With the imminent announcement and release of the newest version of the Iphone, one question that many upgraders would love to know the best answer to is: “How can I get the most money for my old iPhone?” iPhones are not cheap toys, and if you have one that is about to be replaced and made redundant, it makes perfect sense to try to turn that dust collector into a chunk of change to help pay for the shiny new one. Here are some tips I’ve learned over the years that will help to make the cost of a new iPhone a little easier to handle!
First things first: the longer you wait to sell your old phone, the less money you will be able to sell it for, especially once the new ones arrive. If you have an old phone that you can use for now, or can otherwise stand to go without one, you will likely get the most money for your used iPhone now, before the new ones come out. So, hurry if you are serious about it this year!
The option that I have typically gone with is selling my old iPhones on eBay. It takes a bit of work to get the listing created, including things like adding details to the description or taking attractive photos to draw attention to your post. But, you stand to have a huge audience, and that increases the likelihood that you will sell, or even better, have competition to drive the price up. The unfortunate drawback is the fees that eBay charges. You stand to be charged 10% of the final selling price, and then also a fee if you manage the payment through PayPal. With the huge market, you also increase the chance of having to deal with scammers. One year, I had someone buy my phone but refuse to pay. But they wouldn’t acknowledge me to close to sale, and so my phone couldn’t be relisted until that was all sorted out. It eventually sold properly to someone else, but if time is of the essense to you right now to maximize your sale price, scammers will just get in your way. Having said that, the huge audience, not having to deal directly with people, and ease of managing the posting were attractive to me, and I’ve gone back to it multiple times over the years.
Another good option is Craigslist, though the direct-dealing in-person nature of the transaction is clearly an increased risk. However, it is the platform of choice for many people. Scammers live here as well, and they could waste your time by not showing up for a transaction, or at the worst, could show up and try to rip you off. There are best practices for selling on Craigslist, such as dealing in public places and showing up at the meeting with a friend. In the end, if you are ok with the risk, you will leave a successful transaction with cash in hand, and not have to pay any of the fees associated with services like eBay or PayPal.
After the direct selling options, there are also services that will make you an offer for your used device, based on its age and condition. This is a lot simpler than the previous methods, though the price offer is fixed and probably significantly less than you could get in a private sale. You can take it or leave it. Gazelle is one of the most well known buyers, as well as Swappa or Decluttr.
It should also be mentioned that if you don’t want to deal with any of these options, one of the simplest ways of getting (arguably the least amount of) money for your used iPhone to to trade it back to Apple directly. They have a trade-in program which will give you cash on an Apple Store card, and they will take your phone, wipe it, clean it up, and either resell it or recycle it. You can set this up online, or just simply go into an Apple Store and receive the trade in credit right there.
There are undoubtedly other options to consider as well, but these are some of the most popular ones. Whichever route you decide to take to sell your old iPhone to help fund your new one, the longer you wait, the less money your old one will be worth, so act quickly!
