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I'm not defending Apple or their trade in policy but I just priced out trading in my iPhone 7 on Gazelle and several similar and they don't come close to what Apple says they will give for the trade in. Mine is in excellent shape, powers up fine and no cracks or scratches. Apple says they will "give" 150 for that. Gazelle $88 and the highest I have found to sell is $110. I'm open to the option of trading it in for a new phone however I am also considering keeping it to give to my elderly parents who current use a Flip Tracphone or keep as a backup. Apple is talking about being good to the environment and recycling but are people really throwing away old iPhones?
 
I'm not defending Apple or their trade in policy but I just priced out trading in my iPhone 7 on Gazelle and several similar and they don't come close to what Apple says they will give for the trade in. Mine is in excellent shape, powers up fine and no cracks or scratches. Apple says they will "give" 150 for that. Gazelle $88 and the highest I have found to sell is $110. I'm open to the option of trading it in for a new phone however I am also considering keeping it to give to my elderly parents who current use a Flip Tracphone or keep as a backup. Apple is talking about being good to the environment and recycling but are people really throwing away old iPhones?

"Apple is talking about being good to the environment and recycling but are people really throwing away old iPhones?"

I don't think so. They certainly retain their value better than other phones. And I'm keeping my 6+ as a backup as it is still useful as a wifi-only device for reading the news, internet browsing, controlling my home automation stuff, etc. I've also handed down phones as they're still useful. Apple does recycle parts and materials out of turned-in phone that have no customer-value.

All in all, Apple is running a good program. The only issue I see is the perpetual Apple-is-evil crowd have to try extra hard getting frothed up attempting to make Apple's program out to be bad.
 
I'll continue to use Swappa to sell my old devices before I even consider going to Apple to trade an old iPhone, iPad, etc.

Wake me up when Apple decides to offer customers fair value for their old/used products.
 
Would I be better off or worse off trading in my XR for an 11. I’m paying under iPhone payments. Would they pay off the loan and open a new one or do something different? I’d sort of like to know before going to the store and getting the ever increasing pressure pitch if possible.
 
It seems like on iPhone trade ins they offer the same value no matter what size storage your device has.. so it may be "okay-ish" if you have the base model. You'd be getting rekt if you traded in a 512gb iPhone.... ouch 😳

This is exactly right. I had an iPhone XR base model. They offered me $370 for the trade in going towards my iPhone 11 Pro. Looking on eBay and Swappa they were going for around $400 maybe a little more. For eBay the difference would be wiped out by sellers fees and PayPal fees. Swappa would have been a better return but the convenience factor of the Apple store was worth it to me. However, that price for the XR was the same no matter what storage option there was. I now have a 256GB iPhone 11 Pro and I won't be trading it in to Apple for that reason.
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Would I be better off or worse off trading in my XR for an 11. I’m paying under iPhone payments. Would they pay off the loan and open a new one or do something different? I’d sort of like to know before going to the store and getting the ever increasing pressure pitch if possible.

You would start a new iPhone agreement. You basically just leased your XR for a year.
 
This forum seems overly fearful of eBay. Just buy from and sell to reputable users with good feedback and you'll be fine. I rarely ever have bad experiences with it. In fact eBay often has things that Amazon doesn't and at better prices. You can save so much money buying new but open box stuff.

Just sell to reputable users? How do I do that? I don't get to pick who wins.

Yes, there is the "Buyer Requirements" page, but that's so limited it is useless.
 
Watch trade-ins are the really insulting one though. $100 for an S4 when it's worth $400 on the used market.
I was about to say that it's a joke, but you're right, it's plain insulting.
Here in Europe S4 retailed at €450 and Apple offers €60. Seriously.
 
What percentage of apple customers ever step foot in an apple store? Maybe 30%? That would mean 10% of apple customers...

I never have been to an apple store, and i probably never will. It is just a shrine to the ideology of apple.... i mean, just look at their renderings they publish when they open a new store! Reality just isnt like that!

Their ‘shrines’ are the most valuable retail space in the world.
 
Everyone who thinks this is a ripoff seems to mistakenly think that selling and trading-in are the same thing. That is not a fair comparison. When selling, you take the risk, you make the effort, and in some cases like Ebay you also pay multiple fees. There is also cost associated with packing and shipping. If you aren't already an established seller (zero feedback), it's even more effort and/or less value. If you use Craigslist, there is additional physical risk, and inconvenience risk from things like a no-show. I know this from experience as a seller.

When trading in, all of that goes away.

So is Apple's program a ripoff or not? The best way to tell is to compare fairly, i.e., check Apple's trade-in value against the value offered from competing trade-in services.

I checked mine (iPhone 8, 64BG, AT&T) just now, at Apple and competing trade-in programs. Apple made the best offer.

Here are the results in order from highest to lowest:

Apple:
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Walmart/CExchange:
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Best Buy:
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Gazelle:
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Nextworth:
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I've never used their trade-in program, but like the poster above I found that Apple gave the best price for my (unlocked) AT&T 256GB iPhone X. I don't have any particular interest in selling it on eBay and really can't imagine getting more than $400 from Craigslist/Marketplace. Where are you guys selling these?

Edited to add: Hmm, apparently $550-600 is the going rate on Marketplace so I may have to change my way of thinking.
 
I'm not sure what Timmy is trying to say or what he means by 1/3rd, but it's pretty obviously bulls***.

