Telco

I first got a handphone in sec2, back in 2000. I signed up with Starhub, which I believe was relatively new at that time. It was a lousy Siemens phone. Then I went on to Singtel, then to M1, back to Singtel and now back to Starhub.

2 years ago I made some profits from the iPhone craze (3G). This time, I was waiting patiently for the iPhone 4 and just nice it was released the same time I am eligible for a recontract. Back then, I was aiming the Nokia E71. This time it is the HTC Desire.

The day before I already found my buyer and got news that Raffles Place's Starhub had limited stock. So off I went to Raffles Place at 10.30am the next day, only to find that it is out of stock. Went to M1 to enquire and got the same answer. Down but not giving up, I went to Cuppage and got it. A bit of running around but managed to get there with minimal effort.

32gb was selling for $380 for SmartSurf 300. So with the porting discount of $100 and trade-in of $150, I paid $130. Once done, I called the buyer and headed down to iluma to meet him. It was a handphone shop. So I asked if they had the HTC Desire in stock, which is indeed available. So he paid me $1250 and I paid him $760 for the phone, which a nice $350 profit in my pocket.

Less off the $250 porting and trade-in, I still made $100. Not to forget I got the phone for free (which was selling for $148 with plan). So net-net I made $248. Good stuff arbitrage.