone cannot be used in USA or the respective countries. But in indian CDMA operators even Bad EsN phones are accepted to my knowledge.

if it is not clean GSM phone it will be the same thing but can be used other countries if it is unlocked one.

[::: VA ::: 531]

I once had registered my Motorola photon on official website for something. It was bought from this forum only.

It was covered under warranty in USA as per Motorola for almost 10 months remaining. That means not lost, no bad esn or any other issue on it.

Just to confirm the business here is legitimately done by reputed sellers.

So guys each trade has its ways and I don't expect any sensible businessman to let his guard down.

Be glad that we get the latest and choicest phones at best/competitive prices, on Reliance cdma.all because of hard work of sellers here.

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2

[ni0987 179]

Refurbs. They too sell for lower prices.

[Guru Gopal 589]

Some times when we purchased the phone it may not be bad esn. (it may not be breach contract) But latter time it may be reported lost and it became Bad ESN.

[csmart 472]

I think thread should not be there. Do you ever ask your supplier form where he gets his merchandise? Then why ask here. If you like it buy it. Why should we interested in someone's trade secret?

There are other experts also who help to get imported handsets working in India. So we should not bother how the sellers are getting the handsets.

[Bablus 66]

[admirer2000 100]

I think thread should not be there. Do you ever ask your supplier form where he gets his merchandise? Then why ask here. If you like it buy it. Why should we interested in someone's trade secret?

There are other experts also who help to get imported handsets working in India. So we should not bother how the sellers are getting the handsets.

Sorry to differ - I think we are basically not much interested in knowing how any seller is getting or from from where the product is routed. But curious to know methods & means by which we can get latest handsets at the earliest & at best price for our own use. It is also not so easy for everybody to undergo the problems like locating the availability, mobilising a person to pick it up and sending it to India.

Hence, sellers / users can share details to help others who are ready to take up the challenge.

[vakharia 23]

Thank you for your inputs. Please keep them coming. I do appreciate the fact that everyone gets more choices/ models of phones that before due to these imports.

I do not think the objective of this discussion is to learn trade secrets (if there are any). If that would be the case, then some sellers would be angry with me by now. But so far that has not been the case.

I have a feeling from the inputs so far, that there is also an element of risk that the buyer is exposing him/her self, perhaps, when the seller does not tell him/ her if there are any complications with the phone.

e.g. bad ESN phone sold to an unsuspecting buyer. The buyer then travels to US. Will be in trouble?

I am not sure which other scenarios the potential buyer should be aware of.

One reason for the low costs as I understand from the above, is that some of the phones may be refurbished or returned back (since US has got good return policies). All such handsets lose their value immediately and land up in other countries.

Since the history is not known and sellers may just state that the phone has been used for "unknown" amount of time, I think the low price starts making more sense.

Again, this is not about the forum or forum members, but how the importing and resale business works I guess.

From the customs perspective, I think used items are not allowed to be imported. Isn't it so? So, that opens up again a set of questions as to how are they then imported.

[HetalDP 947]

GYAN !!!

[HetalDP 947]

You have 2 Post in this Old Forum today and started talking about ! Smuggling ! Do you offer Smuggling ! I have the requirements

3. They are somehow smuggled into the country by someone else and perhaps then purchased by the sellers OR

[parin 857]

From the customs perspective, I think used items are not allowed to be imported. Isn't it so? So, that opens up again a set of questions as to how are they then imported.

INTENSION of this post

[rajanmehta 4,056]

From the customs perspective, I think used items are not allowed to be imported. Isn't it so? So, that opens up again a set of questions as to how are they then imported.

INTENSION of this post

The correct spelling is intention, not intension.. = in - tension

As far as smuggling is concerned, that is part of folklore & long bygone era.

Even Hindi films have long back stopped famous Ajit dialogues like "Mona Darling, Sona kis bunder pe utar raha hai!"

[vakharia 23]

You have 2 Post in this Old Forum today and started talking about ! Smuggling ! Do you offer Smuggling ! I have the requirements

I do not know what my '2 posts' have got to do with this topic, but I will still continue.

Another thread on this very forum and numerous other forums have indicated that used mobile phones cannot be imported into India. I am not sure if this is some kind of anti-dumping policy or some national security matter.

http://www.rimweb.in/forums/topic/28650-customs-duty-for-shipping-used-motorola-droid-x-from-us/

I am not sure how accurate that is, since I could not find any reference about this on http://www.cbec.gov.in , but perhaps someone else here is more knowledgeable about the legality of such things.

If you believe this is indeed smuggling, then it somehow confirms that indeed importing used phones is breaking some law or regulation (though I am still not sure which one exactly).

From the customs perspective, I think used items are not allowed to be imported. Isn't it so? So, that opens up again a set of questions as to how are they then imported.

INTENSION of this post

There could always be two sides of a coin. An end user could be subject to some laws/ regulations, but an authorized importer could have more liberty, perhaps?

I just learnt that you cannot import items valued more than Rs. 2000 without having an import license if you want to get it through the postal service (EMS?), but you can get the same item without having any import license if you get it through a courier service. No wonder the courier guys are a happy lot.

My intention was to find out if there are such clauses even with the import of used phones.

As the user importing Droid X was worried about importing the phone, many others would be worried about importing a used phone (or perhaps being overcharged by customs or lost parcel).

So, someone else is taking the risk (both financial and/ or legal) and importing and then selling.

I will leave this discussion here, since I got a fair understanding. But others may continue if they wish.

Edited December 4, 2013 by vakharia

[Genius 817]

Wait Wait Wait ........ab hum aa gaye hai

All is well in well and war..... i shall clear things for all of you - many in the forum also dont know this

Importing and running CDMA phones is not one men job, there is one HUB of operation at a time and previously it was Mumbai and now its Raipur, let me clear this more, I am in-charge of importing and provenience and selling, under me there are centers who do there respective job.

As you can see from my status - Arun loves me and for that very reason i have been given this opportunity to do this, only who writes this has command over reputed sellers.

Now lets get started:

I Import phones from USA and few from UK and china, for this i have tie-ups with 2 agencies in respective countries, now all the phones are of good ESN or MEID as they are never activated and just shipped to my collector in NY. The agents work in small town to remain low

The best deals in sets are searched by our mumbai thana office

Once reaching NY the phones are inspected and shipped to 2 ports in India (kolkata or delhi)

Upon reciept of phone one is send to RnD center in Nasik one is given to top reliance guy

when RnD is done its parameters are registered its ready to rock its goes to our review center in Merut where each parameters are tested by edge of SWORD

kolkata centre holds major stock and so is pune centre

then 70% of the stock are shipped to nearly 9 sellers in ebay and 19% remains for forum 10% local sales and 1% for me

Nearly 70% of ebay and other market is supplied by me, 80% of sellers sell my phone

I am looking for a partner to join me - intrsted

[rajanmehta 4,056]

^^^

If you start writing more such fiction, it can sell more copies then all of chetan bhagat bestseller combined!

[HetalDP 947]

WOW ! Mogambo Khush Huva

[ACS 130]

Yes @Vakharia... now you seem to have ruffled a few feathers

(And i can see your wicked smile)