There’s been some commotion this week about the resale value of non-3G iPhones and how people are eager to buy them for their unlocking features. I think this works out to be a great deal for iPhone owners who are looking to upgrade to the new iPhone 3G, but as someone who is not one of those people it kind of sucks for me.

I was pretty excited when I found out that the new iPhone will start at $199, but that feeling quickly dissipated when I found out that it would cost an additional $15 a month ($75 vs $60) for what basically amounts to the same service (except it’s faster, I guess?).

Bloggers everywhere were quick to point out that these actually will end up costing more in a typical two-year contract despite the lower cost of entry, and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m not even going to go so far as to say it’s unfair – I mean, the monthly charges are the same across the entire AT&T line (since all the devices are now 3G).

But at the same time, I don’t think I can make an additional $15/month commitment for such an intangible feature (which would mean a $35 increase over my current $40/month plan – nearly double!), which leaves me in sort of an awkward way; I could:

  1. Suck it up and buy an iPhone 3G in December (when my contract lapses).
  2. Scour eBay/Craigslist for a used-ish current iPhone and hope that the $60 is still available in December.
  3. Scour eBay/Craigslist for a used-ish current iPhone and switch now, paying the ETF for Sprint.
  4. Other.

None of those choices stands out as a clear winner, so I suppose I’ll just be hanging out until December and seeing what happens. What I’m hoping is that the initial fuss about unlocked iPhones will die down, and I’ll be able to find one for a reasonable price, and AT&T will be nice enough to put me on the non-3G data plan.

But still, get ready for six more months of phone-related posts.