Still-unreleased BlackBerry Z10 selling for $1,000+ on eBay

TORONTO – It appears some BlackBerry fans absolutely can’t wait for the new Z10 and are willing to pay big to get their hands on one early.

Although it’s difficult to know whether the transactions successfully closed, a number of the new touchscreen BlackBerrys appear to have sold on eBay for over $1,000, and in at least one case, nearly $2,000.

As of Friday morning, a number of phones were set to sell for about $1,500 or more and many bidders involved in auctions had very good feedback — a measure of their reliability in online transactions.

Attendees at the unveilings of the new Z10 and Q10 devices and the new BlackBerry 10 operating system in New York and Toronto went home with a free phone, and it seems some of them are now selling those devices online.

The BlackBerry Z10 was released in the U.K. on Thursday and is set to hit Canadian stores Tuesday. The phone isn’t expected to be released in the U.S. until March, which might explain some of the online demand.

In Canada it’s expected to typically sell for $150 on a three-year contract. Koodo is selling it without a contract for $550.