So you’ve gotten over the shock of yesterday’s announcement that there will be no iPhone 5 and have decided you’ll settle for the iPhone 4S. before you go sticking your old iPhone in a drawer, you may want to consider reselling it. There’s no reason your iPhone should collect dust alongside your Flip video camera, stacks of CD-Rs, and old phone chargers–maybe you only paid $200 for it, but both the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 are worth a pretty penny these days.
We’ll get into how you can sell your old iPhone soon, but for now we wanted to take a look at how much money these used iPhones are worth. It’ll be a snapshot of the iPhone 4 market right now, and something we can revisit later on, say on October 15 (the day after the iPhone 4S comes out).
eBay InstantSale looks to be offering the best deal at the moment, and you can sell your 32GB AT&T iPhone 4 for up to $357. however, you’ll have to be without a phone for a few days until the iPhone 4S is available as eBay is only offering this promotion until the end of the day today, October 5. you might not have to ship the phone for 7 days, but you will be without a phone for some time.
eBay is also offering up to $325.50 for the 16GB AT&T model, $318.50 for the Verizon 32GB model, and $297.27 for the 16GB Verizon model. for 3GS owners looking to upgrade to the 4S, you can get up to $229 for the 32GB model, $188.75 for the 16GB model, and $179.75 for the 8GB 3GS. Amazon’s TradeIn prices are neck-and-neck, so that’s a great way to go as well and they might be more consistent than Best Buy’s which expire tonight.
Plus, eBay has a feeling that some Android users may be switching over to the iPhone. It’s offering $200 for the HTC EVO 3D, HTC Thunderbolt, and HTC Droid Incredible 2. Not a bad deal, especially in light of the recent news about HTC’s Android phones having a major security issue.
eBay InstantSale is just one of the many places you can resell your old iPhones. We’ve made a nice little chart for you to compare prices of different resale companies. please note that these prices were accurate at the time of publication, and we’re sure they’ll be changing frequently as more and more people are selling their handsets. The prices were all determined by the most you could possibly get, meaning, if you have a mint-condition iPhone, these are the amounts you can expect:
Long story short: eBay InstantSale is a great place to sell your iPhone, as is Amazon. Best Buy works well under some circumstances, but watch out for the smaller sites as you’ll be losing out. this might change over time though, so check back when you are actually ready to sell your iPhone.
Of course it’s not very likely that you will get these exact prices, since a few little scratches here and there can bring your iPhone’s value down significantly. Also of note, Best Buy doesn’t seem to differentiate its prices between AT&T and Verizon models. but, judging by the pattern, you’re likely to get more money for an AT&T iPhone. And, don’t forget Craigslist–it’ll require a scary, in-person meeting but you can normally get very good money for a device of any condition if you go this route.
Are you selling your old iPhone? If so, which company are you selling to and did you get a decent amount for your retired phone?