Thieves Rejoice: iPhone 5's Resale Value Now As High As $1000

Line at the Apple SoHo store yesterday

If you managed to slay the line dragons and get your hands on the iPhone 5 yesterday (like we did—hello, four inches of Words With Friends!), you might want to kick yourself for not getting two, or three, or seven. Resale value for the everyone's new favorite Apple plaything is clocking in as high as $1000 per phone, and many crafty entrepreneurs have been taking advantage, purchasing multiple phones to resell at a profit.

"I'll probably sell the AT&T phone to reduce the cost of this [Sprint] one," Cristian Ventura, 20, who purchased iPhone 5s from both carriers yesterday, told the Post. "It has a lot of value…on the Asian market. People in line told me you can make 100,000 yen ($1,230). I'm hoping to get 900 bucks." And Ventura wasn't the only one; Post reporters at the SoHo and Fifth Avenue Apple stores noted plenty of iPhone buyers purchasing more than one phone, with several braving the line multiple times to avoid a two-phone limit the company had put in place. "A lot of people are obviously here buying them to resell," John Colon, 27, told the Post after purchasing his phone at the SoHo store.

Of course, not everyone's willing to shell out for extra phones, and the iPhone's high resale value may make it even more of a target for the sticky-fingered. Hundreds of phones have already been looted from stores in London and Japan, and while no iPhone 5 thefts have been reported as of now, you can still register your phone with the NYPD's Operation ID if you're worried about your Instagram photos ending up in someone else's hands.