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Hardly any two businesses have the same purpose. Here is the purpose of Apple Inc.:

Apple, Inc. engages in the design, manufacture, and sale of smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories, and other varieties of related services. Its products and services include iPhone, Mac, iPad, AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, AppleCare, iCloud, digital content stores, streaming, and licensing services.
All you're doing is telling me WHAT they do. I'm telling you WHY.
 
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It seems like Apple doesn’t even want you to trade your old devices to Apple anymore.
They don’t. They can’t sell them on as is for profit. They have the disassemble and recycle or put a new case to sell as refurbished.

Collecting, shipping, trucking, disassembly, reassembly/recycling reshipping, all costs money.

It’s purely a customer experience thing and “green intuitive”.
 
All you're doing is telling me WHAT they do. I'm telling you WHY.
They design them, so that they know how to build them.
They manufacture them, so that they exist in the physical world.
They sell them, so that people all over the world can use them.

Making money is almost a side effect. If making money was the true and only aim, then Apple would always ship some illegal drugs, weapons and people along with their products. Because that's how you make the most money, if you don't care for anything else. Building computers is laughably non-productive. That's why Pablo Escobar never tried it.
 
One would be kind thinking it's the cost of processing goods for refurbishment has gone up, instead its more likely aftermath of this pandemic making goods more expensive to sell. So the real question is, after Apple sales start to gain again in a non-pandemic marketplace, will trade in's go up in value?
Highly unlikely with Tim around.
 
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It's all brand value.

Brands that give a lot more for their own trade-ins are considered less valuable. The lesser the amount of trade-in, the more valuable the brand. It's weird because it sounds backwards but this is how it is.

I've seen this happen with like watches, cars, etc. In the gray market or selling to other people, you get a lot more money back if you're selling. Which is why places like Swappa, eBay, Amazon exist. Although, their phones could have aftermarket parts installed and passing it off as genuine. You could end up with a frankenstein iPhone.

That's why buying refurbished from Apple is so damn expensive--it's all brand new and warrantied = $$$
 
AT&T just gave me $800 for an XS Max.
VZW gave $1k to trade 13PM. They're bill credits, but I have zero installments and I don't switch unless there's some major issue. I switched to VZW maybe ten years ago because somewhere I went often had ZERO AT&T service. The only thing that stinks is they keep drawing out the months for the installments, so you have to pay off the remaining installments to keep and use as a trade. But it's still worth more than going the 18mos and giving it back.

And last year when I did 12PM to 13PM, it was $800 instant credit which meant only installments on the difference. And I think like $80 installment credits on top of that.
 
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They design them, so that they know how to build them.
They manufacture them, so that they exist in the physical world.
They sell them, so that people all over the world can use them.

Making money is almost a side effect. If making money was the true and only aim, then Apple would always ship some illegal drugs, weapons and people along with their products. Because that's how you make the most money, if you don't care for anything else. Building computers is laughably non-productive. That's why Pablo Escobar never tried it.
If you believe Apple makes their products to make people happy, I have some ocean front property to sell you in Utah.
 
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Its amazing how little value Apple assigns to the current Mac Pro that they still sell new for a small fortune.
 
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Never ever ever trade anything to apple. Sell it yourself.

Unless its a super old device like i dont think I would’ve gotten $355 for my 12.9 iPad Pro 2017 when I traded it in 2021 After getting an m1 iPad Pro 11” it had backlight bleed / spotlighting too.

also nice to trade in carrier locked phones, nobody really wants those second hand.

sometimes convenience is worth the ’rip‘ too but I agree like if I was getting rid of a 13 pro max unlocked right now, i would DEF look to resell.
 
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It’s not about laziness , it’s about the stress that comes from selling it on another platform

agressive people , fake money, robbers , buyer who’s not happy and keep calling you back ….how much money would you be accepting to lose in order such experiences ?
I tried selling my iPhone 12 Pro Max for two months and nothing but lowballers, people who don't have the funds, people wanting to trade for junk, and scammers that disappear when I mention meeting up at the local police station.

I haven't tried Swappa but it was smooth and easy walking into an Apple store and being assured the entire trade-in process is honored, and no chance the phone got lost or stolen during shipping. I was willing to accept less money for the hassle-free convenience. The time savings alone was worth it to me.
 
Gonna ride my $200 iPhone 11 out until next year. Battery is still at 84 percent and I purchased in September 2020 so I feel I got good value from it so far.
 
I think it's funny that Apple does this right before Black Friday deals start. It's not even like Apple does most of their trade ins... They use a joke of a third party that takes forever to process the gift card.
 
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