Apple Lowers Trade-In Values for Macs, iPads, and Apple Watches

turbineseaplane said:
Not always true
Really depends upon device and timing.

Before the last drop, they were offering me $250 for a base model Mini 5 -- which, with the 6 already out at the time, was a value unmatched by the private marketplace for that model (not the current one at that time)
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At the time I did mine it was down to $225 USD. I suspect the pricing has to do with both how expensive it is to recycle in your country, and also the demand for resale combined with how overloaded their refurbs centers are currently for preparation of Apple devices traded in. It's is likely that these products values drop because too many consumers are dumping their older Apple devices in droves for the new AS models as a one example.

Apple I see has a refurb mini 5 64GB Gold for $339 in refurbs. Can't say that pricing has changed much since the mini 6 came out.
 
anakin44011 said:
When I trade in a car, I only pay sales tax on the difference. So if I trade in a $20,000 car while buying a $40,000 car, I only pay sales tax on the 20,000.

Apple trade-ins don't work that way. If I trade in a $2000 laptop when buying a $4000 laptop, I'm still paying 7% on the full $4000.
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Whenever I’ve traded-in through Apple, my gift card has always included a partial refund of the sales tax. Or, as you put it, I’ve only paid sales tax on the difference. Nowadays, if you pay with installments, Apple subtracts the trade-in value on the spot, so you can verify before accepting their offer that you only pay sales tax on the difference.

For purposes of comparison, I always add 8.25% (for Texas) to Apple’s trade-ins, and find them highly competitive with most third-party sites (to which I add ≈2%, because getting paid in cash means credit-card rewards on a future purchase).

People frequently mention eBay as a better avenue, but after the ≈14% fee on your entire sale (including shipping costs), you’re not usually left with a whole lot more than through Apple. That’s not mentioning the stress of potential chargebacks and other scams. Person-to-person sales may yield more, but again, you risk getting scammed. And who wants to get scammed out of $1000+? Throw in the overhead of taking/editing pictures, creating a listing (or multiple ones), haggling with potential buyers, etc. and I’ll gladly take 5% less for a quick, hassle-free sale. In reality though, I’ve noticed that people who bragged about “getting a lot more through eBay” occasionally got less than I did through a full-service resale site!
 
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Which is why I keep my Apple devices till they no longer get any updates. Apple doesn't love that. People need to return the favor to Apple and stop the senseless upgrading every year. Keep your device; the pictures don't look any better on an iPhone 13 Pro versus an iPhone 6s. Trust me, Instagram and Facebook already downgrades them anyway.
 
Funny, I thought that Apple offered premium products but their offers are bush league. I'd sell anywhere else and keep the profit.
 
anakin44011 said:
So putting it up on eBay still makes financial sense, even though it is such an awful selling experience -- which begs the question...what the heck happened to eBay? When did they become a third world garage sale while commanding such usurious fees?
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In short, they got really popular, became a "go to" place, and Ebay leveraged that with higher fees. More than one seller has voiced their gripes about their "savage fees" (and yes, they did use the word "savage"), and where they overwhelmingly side with the buyer in cases of conflict. Then you have cases where sellers list they will not ship to certain countries, but buyers ask that anyways! One thing I heard is if you're not going to sell it by the 2nd listing, make plans to part with it in other ways, as that's the point where you'll be losing out (financially).

FWIW, many buyers are returning to Ebay, or at least giving it a more fair shake since Amazon (with or without Prime membership) don't always have the best prices anymore. You sometimes may get knockoffs, and shipping is no longer overnight, or even 2-day for many of us.
 
You hustle, you deal, you steal from us all
Come on, come on, love me for the money
Come on, come on, listen to the money talk
 

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ackmondual said:
Apple products hold their value better... just not through the Apple store!
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Apple offered to recycle my 2015 MBA, so off it went to SellYourMac in what was a very easy transaction. Apple trades do work for some, but shopping around for the best price is recommended.
 
anakin44011 said:
So putting it up on eBay still makes financial sense, even though it is such an awful selling experience -- which begs the question...what the heck happened to eBay? When did they become a third world garage sale while commanding such usurious fees?
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Agreed, last time I used eBay it was a complete disaster. Almost a scam from all buyers. It was horrible and I am scared to ever go back. Old school eBay was great (I date myself).
 
Apple resale in general has been tanking.

I've been the type to trade in or resell my own devices on the regular (5 person family). It has generally made sense to stay somewhat current on the tech rather than let your devices age to worthlessness. This is becoming less the case. My M1 MacBook Pro has declined in value much faster than my previous Intel device did, both private party and trade in. If I could get a decent amount for it, I'd be trading it in for a 14". That's just not the case, I'd be losing too much money. It wasn't that way before.
 
Smart people use eBay to sell their stuff and THEN upgrade. Dumb people use Apple (or Verizon or any corporate entity that sells new stuff) to "trade-in", to upgrade. No room for complaining. The amount you can get for your hardware/device cannot be compared. You will always get more via eBay than through Apple/Verizon, etc. I only wish my wife had let us sell her old MS surface Pro 7 on eBay... but we have a church friend that wanted it, so he got dibs on it for $500, instead of the $600+ we could have gotten for it on eBay. Of course, with eBay's fees and such... might have been close to the same price. :rolleyes:
 
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Realityck said:
how overloaded their refurbs centers are currently for preparation of Apple devices traded in. It's is likely that these products values drop because too many consumers are dumping their older Apple devices in droves for the new AS models as a one example.

Apple I see has a refurb mini 5 64GB Gold for $339 in refurbs. Can't say that pricing has changed much since the mini 6 came out.
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That wouldn't explain the MBP, where there are no 2021 models available.
 
jon9091 said:
Great way to slow down the economy. Derp.
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I don't think what Apple sells and their trade in prices has to do with slowing the economy. It's a lot more apparent that the whole technology industry is in a pit of a bind. I seen many products centered around home entertainment that have become very scarce and prices have risen by quite a bit. This constant trade in of old smart phones for new with cellular contracts expiring can only go so far in keeping consumers interested in doing that. IMHO the price decreases is a more serious sign that there isn't as many refurb buyers out there as 2 years ago. The cost of certain product recycling or recertification has risen a lot because Apple employees haven't been on the job at their place of work like they used to. If you're getting the jest that Covid 19 has really messed up things, then trade in price decreases is just a another tactic these companies do to maintain their profitability at the consumers expense.
 
zecanard said:
Whenever I’ve traded-in through Apple and didn’t get the trade-in value subtracted from my purchase, my gift card has always included a refund of the sales tax. Or as you put it, I’ve only paid sales tax on the difference.

For purposes of comparison, I always ad 8.25% (for Texas) to Apple’s trade-in values, and often found them highly competitive with most third-party sites.

Nowadays, if you pay with installments, Apple subtracts the trade-in value on the spot, so you can verify before accepting their offer that you only pay sales tax on the difference.
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Wow -- my mistake. When I researched it in January, it seemed that the gift card would come later and that the sales tax wouldn't be considered.

Your post here would have saved me $$ and another eBay headache. Live and learn.

That said, I genuinely hope my buyer loves his mint-condition, maxed out 2019 MacBook Pro (complete with extremely loud fan noise) - he got it for a song. However, the M1 Max MacBook that replaced it is just awesome.
 
anakin44011 said:
When I trade in a car, I only pay sales tax on the difference. So if I trade in a $20,000 car while buying a $40,000 car, I only pay sales tax on the 20,000.
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Us Californians are used to getting double dipped on by the state. CA has lot of mouths to feed. We always pay tax on full price.
 
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