It's worse than that: they buy the best looking or cheapest phone THAT THE OPERATOR SELLS.

The operator shouldn't be involved in the sales at all, they're just meant to be selling the service. You should be able to use any device you want, and move it to another service if you're unhappy.

Buying a phone from an operator is like buying a car from a fuel station.


All European countries have very high sales taxes, 20% or more, whereas most American states seem to have no sales tax at all. So that's 20% added. I know second hand stuff doesn't have sales tax, but second hand prices are based on new prices.

The rest IS mostly from the exchange rate. A few years ago one pound bought less than 1.5 dollars, now it buys over 2 dollars. Even the Euro is starting to approach 2 dollars, when it used to be worth less than 0.8 dollars. The US dollar is incredibly weak, and it makes all foreign prices seem much higher.