Apple Begins Training U.S. Retail Store Employees for Upcoming iPhone Trade-In Program

jmh600cbr said:

anyone who thinks they will be offering reasonable return prices is just naive. This is a marketing ploy to get you into the store and buy a new one, then they repackage and resell your traded in one at a profit to 2nd world countries.

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A profit? Omigosh! And to a developing country where they shouldn't be allowed to have interweb? The sky is falling!

great trick to increase the sales of the iphone, i hope the next iphone isnt too expensive, it'll be great to see the iphone completely destroy the note3's sales

I might hold onto my 4S and use it as a home security camera.

quantumphysics said:

anyone have any idea how much the trade-in program was in the past for the latest model (in this case the 5)..?

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There wasn't one.

And until I see the actual materials (like someone couldn't figure out how to leak that) I'm not really buying that Apple is doing it. There's a catch of some kind. Like you sign up on a website but you can drop it off at an Apple store and then you still have to wait to get the credit.

if they are doing something like this then it will likely be based on the model and the age of the phone at flat rates. With perhaps a cut for excessive damage like a busted up screen or such. something cheap enough that even if a few 3rd party screens or such get through it won't be a big deal.

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aprofetto8 said:

I hope it's not going to be like University book stores.

"Oh whats that? You paid $348 on this textbook four months ago? We'll give you $5.67 for it."

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It won't be that extreme but it won't likely be a serious amount. After all, the most you paid for most folks is $199 plus tax and the trade in will likely be based on that, not the full price. So perhaps $100 if it doesn't look like poop.

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jmh600cbr said:

anyone who thinks they will be offering reasonable return prices is just naive. This is a marketing ploy to get you into the store and buy a new one, then they repackage and resell your traded in one at a profit to 2nd world countries.

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More likely they will use them for parts if anything is useable. Turn them into 'service replacements' and the like.

And who knows, this might only be for those with a 3gs-4s, no iphone 5 taken. all to get folks to upgrade to a current model with lighting etc

I hope so. I don't have anyone to give my old iPhone to and it's a pain to sell it. I don't know if I'll upgrade and a trade in program would be nice, if they give you a fair amount. I don't want a "5% of new iPhone" thing...

spyguy10709 said:

Or, they could, you know, REFURBISH THEM.

/story.

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depending on what models they take they might not want to. After all, if this is intended to get the old dock models out of use they don't want to take one and put it back in a customers hands.

Better to frankenstein them for parts for service replacements which they have no choice but to offer due to various laws.

barkomatic said:

It's convenient but a lot less than what you can sell it for on craigslist. As long as you use common sense, craigslist can is relatively safe. People get in trouble when they agree to meet at someone's apartment, meet outside where one party can run away, or agree to ship the device.

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or if a deal is too good to be true!

seamer said:

A profit? Omigosh! And to a developing country where they shouldn't be allowed to have interweb? The sky is falling!

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sounds like you understood my main point there!

Isn't apple doing this already? http://store.apple.com/us/browse/reuse_and_recycle

Checked the Spanish version and they'd give me €400 for my 16GB factory unlocked iPhone 5 bought at the Apple Store for €679. Not bad, although I'd probably get more selling to a third person.

My point being, what Apple's point with this? Will they pay more for them? Then… Welcome! lol

Now can you trade in phones when your still under contract with verizon? can I trade in my 5 for a 5S if i'm still under contract? (2 years)

barkomatic said:

It's convenient but a lot less than what you can sell it for on craigslist. As long as you use common sense, craigslist can is relatively safe. People get in trouble when they agree to meet at someone's apartment, meet outside where one party can run away, or agree to ship the device.

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jmh600cbr said:

anyone who thinks they will be offering reasonable return prices is just naive. This is a marketing ploy to get you into the store and buy a new one, then they repackage and resell your traded in one at a profit to 2nd world countries.

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That's just silly. No one is going to go into an Apple store to sell an iPhone for they don't know how much, when they have no plans to buy an iPhone. The reverse will happen: Someone wants an iPhone and is informed inside the store that Apple will buy their old one. They can make a decision whether that option is worth while to them.

But "reasonable" is in the eye of the seller. I can get cheaper prices on gas by driving 20 minutes away. But how much I need to save in order to use 20 minutes of my life is entirely subjective and up to the individual and what their time is worth.

You can make more money on Craigslist, sure. But you'll also spend more time making that money. Some people have enough money, but would trade it for extra time. Some people have enough time, and would trade it for money. Having both Craigslist AND Apple buyback is the ideal situation.

barkomatic said:

It's convenient but a lot less than what you can sell it for on craigslist. As long as you use common sense, craigslist can is relatively safe. People get in trouble when they agree to meet at someone's apartment, meet outside where one party can run away, or agree to ship the device.

