iPhone resale value myth

[aristobrat]

Whoever told you that iPhones have great resale value are lying.

I think the origins of that were from "back in the day" when everyone paid $199 for the iPhone and flagship Android.

Selling that $199 phone a year later, seems like you could always net more money from an iPhone sale than others.

Now that people aren't paying $199, and the price they pay varies quite a bit, that's not always a true statement anymore.

Like others have mentioned, times changed...

 

[convergent]

Remember that when 2 year contracts were popular, you would be paying $199 for a 16GB iPhone. A year later you could sell it for $400. A new iPhone on an early upgrade 2 year contract would be $450 (16GB). Therefore you could upgrade to the newest one for $50 out of pocket. This completely changed once 2 year contracts went away.

That nails it... but its only $50 "out of pocket" in their heads. People doing that are forgetting they are paying monthly for the phone on top of that.

 

[geoff5093]

Where are you trying to sell it? iPhones definitely have better resale value than Android phones.

On Swappa, the average price for an iPhone 6s Plus 64GB is ~$750 used.

 

[MrAverigeUser]

Remember that when 2 year contracts were popular, you would be paying $199 for a 16GB iPhone. A year later you could sell it for $400. A new iPhone on an early upgrade 2 year contract would be $450 (16GB). Therefore you could upgrade to the newest one for $50 out of pocket. This completely changed once 2 year contracts went away.

Don´t be naive.
This is a phantasy-calculation.
Your provider is better than you:
He has to pay not much less than you would pay for it - even for them, iPhones do NOT fall from heaven - so he calculates HIS "losses" within your contract.

Contracts WITHOUT inclusion of new Smartphones every year are much less expensive - even if you get a more-or-less "good" price for the "old" one..

There are many statistics showing that even buying a phone AND signing in a cellphone-contract separately from each other is less expensive - and so you are even free to buy also a "second hand" top-phone instead of a "new" one just at that time you need really a new one.

So - if you talk about "phantastic" resales of yearly "donated" Smartphones of your Cell-Phone-provider you have to calculate all together.

And I can say: ALWAYS the bottom-line all-together is: That type of "all-inclusive"-Contracts makes you even lose more money than a "Communication only"-Contract without yearly gadget and a free buy of a Smartphone from time to time (i.e every 2-4 years) … there was not much REAL "innovation" since iP5…. and at tat time banding it was impossible …


edit:

"Resale-losses" are NEVER about a certain percentage of price when purchased , they are about bucks in real numbers.

Will say:

50% of 1000 USD = 500 USD lost.

50% of 800 USD = 400 USD lost.

And even with a product with more percentage of "Losses" (= poorer resales at first look) , lets say even 60%, will let you loose less than the ones with "good" resales - if you have to pay less when purchasing the new one with "less chance for a good resale"….

Never calculate in %, calculate always in USD…you will be surprised sometimes...

 

[aneftp]

Bottom line:

iPhone 6S $650 msrp base resells for around $350-400 15 months after its release. (Release Sept 2014)

Samsung Galaxy s5 msrp $650 release circa April 2014 was reselling for around $300 back when the S6 was released 12-13 months into its life cycle.

Now I can easily get the S5 for around $200-225 in most craigslist ads. Those trying to resell for $300 are delusional.

 

[dark_knight177]

Don´t be naive.
This is a phantasy-calculation.
Your provider is better than you:
He has to pay not much less than you would pay for it - even for them, iPhones do NOT fall from heaven - so he calculates HIS "losses" within your contract.

Contracts WITHOUT inclusion of new Smartphones every year are much less expensive - even if you get a more-or-less "good" price for the "old" one..

There are many statistics showing that even buying a phone AND signing in a cellphone-contract separately from each other is less expensive - and so you are even free to buy also a "second hand" top-phone instead of a "new" one just at that time you need really a new one.

So - if you talk about "phantastic" resales of yearly "donated" Smartphones of your Cell-Phone-provider you have to calculate all together.

And I can say: ALWAYS the bottom-line all-together is: That type of "all-inclusive"-Contracts makes you even lose more money than a "Communication only"-Contract without yearly gadget and a free buy of a Smartphone from time to time (i.e every 2-4 years) … there was not much REAL "innovation" since iP5…. and at tat time banding it was impossible …


edit:

"Resale-losses" are NEVER about a certain percentage of price when purchased , they are about bucks in real numbers.

Will say:

50% of 1000 USD = 500 USD lost.

50% of 800 USD = 400 USD lost.

And even with a product with more percentage of "Losses" (= poorer resales at first look) , lets say even 60%, will let you loose less than the ones with "good" resales - if you have to pay less when purchasing the new one with "less chance for a good resale"….

Never calculate in %, calculate always in USD…you will be surprised sometimes...

