IMO, this is Apple's, "we don't want to offer this, but if you insist." price.
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Apple Adjusts Trade-In Values for iPhones, Macs, and More
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IMO, this is Apple's, "we don't want to offer this, but if you insist." price.
Apple never gives you credit for extra RAM or SSD even though their prices for those upgrades are eye watering. A tricked out device is pretty much the same trade in as a base model.
It is because Apple wants to maintain their above average industry profit margins on as many things as possible.
However, the main reason to avoid Apple's trade-in program is not the low values they assign to your hardware, it is because the program is horribly run.
In my case, they claimed the backlight on my iMac wasn't working and adjusted its value to $0. They only offered to recycle the machine for me. So, I requested it be sent back and what do you know, the iMac was in perfect working condition. My guess is that had too many iMacs returned at that time decided they weren't going to honor their quotes. Just do a search and you will find many stories where the value they agreed to pay is substantially reduced because of nonexistent problems with the hardware.
-kp
Sold 753 items on eBay. Had no issues with any of them. Just write the serial down, list it honestly, take good photos of every mm of it and send it with a good courier fully insured.
Gotta add to the pile and say don’t waste your time. Traded in my 11 Pro Max the same week the 13 Pro came out. Got $550 or so and about -$2000 worth of hassle and time wasted dealing with their awful scam of a trade in “partner.”
From now on I’ll just gift my phone to a family member and get a new one. A hand-me-down Pro phone from 2-3 years ago is better than what most people buy themselves and will last long enough. Worth more to them than it would ever be to Apple.
From now on I’ll just gift my phone to a family member and get a new one. A hand-me-down Pro phone from 2-3 years ago is better than what most people buy themselves and will last long enough. Worth more to them than it would ever be to Apple.
I feel like you missed the other, far more prominent part of the story.
I guess here's my one thought. Sometime soon there is likely to be a backlash against Apple for this approach (and I mean beyond us)... They are so PR conscious I can't imagine why they would invite this coming criticism.
Past performance not indicative of future performance
eBay favors the buyers way over the seller so it's very YMMV.
Apple sets the rules. They likely really don’t want your stuff back. It probably costs them money to do anything with the device. They only have this as a convenience to customers.
That's wild, I've sold less than ten but on nearly every item I've had scammers win the first pass at the auction and send me fake 'Your PayPal Payment Has Been Received' emails, hoping that I would be fooled into thinking I'd been paid and mail the item to them. One of them almost got me - it looked nearly identical to a real email from PayPal.
I've solid 'higher-profile' items like shoes and PS5s that probably attract more of that scammer attention, though.
Agree. If I upgrade ill probably sell my current one, either locally or eBay it.
Funny that years ago I used to tell people:
"well Apple products may be expensive, but they hold their value so well, that it's worth the investment"
Seems Timmy is doing his best to prove me wrong again.
"well Apple products may be expensive, but they hold their value so well, that it's worth the investment"
Seems Timmy is doing his best to prove me wrong again.
Read the fine print from the cellular carriers on getting a discount on a new iPhone.
If you pay off the iPhone early, then you pay Full price on that iPhone, which is why the companies gives the discount to you to lock you in for 24-36 months.
Xfinity Mobile changed their TOS agreement to do just that. Used to be that you got a prepaid Visa card for the rebate. Now you're locked into a 24 month installment plan, so if you cancel early or pay off the remaining balance, you're charged the Full cost of the iPhone. Worse, the company changed their plans and increased the prices!
Best thing to do is just buy the iPhone directly from Apple when it's released and hopefully get a rebate card back. Trade-in the older iPhone to Apple, even at lower costs, to avoid the hassle of selling through a 3rd party like eBay, gazelle, etc...
If you want to maximize the trade-in amount by selling through a 3rd party, feel free to do so, knowing the hassles that goes along with that. Some people don't want to bother with it.
What Apple provides as a trade-in value has no bearing on what the device is actually worth on eBay, Swappa, Craigslist, Facebook, etc.
That’s just how bad the value of owning an Intel Mac is 😷
It's interesting that the iPhone minis are holding their value better than Apple's other products.
How many people are out there willing to pay that much $ for a used Mac? You want apple to pony up $50,000 to try to resell it themselves to someone? You’re mad at apple for good business sense
That's nice. I don't update my computer nearly enough to take advantage of that, I think, but noted
The repercussion of this - sadly - is that third party trade-in places are going to lower their offers as well, because they could always point to the even ridiculously lower offers from Apple. On Apple’s website the iPhone 13 512gb costs 1.239€. Same phone max trade-in value is 460€. Let that sink in. Don’t buy the environment bulls**t from Apple; if they cared they’d really tell you you’re iPhone 13 is capable enough.
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Not true. The program is actually run by Phobio and there are plenty of complaints and suspicious activities on trade-ins.
I was going to say the program is probably run by a third party – didn't know it was Phobio – but that party still has to answer to Apple for poor service else they get to lose that contract. I'm not surprised that a trade-in company has their best interests in mind though.
I had the same problem. They did not honor the original quote.
Sent in 2018 iPad Pro 11 inch, flawless. They offered $0 for it because they said it would not turn on. I told them to check the charge because it was in perfect working order. They refused. I had them send back to me.
As I surmised, the battery had become discharged. I plugged it in and it has been working fine ever since. I was originally trading up for the M1 iPad, glad that I hadn't since it does not do anything more than what my device does (Not interested in plugging into display as I have a Mac Studio).