The Shanghai couple is reportedly unemployed and had already exceeded the nation's legal limit of two children.
In the online offer for their daughter, the couple allegedly wrote that they couldn't afford to raise the child and were looking for a wealthy family to adopt her.
Investigators say the suspects then wound up using the money to shop online for the smartphones and other high-end items. On Friday, the couple appeared in court to dispute they sold the child and to argue that they simply gave the child to a family that could better care for her. But prosecutors say they have evidence of a large cash deposit being made to the suspects' bank account.
Prosecutors also allege the sale was planned for months, with the mother even trying to hide her pregnancy by telling neighbors her baby bump was the result of a large tumor.