I'm looking around for some new mobile phones. I've not decided yet
exactly what I want. However, the phones that I have looked at can be had
for considerably cheaper online, such as Ebay, for example, than if I go
into one of the telcos' shops.

For example, the Nokia N95 is $1,195 outright via Telstra. Or between $800
and $900 on Ebay.

For example, the Motorola V9 is $350 to $500 on Ebay. Telstra's price:
$829.

There are similar price differences for the other networks that I quickly
checked.

How can these Ebay sellers flog them for so much less than what Telstra,
as an example, sells them for? Why doesn't Telstra try to compete with
this market?

Has anyone had any success negotiating a price break when buying outright
from Telstra?

Last year when I was in the market for the Treo 750 none of the shops that
I visited were interested or couldn't drop below the $1,095 "rrp" mark.
Yet I bought one off Ebay for $600.

Someone's making a lot of money here, and I daresay that the EBay sellers
aren't giving their phones away...