Our subsidy for upgrading isn't available till April 1, so basically 5 months after the release.
I was trying to figure out some way of expediting this and I came up with a plan, but I'm not sure how feasible it is:
1) Purchase a Note 2 from BB using my BB Credit Card on October 25 (or thereabouts). I assume it will be $800
2) In April (or sometime afterwards) purchase a new Sprint phone at subsidized price. (say $300)
3) Sell new phone just purchased as an unlocked Sprint phone with clear ESN for subsidized price. (say $800)
This way, the $500 extra I put on my credit card now gets paid off once I sell the other phone. The main issue I have is that there's no guarentee that I'll be able to sell that new phone come April for that price. Who knows what the economy has in store, right? But even if I could, I'm still unclear as to whether I could sell it with a clear ESN. My sense is that I would need to switch my line to the new phone, then back to my Note 2, in order for the ESN to be clear?
It's very tempting to be able to buy one in just a week, but I don't want to screw myself out of hundreds of dollars that I could be saving. Right now, not having to wait 5 months is not worth the $500 I might be risking in the process!