As a former sales manager for one of the largest wireless companies in the world, I had to write a blurb regarding the abundance of dummy phones sold here on the internet and caution all buyers to BEWARE! Dummy phones are exactly what they say they are...they are inactive cell phones that DO NOT: power up/down, take calls, text messages, pix messages, or function in any way, shape or form like a regular cell phone handset. If you have ever visited Verizon Wireless or any of the numerous carriers in their showrooms (Sprint, AT&T, Alltel) - they sometimes have a phone model displayed with a description but the phone itself is not activated. It is simply there to show customers what the phone looks like. That is it. At times, I was priviledged with taking home some of the older discontinued models to give to my children to play with rather than getting them an actual phone. And they really did enjoy playing with them for awhile until they got bored because they can't actually call someone. Oh, well. Cheap fun! These phones are made for pennies on the dollar with recycled materials most of the time and I nearly choked when I saw some people bidding into the hundreds of dollars for these phones. ACK!

Most of the vendors who have these phones listed do explain in detail that they are inactive phones that are unable to be activated with service. Kudos to them! However, for those of you looking to buy one of these phones for your children or grandchildren...I wouldn't offer more than a dollar for it. Otherwise, you are simply wasting your hardearned money!