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So which possibility on doing business does this leave?

My hunch, this trade-in program is designed to bust the carrier-model in the US, and get people into Apple stores.

I think Apple has been working on this for a long time, and tried to do it with the carriers, but they didn't want to play ball. Now that Apple has figured out a way to do it themselves, the carriers are scrambling with their programs to keep their pockets lined, hence the weird launches of AT&T's Next and Verizon's upgrade programs.

I think it's going to be simple, if you buy an iPhone in an Apple store (or the online store) with AppleCare, you'll be eligible to upgrade to the next year's model when it's released.

Apple then gets the customer in an Apple store and cuts the carriers off at the same time.

Elihudude said:

This program is already in effect at the Dallas market Apple stores. My friend got $211 for her iPhone 4S and upgraded to the 5. Honestly for the simplicity, I would highly recommend going to an Apple store for trading up. Much easier than using an online service.

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What was the storage capacity of her iPhone 4S?

Haven't sold my iPhones on eBay since the 4(S). Selling them unlocked netted me ~$400, allowing me to purchase an off-contract model.

I'm tempted to either trade in my device at BestBuy for ~$200, or if a jailbreak is released soon enough (doubtful) maybe I'll try eBay again.

Anyone up on iPhone eBay sales advise? IIRC, new "laws" have made unlocking/selling difficult/illegal? Sorry, been a while.

iLunar said:

Now that Apple has figured out a way to do it themselves, the carriers are scrambling with their programs to keep their pockets lined, hence the weird launches of AT&T's Next and Verizon's upgrade programs.

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No, t-mobile caused that.

I doubt they'll give you nearly as much money as you could get if you sold your phone on eBay, or to Gazelle, but the convenience of dropping off an old phone to pick up a new one without posting an ad or shipping is probably worth at least a few bux in my book.

Personally I've had good luck trading up at verizon. In April I traded a 4s in and it pretty much covered the cost of an iPhone 5 and the upgrade fee. Both were 16gb models. I now have a line eligible so I'm thinking if the trade in covers the price of a 5s I'll go for it. Especially if the rumors hold that the 5s may be 199.00 for a 32gb

puckhead193 said:

Now can you trade in phones when your still under contract with verizon? can I trade in my 5 for a 5S if i'm still under contract? (2 years)

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I would think you can, but you would get a credit against a full-priced iphone vs a discounted 2-year price. Even now, if you wanted to upgrade your phone before your upgrade is due, you can do so at full-price.

puckhead193 said:

Now can you trade in phones when your still under contract with verizon? can I trade in my 5 for a 5S if i'm still under contract? (2 years)

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I know AT&T will give you an early upgrade price of $449 for the latest iPhone, one year into contract. If you can trade in a 5 for about $300, net $149 is not too bad to be able to upgrade to the 5S.

ArtOfWarfare said:

I tried this with my 3GS when I bought my 4S but they said they couldn't do anything with it.

Glad to hear they finally fixed it... it seems like a no brainer and I'm surprised it took them 7 generations* to do it.

*Plus all those generations of iPod before the iPhone

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not sure if this counts as "trade-in". But they've always offered 10% off a new iPod if you recycled your existing iPod (good or damaged)

giantfan1224 said:

You can get $385 right now on orangeoffer.com for a 16 GB iPhone 5.

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That is so much more inconvenient than going to the Apple Store and trading it in. I would take $200 at the Apple Store for the convenience alone.

Roessnakhan said:

Right now you can lock in your trade-in to Gazelle starting at $315 for a "good" iPhone 5 16GB, which isn't too bad. Also, it locks the quote in until October 15th, plenty of time to decide whether to upgrade or not.

On eBay/CL you could probably get an extra $150, but there is more risk.

If Apple matches the quote I might be more apt to just do it with them, less hassle.

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I dunno. About zero risk for the seller.

musika said:

I'll probably be sending my 4S to Gazelle next month when my 5S comes. I've done eBay, but I feel like going the recycle route this year.

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Except you know they dont recycle it right.... They list it on ebay for sale within hours of inspection....

This is a good program... and I hope Apple offers a much more reasonable for the used iPhones they get...

Last time I heard a "promotion" that AT&T offered $100 for a used iPhone and I was like... did everybody at AT&T smoke crack? I can eBay the phone for $300 easily, why in the world would I sell it to AT&T for $100 and they even called it a "promotion" lol!

So anyways...
Would anybody know any details about the pricing of the trade-in program? It would be good to know how much we got to upgrade our entire family fleet to 5S. Thanks!