[PlugGuy]

A friend of mine knew I had a storm (9530) and mentioned he had an extra unit never activated if I wanted it.

I took it, but don't really need it (yet). I figure if mine dies, ok, maybe. Or perhaps I can set it up and increase my plan for one of my kids lines for the BB if I go that route.

So....the unit is fine, never used, but has no battery, sim card or memory card.

I've seen a few sims on eBay, $10 range....vodafone/verizon, whatever, but don't want to get scammed.

I realize I'll need the sim, a battery, and a memory card....and know where to get the last two.

I am a US Verizon customer and the device will likely be US only, but may travel out of the US, so I'd like it to have the same capabilities as the Storm I got a year ago from Verizon (works fine). I would get the parts to make this unit live, then I'd simply 'upgrade' the line in question to move it to this phone.

So what do I need, and where best to get the sim?

Thanks!

[amavit]

Actually you wouldn't need a SIM for using it on Verizon, and if you do go out of the country it is more than likely cheaper to get a local SIM card instead. Thus you would get the SIM card from that area. The battery you could pick up from Verizon themselves. That is where I would be most comfortable buying from. As for the media card, you can get those anywhere, as long as they are micro SD and 32gb or below.

[stillborn86]

The Storm doesn't even recognize the SIM slot until you unlock your device. That is actually what unlocking your phone does. VZW (and other carriers) sell these phones as "world" phones, but they are sold as CDMA phones naturally. You can call and have someone unlock the device, activating the SIM reader, but until then you don't need the "SIM" card VZW supplies. You can actually take the SIM card out of your VZW BB and it will work just fine.

VZW is CDMA and they don't require SIM cards since they identify you by your ESN which is preloaded on your phone. GSM networks like AT&T and T-Mobile (and several overseas) require active SIM cards to identify one device from another.