PSA: Don’t buy a $4,400 gray market Samsung TriFold on eBay
📖 Full Retelling
It’s a TriFold, alright. But I don’t trust it.
I had to buy Samsung's Galaxy Z TriFold from eBay for $4,399 and I'm pretty sure that's because Samsung doesn't want anyone to actually have this phone. I'm also afraid to turn it on.
Not that turning it on does much good. Whenever I tap "start" to set it up, a prompt to supply a "USIM" pops up and refuses to let me progress without one. I do not trust this phone enough to put a SIM card in it. The phone continues to want a SIM. We are at an impasse.
In theory, Samsung's ambitious TriFold has been on sale in the US since January 30th (retail price: $2,899), but it has been damn near impossible to get one. For any other phone launch we wou …
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Tech Gadgets Mobile PSA: Don’t buy a $4,400 gray market Samsung TriFold on eBay Ask us how we know. Ask us how we know. by Allison Johnson Mar 13, 2026, 1:00 PM UTC It’s a TriFold, alright. But I don’t trust it. Allison Johnson is a senior reviewer with over a decade of experience writing about consumer tech. She has a special interest in mobile photography and telecom. Previously, she worked at DPReview. I had to buy Samsung’s Galaxy Z TriFold from eBay for $4,399 and I’m pretty sure that’s because Samsung doesn’t want anyone to actually have this phone. I’m also afraid to turn it on. Not that turning it on does much good. Whenever I tap “start” to set it up, a prompt to supply a “USIM” pops up and refuses to let me progress without one. I do not trust this phone enough to put a SIM card in it. The phone continues to want a SIM. We are at an impasse. In theory, Samsung’s ambitious TriFold has been on sale in the US since January 30th (retail price: $2,899), but it has been damn near impossible to get one. For any other phone launch we would typically use a review unit on loan from the manufacturer; Samsung PR did not provide a TriFold review unit to The Verge . We resigned to buying our own, but the phone was out of stock within minutes of going on sale the first time. Weeks went by — weeks in which I asked Samsung’s PR in vain if they were absolutely sure they didn’t have one I could borrow — and the TriFold remained stubbornly out of stock. I called retail stores; they didn’t have any to sell me. The phone went back in stock briefly in February , but once again, it sold out before we could get all of the corporate credit card details punched in. Truly, how many of these nearly $3,000 phones is Samsung selling in a matter of minutes? I strongly suspect not very many, and the scarcity effect is a feature of offering just a handful of phones at a time, not a bug. Truly, how many of these nearly $3,000 phones is Samsung selling in a matter of minutes? I strongly susp...
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