Exactly! I lost $559 in my case, which seems like a lot. There's not a single Android phone with which you can loose that much after 12 months.

 

[geoff5093]

The biggest reason is that most Android phones get price reductions every couple months, making the resale value go down. Apple sticks with their price and don't lower it until the next phone is out. Another reason is that Apple releases a new model every 12 months, unlike Android where something better comes out every couple months.

Having said that, I don't know where you saw $450 was the highest, as I already said Swappa is selling used 6s Plus 64GB phones for ~$750.

 

[jimbo1mcm]

I quit selling my used phones and got into the Apple Upgrade program. Probably costs me a little bit more, but I know I can just give my Iphone 6s plus to Apple in 9 more months and get an Iphone 7s plus, or whatever they call it. No stress.

 

[noobinator]

The resale value of iPhones is inflated but they still have better resale than Android phones. I do get a chuckle out of some people posting they got nearly full price for the phone a year later. They must be good at tracking down morons.

 

[takeshi74]

My phone cost me $909 with tax last year. In addition I paid 100 for AppleCare+. So in total I paid $1009 for the phone

Extended warranty is not the product itself.

Exactly! I lost $559 in my case, which seems like a lot. There's not a single Android phone with which you can loose that much after 12 months.

That's why a $ comparison is pointless. Of course there's potential to lose more $ with an item that started with a higher price. The only meaningful analysis is the % of the resale to original sale. In other words, if you want to compare how much value X retains you have to compare its resale price to original price. That's what the % indicates.

Contracts WITHOUT inclusion of new Smartphones every year are much less expensive - even if you get a more-or-less "good" price for the "old" one..

Not sure what you're saying here. In the US contracts went hand in hand with subsidies so carriers definitely made up for the subsidy with service (or the ETF if one broke the contract). Without a subsidy there is no contract in the US.

electronics are the worst investment you can make now days.

Electronics are not investments. If you're investing in electronics then you are definitely doing it wrong and that's not just Apple or Jobs speak.

 

[metsjetsfan]

I am confused why is anyone expecting any decent resale value of iphones its not like they are rare. Maybe the first couple weeks at launch or in certain countries. Look at high end watches and cars all those dont have much resale value either.

 

[convergent]

Exactly! I lost $559 in my case, which seems like a lot. There's not a single Android phone with which you can loose that much after 12 months.

Dude, you need to look at percent of original price, not actual dollars. In your example you payed a lot more for the iPhone initially, so of course its going to drop more. The percentage drops were about the same.

 

[Mlrollin91]

Don´t be naive.
This is a phantasy-calculation.
Your provider is better than you:
He has to pay not much less than you would pay for it - even for them, iPhones do NOT fall from heaven - so he calculates HIS "losses" within your contract.

Contracts WITHOUT inclusion of new Smartphones every year are much less expensive - even if you get a more-or-less "good" price for the "old" one..

There are many statistics showing that even buying a phone AND signing in a cellphone-contract separately from each other is less expensive - and so you are even free to buy also a "second hand" top-phone instead of a "new" one just at that time you need really a new one.

So - if you talk about "phantastic" resales of yearly "donated" Smartphones of your Cell-Phone-provider you have to calculate all together.

And I can say: ALWAYS the bottom-line all-together is: That type of "all-inclusive"-Contracts makes you even lose more money than a "Communication only"-Contract without yearly gadget and a free buy of a Smartphone from time to time (i.e every 2-4 years) … there was not much REAL "innovation" since iP5…. and at tat time banding it was impossible …

How exactly am I being naive. I'm not talking about resale value and what the OP is talking about. That is not what I even quoted. I am merely saying, that it feels a lot more painful now because people pay full price. If you weren't paying full price you would never notice the huge difference. Ever since the iPhone 3G I would upgrade on yearly on a 2 year contract early upgrade path. It never cost me more than $50 each year. I was always able to sell my previous iPhone for $400 and it was $450 to upgrade to the new one. Every single year until the iPhone 6.

 

[mlody]

I have iPhone 6 Plus 64GB and the most I am able to get is $450.
My phone cost me $909 with tax last year. In addition I paid 100 for AppleCare+. So in total I paid $1009 for the phone and the most I am getting now is $450 on craigslist.

So it seems like I am loosing $559 in value in 12 months. Whoever told you that iPhones have great resale value are lying. For $559 I could be buying brand new Nexus 6P every year and loose $250 in value at most.

Granted my phone is in excellent condition and still has 2 Apple Care replacements left.

I can only say that is must be just an area that you are in because I am very satisfied with the resell value of all our idevices.

