[Canada] Sealed Phone Scam

Hey there. So I’m not sure if this is a form of scam but the whole situation was just…weird. It caught me off guard and felt strange to say the least – so here I am asking a community of experts if they have ever come across something like this. Also curious to know if anyone has encountered something like this on Facebook Marketplace.

I live in Canada, and I posted on marketplace that I am selling a Sealed Google Pixel 8 phone for $400. I just received the phone as a promotion from my provider and didn’t find any use for it. I posted the ad and I fell asleep. By morning – I had over 30 DMs asking if the phone was still available and if it was sealed. I replied back to all of them saying yes it was available and yes it was sealed – also provided a picture as proof. The first guy who responded to me – I gave him the first come first serve treatment and met him within 30 minutes to sell the phone. He asked to open the phone and test his SIM – which to be honest I didn’t read much into, it felt pretty standard. As soon as he cracked open the seal and put his SIM in he aggressively started negotiating me down to $250. I refused and said the best I can do is $380 since I have a lot of interest. He condescendingly said good luck trying to sell it and left.

When I got back home – I replied to the others saying this:

« Hey – just want to let you know I had to open the bottom seal for someone to come test the phone out – then they tried to lowball me so I didn’t end up selling it. But if you are still interested we can meet up! »

Every last one of the « interested buyers » did 1 of two things

Said they’re no longer interested.

Told me I’m stupid for opening the seal and that the phone is worthless now.

If I put myself in this situation and I was genuinely after a phone – I don’t think I’d give a shit if it was sealed or not especially since the price for the phone was decent. I’d inspect the phone and make sure it hasn’t been heavily used – but that’s about it. I found it weird that over 30 interested parties, some individuals who messaged me 3-4 times constantly pinging me to buy it right away – suddenly lost interest in just because the seal was broken. I have a bunch of theories as to what is happening but want to hear the perspective of the community if this is a normal thing.

Am I reading too much into it? Is it just that people want to ensure the phone is actually unused? Or is something else going on?