I had it in my pocket (where I normally carry it) and somehow managed (after 3 years) to crack the antenna. After a few days, the screen is now needing some serious jiggling to work.

Somehow, over the time I have been with Sprint, my insurance has been discontinued. I found this out about a year ago and tried arguing about it to no avail...

What if I buy one of those on e-bay and get it activated and take out insurance on that?

Alternatively, how does the Samsung IP8 30W look?

Any advice?

I don't think you will be able to obtain insurance coverage through Sprint on a phone you buy used. I think the phone has to be sold new in order to qualify for insurance.

What if I manage to get someone talked into adding insurance on the phone I have? Do you think they would notice if I had a different phone for the replacement phone's remaining life?

Not sure if I understand, but it hardly seems worthwhile to have insurance on a i500 at this point when you can buy one on ebay for $50-80 (equal or less than one year's worth of TEP payments + deductible).

The i830 is bigger and of course runs WM/PPC and is not a flipphone. All depends on what you want...

well, since all I really want is my i500 not to be broken, and noting your comments on the iP8 30W, I think I will part with the $$ and get myself another i500.

anyone have info as to which seller(s) is(are) reasonably reliable on e-bay? I see that there a few out there. Tempting to get a back up or two. I don't like the iPhone and it looks like it will be a long dry spell till there is another phone I actually want rather than think I can tolerate (I'm kind of crochety that way )