Xperia PLAY and HTC ThunderBolt Emerge on eBay

Two of the latest high-end smartphones unveiled with Google's Android operating system on board, namely the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY and the HTC ThunderBolt, are now available for purchase on eBay.

None of them got an official release date as of yet, but those who would like to be among the first in the world to own one of these devices can now head over to the said website to have a look at them.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY was unveiled last month during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, as the first Android smartphone in the world to be PlayStation certified.

The handset sports a sliding gaming pad, with the usual PlayStation controls on it, and was touted as capable of offering a great experience to all those who are fond of Sony's gaming device.

The units that emerged on eBay reportedly come from GDC 2011, when Sony Ericsson offered some devices for free.

Apparently, some of those who had no use of the device went to eBay to have the unit they received sold in an auction, which started at $500, but already went over $800.

HTC ThunderBolt, the first LTE smartphone on Verizon's network, has been pushed back a few times before, and it seems that eBay is the only place where one could acquire such a handset at the moment.

Two units were spotted there, both said to be working units, and both of them were sold in the same auction, for $545 each. Another handset is on sale there, from a seller who has only a 2 feedback rating.

The HTC ThunderBolt was expected to arrive on shelves in the US sometime in February, but Verizon delayed its release a few times.

Some of the latest reports on the matter suggest that the handset should arrive after the iPad 2 launches, which will happen this Friday.

However, no official confirmation on this emerged for the time being, and the only thing that Verizon says is that it would launch LTE smartphones in the first half of this year, just as it promised in 2010.