How do some ebayers sell new iphones for $200 less than the retail price?

[anony]

I was looking at iphone 5c's and saw some for $370-$390 and was wondering. How do these people earn profit? They have 4-5 iphone 5C's available in stock too. Are these possibly scams? Refurbished new? Would it be safe to buy one?

[Chris]

Possibly refurbished. It should be safe to buy one. Maybe they have bought them off other people and are now reselling them. The retail price off contract is usually around $549, new. So it would be ideal that these are refurbished.

[Kittysue]

There are a lot of Chinese clones being sold on Ebay that look just like the real thing but don't sync with the App store or a Mac computer
I worry about someone who has more than 1 phone. If they have one it could be someone who got a cheap deal by buying a 2-year contract but are going to continue using their old phone and sell the new one for a profit. But Apple does not allow people to buy in bulk so you have to wonder if they are fake or stolen