Ask Techland: Best Places to Sell an Old iPhone or Trade for Store Credit?

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Question:

I’m looking to either sell or trade in my old iPhone so I can buy the new one that’s being announced tomorrow. Any advice about where the best place to do that would be?

Doug Answers:

Without knowing which model you’re trading in, you’ve created exponentially more work for me it’s hard to pin down an exact number, but here’s a rough overview of some of your options.

Basically, if you want credit, Amazon is looking pretty good. You’ll get a shipping label to print out and a packing slip to put in the box with your phone. Send it off (Amazon pays for shipping) and upon inspection of the phone, Amazon will credit your account.

I’ve dug through Amazon’s listings and gone back to the iPhone 3GS (sorry if you’re trying to get rid of an iPhone 3G or earlier). The maximum payouts (assuming like-new condition) for each device are as follows:

  • iPhone 4 8GB (Black, AT&T) $230.00
  • iPhone 4 8GB (Black, Sprint) $230.00
  • iPhone 4 8GB (Black, Verizon) $230.00
  • iPhone 4 8GB (White, AT&T) $230.00
  • iPhone 4 8GB (White, Sprint) $230.00
  • iPhone 4 8GB (White, Verizon) $230.00
  • iPhone 4 16GB (Black, AT&T) $265.00
  • iPhone 4 16GB (Black, Verizon) $270.00
  • iPhone 4 16GB (White, AT&T) $285.00
  • iPhone 4 16GB (White, Verizon) $290.00
  • iPhone 4 32GB (Black, AT&T) $290.00
  • iPhone 4 32GB (Black, Verizon) $300.00
  • iPhone 4 32GB (White, AT&T) $310.00
  • iPhone 4 32GB (White, Verizon) $320.00
  • iPhone 4S 16GB (Black, AT&T) $405.00
  • iPhone 4S 16GB (Black, Sprint) $395.00
  • iPhone 4S 16GB (Black, Verizon) $410.00
  • iPhone 4S 16GB (White, AT&T) $415.00
  • iPhone 4S 16GB (White, Sprint) $410.00
  • iPhone 4S 16GB (White, Verizon) $410.00
  • iPhone 4S 32GB (Black, AT&T) $450.00
  • iPhone 4S 32GB (Black, Sprint) $450.00
  • iPhone 4S 32GB (Black, Verizon) $455.00
  • iPhone 4S 32GB (White, AT&T) $450.00
  • iPhone 4S 32GB (White, Sprint) $455.00
  • iPhone 4S 32GB (White, Verizon) $455.00
  • iPhone 4S 64GB (Black, AT&T) $500.00
  • iPhone 4S 64GB (Black, Sprint) $490.00
  • iPhone 4S 64GB (Black, Verizon) $500.00
  • iPhone 4S 64GB (White, AT&T) $500.00
  • iPhone 4S 64GB (White, Sprint) $490.00
  • iPhone 4S 64GB (White, Verizon) $500.00

The above figures are accurate as of 1pm Eastern on 9/11/12.

Retailers with similar trade-in-for-credit deals include Best Buy, Target, Walmart and others. Many of them are run by third-party companies, so you may start to feel like you’re getting deja-vu when pitting one store against the other if both stores use the same outside company. It’s getting increasingly rare for retailers to not have some sort of trade-in program, so check with your store or store’s website to see what they’re offering. Some will let you trade stuff in right inside the store, while some make you ship it first and then issue your credit to you later.

On the other hand, if you’re interested in cash, here are a few places to try – and some of the strengths of each. We’ll take a quick look at Gazelle, eBay’s Instant Sale and BuyMyTronics.

  • Gazelle offers relatively decent prices, and its biggest strength is that it protects its offers for 30 days. So you can lock in a price today and it’ll stay the same for a month. If Gazelle offers more for your phone between now and then, you’ll get the difference, too.
  • eBay Instant Sale’s strength is that it doesn’t ask a lot of questions. So if your phone’s not in tip-top shape but still works well, you may be able to get more here. Instant Sale simply asks if the phone is fully functional, if you’re trading in your charger and whether the phone’s condition is “working” or “not working” – you don’t have to try to gauge whether it’s in mint condition, good condition, average condition or anything like that.
  • BuyMyTronics generally has slightly higher payouts than competing sites. Double check your phone model against the other two sites first, of course.

Hope this helps. Make sure to check out our liveblog of the iPhone 5 event, too.

Have a question? Send it to tips-at-techland-dot-com and we’ll do our best to answer it.

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