Unlocked iPhone Auction Taken Down [Update: iPhone Traded]

George Hotz, the 17-year old responsible for unlocking the iPhone via hardware methods, listed his second unlocked iPhone on eBay Thursday. Unfortunately, it wasn't long until pranksters started falsifying bids. In fact, the auction went all the way to eBay's maximum price of 99 million dollars. After receiving no help from eBay, George was forced to pull the auction down.

According to Hotz:

I have had tons of problems with eBay and this auction. If you are serious about buying the phone, please e-mail me with your phone number. I will call you to discuss it.

[...]

I am hoping to buy a car with the money, as my previous summer project was going to be fixing up my 3000GT, which I got the engine out of, but never could quite get in back in :) I also want to buy iPhones for the members of the team that don't have them.

In a later blog post, George reveals that he has given up on eBay and is now accepting personal offers. He requests that anyone interested email him or comment on his blog to discuss an offer. If the offer is accepted, George will personally hand over the phone on CNN at 5PM.

More details are sure to follow.

Update: George reports on his blog that the iPhone has been traded. The lucky recipient is Terry Daidone, founder of Certicell. Diadone contacted Hotz this morning and offered to trade the unlocked iPhone for a Nissan 350Z and three 8GB iPhones. The three iPhone's will be given to contributors of the project.

I will be sending the iPhones, unlocked if they wish, to jpetrie(the first donater[sic]), gray(the reversing genius), and iProof(who is truly amazing at finding stuff online)

George has also contacted iPhone SIM Free to offer verification of their software unlock method on his blog. They have not (yet) responded.

In case you don't know what a Nissan 350Z looks like, check this out:

Congratulations, George!