i tried to verify my bootloader using the latest method posted on iclarified and it doesn't do anything which makes me wonder if i'm not on the 5.9 BL. i try to my bootloader version but it's not working for me. anyone knows which bootloader an iphone 3G bough in august of 2008 will have just by knowing when it was purchased? I tried the BBdown app and it says it's successful but the baseband remains the same.

I found this information from ToddJG on one of the reply on Musclenerd's blog:
I'm not sure how accurate this is but the best way to be sure is to verify like the iclarify's method.

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TY very much, my 3rd digit is a 9 which if this is correct then i DON'T have the 5.8 BL. looks like only the first few phones got that bootloader..guess i'll have to keep using this crappy xsim and pray i don't ever lose service or enter a deadzone.

Try using 3GFuzzyband downgrader , it is available on Cydia it will detect and display your bootloader version.
If it is 5.8 then it will let you perform baseband downgrade

The easiest way of checking your BL is just to download and run Fuzzy.
If your BL is 5.8 it downgrades your BB and if it's not it tells you what your BL is and won't downgrade.

the 3rd 4th and 5th digits are the date (year and week no) of manufacture OR refurb. If your first 2 digits are 5K then you have a refurb device and may have BL 5.8 even if the date is wrong.

Just wanna confirm. Week 29 still have 5.8 bb. Week 32 already 5.9. Haven't seen week 30 and 31 yet.

The changeover occurred sometime in week 29. Some made in week 29 have 5.8 others 5.9. No device made after week 29 has been reported with 5.8 AFAIK but serial numbers starting with 5K are refurbs and the year/week refers to the refurb date and they keep the original BL which may or may not be 5.8

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confucious is right about refurbished. but very rare still, i got only 1 5.8 bb out of 8 refurb so far

8 refurbs? You are getting through them!

Did the serial No's of the refurbs all start 5K? was there anything else in the serial nos that could help the Dev Team?

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all 5k are refurbs. But there are some refurbs come with normal serial #s as well