I mean let's say even 100% of iPhone sales were to people trading in, what about all the visitors who are just there to browse? What about all the people buying macs, or iPads or accessories? Those are also Apple store visitors. What about people there for the genius bar and repairs? Apple spent 5 years under the Ahrendts dynasty trying to turn their stores into social hub destinations. Surely they're bringing in plenty of visitors who aren't there to trade in an iPhone.

Who knows what Timmy was trying to say, but the sewage spewing from his mouth has gotten so thick, he doesn't even know how to check if it passes an initial sanity check first.

Cook is talking about the people coming in specifically to look at getting a new iPhone. Those people are offered a trade-in price, and 1/3rd accept. The MR article doesn't provide that context, but the original interview does.
 
I would agree with you, except I think right to repair is complete joke. To me thats a very political, amateurish standpoint that is negated by engineering knowledge. To suggest that a company should change their design practices or product development around some generic concept of "repairability" is frankly a joke.
Yeah, I don't believe that a company should change its design practices around a generic concept of repairability, however, a company should not intentionally implement software or hardware solutions that prevent people from repairing their devices.

A perfect example would be non-OEM apple screens or batteries. If there is an application to reset that message, repair shops should be able to obtain it without having to abide by some BS anti-repair corporate policy that says you can't desolder a bad chip and solder a new one on.

I do believe that a company that touts how environmentally woke they are should not manufacture their devices in China let alone prevent repair shops from repairing a device.

Have you seen Linus trying to pay to get his iMac Pro fixed? Apple would not only not repair it at cost to him, but they also would not provide him with the parts [keep in mind he wanted to pay to get it fixed or a least get the parts]. They refused flat out saying he would have to buy a new device.
 
I used the trade-in option with my carrier Telus in Canada. I got $430 CDN for my Xs. My new phone is the 11 Pro Max. It is $1,500 CDN in Canada.
 
Just as is the case with extended warranties, if it was in the consumer’s best interest to trade in their phone then neither Apple nor anyone else would offer it to you.
 
Here’s an article that sheds some light on how the trade in programme works.


It basically helps Apple sell more iPhones while providing them with a steady supply of second-hand iPhones that they can resell in the gray market. This in turn helps Apple continue to grow their installed base, which as you can see, is crucial to aiding its services and wearables push.

Wasn’t so long ago that users were claiming that Apple needed to offer cheaper iPhones. What Apple has done here solves a similar issue, while allowing it to maintain its margins. Quite the win-win situation here.
 
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This trade-in is ridicolous and people that do this it's even more ridicolous. I just checked how much is valued my imac late 2015 (3rd option, the "high-end" one): 370€! It's sold everywhere for around 1200-1300€. if i sell it for, let's say, 700€ i'll have more people in front of my house than apple stores at dayone of a new iphone. Considering these news and people above, that even confirm this, i'm no longer so surprised that not-apple users consider apple-users, stupid persons...
 
I still don't understand how Apple is making money on these trade ins. I mean, I just traded in my XS Max for 11 Pro Max. I figured my XS max still has $700 left to pay off, but Apple took it back no problem. So I guess they are turning around and selling my XS Max for a profit, but I don't see where Apple is selling used XS Max's to people.

Same where porn shops do...? ebay? (not the ones your thinking)

I think even Cash Converters do that..
 
If Apple would have a minimum trade-in price like say $25-50, I would happily trade in some old devices on something new. As it is, the small amount of use I get out of the devices is better than the nothing Apple would give me. They could get a lot of material to recycle.
I just found an iPad 1st and 2nd gen in an old box...I could probably get the latest phone for close to $0 if they gave me $50 for every old Apple device...
 
This benefits to nobody but Apple:
- Customers get from Apple less value compared to selling their used devices.
- Apple reduces the used devices market, which is "dangerous" as erodes value on new devices.
- Apple gets more profit.
The benefit to everyone other than Apple: You get money for your old phone without having to go on eBay and handle the time wasters and scammers there. On the other hand you are free to do the extra work and get a bit more money.
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I want a trade-in program for AirPods. New AirPods "Pro" coming soon? Needs a trade in, otherwise I'm just throwing these garbage ones in the trash.
I wouldn’t want to buy something that you stuck in your ears. And you can return them to Apple who will make sure they get disposed of in the most environmentally friendly way possible instead of polluting the environment.
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Apple’s market doesn’t want to upgrade their hardware. They just want to use their phones and move on with their lives.
Apple’s market upgrades by buying a better phone. The clever ones will sell the old phone or hand it down to someone with less money.
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APPLE 🍏 = CHICKENS 🐥



So, when finally will we Apple dare (as first large manufacturer) focus on the EMF-radiation from mobile phones, antennas, wi-fi, Bluetooth (etc.) resp. SAR-levels of iPhones (etc.) trying to create smartphones (etc.) with the lowest radiation/SAR-levels.
Apple doesn’t try to appeal to anti-vaxers and similar people.
 
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They charge $1000 for a monitor stand and we've still got people here trying to twist things to explain what good value that is. SMH.
They charge $1000 for a monitor stand worth $1000, intended for a $5000 monitor that is cheap for its intended market. You are not the intended market.
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The same trade-in program that offers 0 € for my 7 with 128 GB but at least doesn't charge me for recycling my "old" device for me. What a joke.
Strange. I was offered £110 for a 6+.
 
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