In mid October of this year I sold the following iPhones (NW Chicago suburbs)

iPhone 5s 32gb (Verizon, GSM unlocked) - $350 - the phone was over 2 years old
iPhone 5 16gb (t-mobile unlocked) - $240 - over 2.5 years old
iPhone 4S 16gb (att unlocked) $100 - tiny crack in the lower corner - almost 4 years old phone
iPhone 5c 16gb pink (verizon, gsm unlocked) - $160 - over 2 years old
iPhone 5c 16gb white (verzion, gsm unlocked) - $180- over 2 years old

Last week, I also sold iPad 2 16gb wifi for $175 which was almost 4.5 years old.

 

[gabo864]

Sold my iPhone 6 64gb Verizon for $600 on Craigslist at the end of September.

 

[willmtaylor]

Exactly! I lost $559 in my case, which seems like a lot. There's not a single Android phone with which you can loose that much after 12 months.

STOP SAYING "LOOSE!" It's "lose."

P.S. This thread amounts to little more than you believing what you hear/read too much and not doing proper research/math. The onus is on you. Sorry.

 

[mlody]

Exactly! I lost $559 in my case, which seems like a lot. There's not a single Android phone with which you can loose that much after 12 months.

The more 'extras' you buy the smaller the return on them - in your case, 64GB and Applecare are extras.

Buy a new car and try to sell it in a year and see how much you going to lose? keep it for 2 extra years and the loss wont be as bad.
Or buy the same new car and check every single options, spend extra $10k on all those options and after a year that $10k extra in options will get you perhaps $1-2k more over the base.

none of that is anything new, and actually it is a basic principle of marketing and business.

On used market the 64gb or 128gb memory sizes are worth perhaps 10-20$ more if that over the base 16gb. A lot of people who buy the used items are frugal and do not care that you have this extra or that extra - they are just looking for something newer for them and as cheap as possible.
This is also why I like to not over purchase if i know that I wont be keeping something for too long or just not needing it.

On a separate subject, I would just keep your existing phone and try to enjoy it. The extra year that you keep the phone will probably do wonders to the resell value - it is not like it is going to drop by another ~$500 or so, at worse, you might lose another $100. $100 for owning a phone for another year is a very good deal.

 

[skiltrip]

$800 iPhone 6. I got $500 for it a year later. $300 loss is pretty significant. I'd definitely stand to lose a little less if I was using Nexus devices instead.

 

[rillrill]

personally, i think the iPhone market is flooded, and i think people are crazy if they want to keep selling their iPhone a year later. yeah, you'll make some money back, but unless you find a gullible buyer, its not like the old days. I'm happy there are jump programs out there. it takes the hassle out of trying to sell every year.

 

[aneftp]

Exactly! I lost $559 in my case, which seems like a lot. There's not a single Android phone with which you can loose that much after 12 months.

Sure.

Than the $700 Galaxy s5 I purchased last year plus my $120 I paid for insurance. That's $820. And it only sells for $200. So I guess I lost $620 on the Galaxy s5.

That's an android phone that's lost more value. And that's just the base model Galaxy s5.

You didn't buy the base iPhone model.

If you purchased base model iPhone u would have lost less than $559.

 

[SeilerBird]

I bought my iPhone 6 in October of 2014 for $650 and sold it right before the 6s was announced for $539 on Amazon.

 

[aneftp]

$800 iPhone 6. I got $500 for it a year later. $300 loss is pretty significant. I'd definitely stand to lose a little less if I was using Nexus devices instead.

The nexus 4-5 you lost less since they were priced lower.

But people who paid full $639 for nexus 6 last year are losing their butts off resale. Most in my area (orlando) go for around $200 these days for nexus 6 mint.

Plus Amazon just had a Black Friday $199 for nexus 6 32gb brand new as well.

So people are bleeding with nexus 6 resale unless they got rid of it in October.

 

[Elisha]

The nexus 4-5 you lost less since they were priced lower.

But people who paid full $639 for nexus 6 last year are losing their butts off resale. Most in my area (orlando) go for around $200 these days for nexus 6 mint.

Plus Amazon just had a Black Friday $199 for nexus 6 32gb brand new as well.

So people are bleeding with nexus 6 resale unless they got rid of it in October.

Not to mention the Nexus 6 is the least desirable Nexus ever made based on its size and price!

 

[CE3]

iPhones and Apple products in general still have a much higher resale value than most of the competition. Other people in this thread have already stated the average selling prices on Swappa being higher and getting considerably more money for their iPhones than you did. If my 6S+ stays in excellent condition and I decide to sell it next year, I'll probably price it around 700-750, and I bet it will sell. But even if I only get 600, that still means the next time around I only have to pay about $400 for 128GB Plus vs. $1000, and even less if I choose the 64GB or 4.7 display. To me, that's reasonable.

 

[the caveman]

Sold my white 6 plus two months ago for 600 in a day