vB Easy Archive - Wholesale Cost of Cellphones

Pages: 1

Wholesale Cost of Cellphones
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: ungratefulninja

Anyone have a link to a listing of cellphone wholesale costs? We're curious about roughly what Cingular pays for some of these phones.

One of the reasons we're wondering is that we just had an irate person cussing at us because they were convinced that Cingular only pays $5 for a RAZR and that we're ripping them off. Of course, this is rediculous, but we'd like some hard figures to show people like that.

Posted by: BellaDea

i don't have any figures really but I can tell you that retail listed in the store is really close to what Cingular actually buys the phone for from the manufacturer. now agent stores that i've worked for had to pay more to buy the phones from cingular to sell to customers.

Posted by: CoRupT

When cell phone stores goes through master agents they get charged a lot more then the retail price there suppost to gain it back with activation. the retail price i get from wholesalers the v3 black or silver there about $150 ( Cosmic Blue and Pink +$10.00) and v3is are about $220

Posted by: SuxBeingU

what the customer may have been reffering toi si what it cost to actually build one in RAW material. I remeber long ago (10yrs) The sony flip had a cost of 12.00 to build.
what they don't take into account is marketing and profit Labor and packaging. Why not ask the customer for a link LOL

Posted by: BellaDea

oh ya, i believe that. but the newer phones take more money to build ( not $200 buuut not $12 either). the wholesale thing tho with the customer is that it may cost motorola $50 to build a phone for example, but that doesn't mean they'll sell it to you for that. the manufacturers need to make a profit too.

Posted by: Tel0004

I used to work at radioshack, and we made no profit of selling the phone. However we made 200 something profit on a new activation, and about 80 bucks on an upgrade if I remember correctly. This was over a year ago, so my numbers could be way off.

Posted by: BellaDea

ya, selling phones outright in the store no matter who you are or who you sell you'll rarely make a profit. that's why people push contracts moreso than not because that's how the company gets paid.

Posted by: matthewc1

wholesale is 50% of retail. and actual cost to manufacturer is about 50% of wholesale. but the more a manufacturer can make,the lower the cost goes to make it. also cingular,verizon,sprint etc. get their product at wholesale price. not retail. retail is just what manufacturer says should be possible sold for. also if cingular buys say 100.000 of one phone and wholesale is say 50.00. when they order over a certain amount, they can get an extra percentage off the wholesale price. so like the razr, it may only cost moto 25.00 to make each one. especially since labor is really cheap in china.

Posted by: SoCal91302

Quote:

Originally Posted by ungratefulninja

Anyone have a link to a listing of cellphone wholesale costs? We're curious about roughly what Cingular pays for some of these phones.

One of the reasons we're wondering is that we just had an irate person cussing at us because they were convinced that Cingular only pays $5 for a RAZR and that we're ripping them off. Of course, this is rediculous, but we'd like some hard figures to show people like that.

The fact that he/she is even arguing about how much it costs to make it tells me that even if you do produce a document stating the costs of the devices he/she will still have objections to it's accuracy.

Just nod your head and smile as you look over their shoulder and say "next customer please".

Posted by: Milkbone98

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoCal91302

Just nod your head and smile as you look over their shoulder and say "next customer please".

Or, in the words of "pre-paid steve" just Chuck Norris them

Posted by: kansonb

Does anyone have any good wholesalers that they recommend??

I have a few that I deal with on a regular basis but wondered if anyone had reputable wholesalers.
It is always nice to be able to shop around for the best prices.
It seems like some people can magically pull prices out of their butt but can't give any info on who they buy from.

Posted by: brealmp3

i love how you tied your post into the topic with the last line. might want to try the marketplace or vendor section?!?!

Posted by: SoCal91302

Quote:

Originally Posted by ungratefulninja

No, you are looking for good deals on phones. Why beat around the bush?

Posted by: hb2me

I would be happy to help you if you need phones. Please email me your contact information to harris@bbti.com along with the phones that you are looking for and I would be happy to give you a quote. I am located in NY and so is my inventory. Thank you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kansonb

Does anyone have any good wholesalers that they recommend??

I have a few that I deal with on a regular basis but wondered if anyone had reputable wholesalers.
It is always nice to be able to shop around for the best prices.
It seems like some people can magically pull prices out of their butt but can't give any info on who they buy from.

Posted by: hb2me

I have worked for a manufacturer and one of the costs that is not mentioned is the royalty every manufactured has to pay to qualcomm. The BOM(build only material) may be $40 but, by the time you add in the royalties and the labor and the moulding costs it can be $60. Depending on the complexity of the phone and the technology such as GSM or CDMA(CDMA is more expensive to build) costs can vary. Plus the cost on chipsets change daily so those are a few of the variables that make up what a phone cost. Hope that helps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoCal91302

No, you are looking for good deals on phones. Why beat around the bush?

Posted by: wierdo

You fail to mention that royalty to qualcomm only applies for CDMA or UMTS phones. Personally, I find the fact that Qualcomm is making royalties from patents that wouldn't exist but for research done using the US taxpayer's dollar (thanks DoD) more than slightly irritating. Sure, there have been a lot of developments in the field since the government stopped paying Qualcomm to do the research, but those are related only to Qualcomm's particular method of CDMA. Yet they collect from UMTS equipment manufacturers based on the older patents they didn't really even come up with on their own.