The iPhone 6s is still a couple of months away from going on sale, but if you’re hoping to offset the cost of buying a new iPhone by selling your old handset, now’s the time to do it.
That’s because resale values drop by around 10 percent in September and October, according to gadget trade-in site NextWorth, which analyzed thousands of eBay sales. If you wait until November or December, meanwhile, be prepared to lose around 30 percent of current resale value.
Not coincidentally at all, these are the months when Apple releases its new iPhone, which results in the market immediately being flooded with older devices — thereby lowering scarcity.
To put all of this into context, right now a 128GB iPhone 6 on T-Mobile in good condition could net you around $380. Leave that until the end of 2015, however, and you’ll likely get just $250.
NextWorth CMO Jeff Trachsel says this pattern has played out for the past four years, and they “fully expect” it to be the same for the upcoming iPhone 6s, which many expect to be the most significant “s” iPhone release in Apple’s history.
Now the question is where do we get an old phone to tide us over for the next eight weeks?
Source: CNN
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
3 responses to “Want an iPhone 6s? Now’s the time to trade in your old model”
Except that this year I am willing to bet the vast majority of iPhone buyers on the big 4 US carriers are on some sort of leasing plan (e.g. AT&T Next). So, all they do is trade it back in for the next model.
No reselling my iPhone 5s. Haven’t resold any of the four MacBooks. Will probably give it to a realitive and screw Apple out of a sale.
I’ve always skipped the incremental S upgrades, but double the RAM alone is enough for me to consider upgrading from my 6Plus. Those resale numbers seem low already, I’ve always found that a well listed mint iPhone on ebay thats 1-2 years old will nearly always yield me 80%+ back my initial purchase cost, regardless of the proximity of sale to the new upgrade. Especially since every time I flip an iPhone, is always right at the launch of the new model. But maybe my perspective is slightly distorted as I’m never selling an iPhone more than 2 years old, and thats the sweet spot for reselling. Also jailbreaking usually increases resale value as people think its hard to do for some reason.