No Sim Card Installed... Phone Permanently Dead?

Hi,
Is my $600 iPhone gone? I am stuck at the Activate iPhone screen with a message that says "No SIM card installed. Insert an unlocked and valid SIM to activate iPhone." I can't get beyond this point. Yes, I got this after a failed attempt to unlock the phone. And I got this 2 days before the release of the new firmware. I tried a force restore a few times and it keep saying this message. I also tried putting a different working sim card into the phone and it doesn't work. Does anybody know what I can do fix this problem? I hope I don't have a iPaperWeight. That would be such a loss...

I called Apple tech and they were quite suspicious that my phone is unlocked after I read to them my IMEI code was 00499901.... They sent me a box to send back to them for analysis. They did not say what they would do if my phone turned out to be unlocked. I have not send the phone back yet in fear that they might prosecute me or something. Does anyone have any experiences with this yet?

THanks for you help.