A couple of months ago I upgraded my kids from Galaxy S3s to Galaxy S5s and myself from an S2 to an Avant.
I ordered cheap-ass cases over the internet from China, and it took going through 2-4 of them before we each got one that we really liked, but we are satisfied now. All for less than the retail price of one Otter.
We are all very happy, and since I am generally indifferent to smartphones as glorified cellphones, the Avant at half the price of an S5 seems like a great bargain. It is narrower and thinner, too.
There are 2 things that I am over the moon about: first, the "wake-up" button is on the front! Halleluiah! Since I carry my phone in my front pants pocket and pull it in and out often, side buttons make me insane.
The other thing is that the battery life is much improved, for whatever reasons.
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There is something else: ebay has pestered me for months to "sell your old cell phones on ebay"
I will tell you that selling 3 Samsung Galaxy cell phones, in excellent condition, in their original boxes, on ebay was an utter nightmare. I am an experienced ebay seller with well over 1K transactions over 15 years on 3 different accounts (all with 100% positive feedback) and I have never been dragged through the sewer like this!
I am accustomed to completing sales and payment and shipping quickly and trading positive feedback all within a matter of a couple of weeks.
Since listing the 3 phones shortly after Christmas, at Buy-It-Now ebay prices very much in line with other similar "Completed Sales" (not current listings or completed listings, which can be completely off the wall) I sold one fairly quickly but never received feedback; allegedly "sold" anther one "Buy-It-Now + Immediate-payment-required" but the buyer (0 feedback) went dark and it took nearly 2 weeks to get disentangled and re-list it, then another 2-3 weeks to sell it and finally received positive feedback yesterday.
The other one - even though Africa was supposedly "excluded" - was bought by "Mohammed Khan" (is that "John Doe", or what?) in Morocco. When I went to the PO to ship it, I discovered that "flat rate international box" did not apply to Morocco and that it was double what I had allotted for postage!
Within hours after the package had cleared customs from Miami (the end of any real tracking) the buyer went to Paypal and froze my account over an "item not received" complaint! The back-and-forth with Paypal ensued, but fortunately I had copies of the postal receipt and customs declaration. A week and half later, based on flimsy tracking and delivery, Paypal released my account and I got the money. "Mohammed" never left me positive feedback for the pristine phone and is probably irritated that he did not get it for free!
And, in case any of you ebay sellers were not aware, the "ebay seller protection program" specifically excludes cell phones, and the country of Morocco, from its protection plan!
3 cheers for ebay/Paypal!