It's not as easy as you think, I live 10 mins away from a number of Optus shops, supplies are so limited if I walk in and ask for a prepaid/unlocked iPhone I'll be placed on a waiting list and chances are they're not going to keep aside more than 1 for me due to the demand.

Fair enuf, it's just that in M'sia as with any other country where it's not officially distributed the iPhone from a commercial viewpoint is very much a black market good so sellers should be able to ask however much they feel it's worth... while some may feel that their asking prices are highway robbery it's sorta hard to put a price tag on the trouble that one has to go through to obtain one. Optus has sold iPhones /w prepaid since launch, there is however a much larger quota allocated for postpaid customers as those are likely to bring in more revenue over time.

I was recently offered AUD600 for my 9 month old 2G iPhone by someone who was unable to obtain an unlocked iPhone 3G in time before leaving the country and this was more than what I had initially paid for the phone brand new including shipping from the US. He was well aware that Optus were selling the 8GB 3G for $720 + a $80 unlocking fee. Unfortunately with the hairline crack issues on the 3G I declined his offer.

I'm fairly certain that in time the US versions will be unlocked, when I got mine last year I was stuck on 1.1.2 and had to resort to using a TurboSIM for a while till someone figured out how to crack the 4.6 baseband... the phone is pretty much 'permanently' unlocked now.