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Yes, an unlocked phone would be better, but unless you're going to do an illegal one, you might have to wait until the end of the contract. At least that's what ATT told me.

Not necessarily. You can device swap a new iPhone with a 5s in the middle of the contract and at&t will be happy to unlock the offed 5s after 14 days (the return period of the new iPhone).
 
I sold my unlocked 64GB Gold 5S for $475 today. I originally wanted $600, then lowered to $500. Got talked down to $475, and honestly I'm fine with that. I was mad at first, but then realized that still pays for my 6 Plus I just bought. So basically a 1 for 1 trade.
 
I sold my unlocked 64GB Gold 5S for $475 today. I originally wanted $600, then lowered to $500. Got talked down to $475, and honestly I'm fine with that. I was mad at first, but then realized that still pays for my 6 Plus I just bought. So basically a 1 for 1 trade.

$600 would've been doable weeks ago before the iPhone 6 was announced but certainly not at this time when the market is saturated.
 
Moderator note: This is a post by user StarShot. Due to an error by MacRumors it is shown with the wrong username. Our apologies.

Umm... T-Mobile gave me $352 credit for my 16gb iPhone 5s...... lol

I plugged my numbers in (32GB 5S ATT) and the number was the same, $352, but THEN I would be on T-Mobile. They would have to pump that up to $700 to make me even think about going down that route.

You didn't mention if you were a previous T-Mobile person. I also saw that they would buy out my contract for up to $350.
 
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Just sold my Unlocked 5S 32gb gold for $420 on Craigslist yesterday. Took me about 4 or 5 days to sell, normally my iPhones sell same day I post it. It's definitely a buyer's market right now.
 
I plugged my numbers in (32GB 5S ATT) and the number was the same, $352, but THEN I would be on T-Mobile. They would have to pump that up to $700 to make me even think about going down that route.

You didn't mention if you were a previous T-Mobile person. I also saw that they would buy out my contract for up to $350.


Correct, they will give you $352 for your 5s and $350 to buy out your existing contract.

I actually am a T-Mobile customer because service in my area is tremendous... and their rates are ridiculous cheap. $100/month for 4 lines is incredible. 2.5gb data is fine with me, but you can upgrade that if necessary.

The $352 for the iPhone 5s is a great deal for a trade-in, considering you wouldn't make much more trying to sell it on eBay or Craigslist after fees and dealing with people lol
 
Moderator note: This is a post by user StarShot. Due to an error by MacRumors it is shown with the wrong username. Our apologies.

Just sold my Unlocked 5S 32gb gold for $420 on Craigslist yesterday. Took me about 4 or 5 days to sell, normally my iPhones sell same day I post it. It's definitely a buyer's market right now.

You got a very good deal. I just don't like to deal with all the "bottom feeders" who frequent Craigslist, but if you can find the one buyer who knows what a fair price is, that's the way to go.

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... after fees and dealing with people

people = low life, no show, bottom feeders, something for nothing, or traders that frequent craigslist. But then, there's the no eBay/Paypal suck down.

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Not necessarily. You can device swap a new iPhone with a 5s in the middle of the contract and at&t will be happy to unlock the offed 5s after 14 days (the return period of the new iPhone).

Not sure I understand the math here. I have 2 phones, one that had a contract expiring now and the other in another year. If I tried to upgrade the one with a year to go, the price for my new 64gb phone would be $250 more than the one with the expired contract or $550 instead of $300. So, you're saying if I upgraded the one with a year to go, ATT would unlock the old phone that still had a year to go on contract.

I upgraded the one with the expired contract for $300.
 
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You got a very good deal. I just don't like to deal with all the "bottom feeders" who frequent Craigslist, but if you can find the one buyer who knows what a fair price is, that's the way to go.


Yeah, sold it for $420 and bought the 6 for $300. Twice the space and 120 bucks on top, I'll take it lol.
 
Wow that seems low. I got $450 for a Verizon 5S 32gb off craigslist, and with ebay you also have to pay there fees.

Exactly. I quit selling on Ebay... the fees have went through the roof over the years and ANY kind of dispute favors buyers. In short, Ebay has made it a total PITA to sell items with ridiculous fees to boot.

So, I listed my Verizon 64GB 5s on Craigslist Wednesday night for $475 when I got my 6 Plus shipping notification. I had 4 people contact me with $375 (LOL) offers which I politely declined.

Got an email Friday afternoon shortly after the new phone was delivered from a guy wanting to upgrade from his 4S.

He offered $450, I accepted, we met at Starbucks and it was a smooth transaction. No fees, no BS.
 
Not sure I understand the math here. I have 2 phones, one that had a contract expiring now and the other in another year. If I tried to upgrade the one with a year to go, the price for my new 64gb phone would be $250 more than the one with the expired contract or $550 instead of $300. So, you're saying if I upgraded the one with a year to go, ATT would unlock the old phone that still had a year to go on contract.

I upgraded the one with the expired contract for $300.

It may not work in your specific scenario, but a workable scenario is if you keep a dummy line with a dumbphone (no data) and upgrade that line every other year to the newest iPhone. You will then be able to device swap the new device to your own line in the middle of contract, kick the year-old iPhone off, and put the dumbphone back on the dummy line with data removed. at&t will be able to unlock the offed iPhone 5s after 14 days.

Notice that this won't work with at&t's family shared plan (nor with Verizon). It only works with at&t's traditional plan that allows you to have an extra line for $10 per month. So about $120 a year to maintain the dummy line and be able to upgrade to the newest iPhone every year.
 
I want to sell my 16GB 5S silver - AT&T unlocked. Is $375 too high? I would be using Craigslist. Thank for any input.
 
$315 is pretty low for eBay. That's only about $275 after fees.

Some tips for next time:

1. UNLOCK your phone. This could've easily added another $80-100 of value to the device.
2. If you sell on eBay then do a buy it now listing with immediate payment required. That way you set the price at what you're willing to let it go for. Often times I'll have my phone listed on both eBay and Craigslist (with a higher price on eBay to offset the fees) and let it go to whichever venue sells first.
3. If you want to do an auction (which I don't recommend for high value items in the first place), just start it at $0.99. It's an iPhone, it's going to shoot up to over $300 anyway and you probably would've had a lot more people looking at it by the time it ended.
4. Timing is everything. In my experience the best time to sell your used iPhone is either the two weeks leading up to the Apple announcement or about 4-6 weeks after the newest iPhone has been released. The problem right now is that the market is totally flooded with iPhone 5's and 5S's. Everyone is waiting for their 6/6+ to be delivered and selling their old iPhones in that first month after release. Believe it or not the resale value will likely increase a little bit around mid October.
 
Just sold my 16GB iPhone 5s on Craigslist for $325 today. Probably could have got $350, only had it up there a day and a half but I just wanted to get rid of it and be done. I only paid $327 for my 6+ so as long as it evens out lol
 
Just sold my 16GB iPhone 5s on Craigslist for $325 today. Probably could have got $350, only had it up there a day and a half but I just wanted to get rid of it and be done. I only paid $327 for my 6+ so as long as it evens out lol
Was yours unlocked?
 
I sold my unlocked 5s 32GB AT&T for $370 cash.

Did not want to go thru ebay and get ripped off by the expensive listing fees.
 
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