Tips And Methods For Buying And Selling Your iPhone

With a new iPhone launch, as in new availability, there is going to be a need for certain users to sell their current device in order to afford a new one and those looking to find a worthy deal from the former group. Here are some quick suggestions and resources to help you accomplish both tasks. I'm going to begin with the selling and trade-in portion, as that will setup some of the information relevant for buying an iPhone; mainly prices. It goes without saying, but I'll speak of the basics anyway. Damage, normal "wear and tear," lack of original accessories, jailbroken, and unlocked all play significant factors in the demand price. Another obvious tidbit is to read all terms and conditions carefully. Selling For those moving from another carrier to Verizon, the Verizon Wireless Trade-In Program fetches a decent value. Likely the easiest way to dump that iPhone with the transition. As with most business offered programs, it should go quite painlessly. Verizon offers trade-ins for a lot of brands and models but here are a few appraisals for iPhone models. The terms and conditions seem fairly vague. Basically, if you lie about your device condition, you'll be offered a lot less to nothing. Verizon allows a person to either donate the device or trade it in for a Verizon Wireless gift card. Verizon advises users to delete all personal data, send the device within 30 days of submission, and no turning back (your device won't be returned to you). • iPhone 4 32GB - from $93 to $265 • iPhone 4 16GB - from $74 to $210 • iPhone 3GS 32GB - from $42 to $120 • iPhone 3GS 16GB - from $35 to $100 • iPhone 3GS 8GB - from $27 to $75 Next, I'll highlight a company called BuyMyTronics. They have typical terms of contacting you when the price quote, after analysis, is significantly different and offer to return your item. The company is an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau with a rating of "A". BuyMyTronics has a much more detailed condition identification system than Verizon. This should make for a much more accurate quote, at least if the information is provided honestly. • iPhone 4 32GB - from $27 to $401 • iPhone 4 16GB - from $26 to $322 • iPhone 3GS 32GB - from $12 to $166 • iPhone 3GS 16GB - from $10 to $159 • iPhone 3GS 8GB - from $10 to $144 Many may have heard of the "cash for gadgets" site Gazelle.com. Gazelle is another BBB Accredited business with an "A+" rating. Once again, pretty standard conditions to be followed. Gazelle drops back to a much more vague condition submission process including questions of general condition, mandatory accessories, and whether your iDevice's water damage indicators have been 'tripped'. • iPhone 4 32GB - from $60 to $420 • iPhone 4 16GB - from $50 to $360 • iPhone 3GS 32GB - from $30 to $180 • iPhone 3GS 16GB - from $25 to $165 • iPhone 3GS 8GB - from $20 to $145 Who could forget about eBay? The online auction site is noted to be one of the best avenues to get the highest price for your gadgets. Averaging about 40 recently completed auctions earlier today, the price for a 32GB iPhone 4 came out to be around $525 and a 16GB iPhone 4 appeared to fetch around $300. That's not bad but eBay's, including the eBay owned PayPal, fees have climbed significantly over the years. eBay's policies have shifted a lot to protecting the buyer much more than the seller, which I can unfortunately attest to personally experiencing. However, I did notice something interesting on eBay's homepage. Cash in to Get an iPhone on Verizon appears to be a team effort of eBay with certain resellers -- probably PowerSellers -- that are offering to buy up tons of iPhones for their inventory to auction and sell off. This program is even guaranteeing a $200 minimum offer from a reseller for a fully functional and reasonable condition newer smartphone, if you participate before February 23, 2011. • iPhone 4 32GB - from $46 to $511 • iPhone 4 16GB - from $36 to $405 • iPhone 3GS 32GB - from $24 to $200 • iPhone 3GS 16GB - from $18 to $200 • iPhone 3GS 8GB - from $14 to $200 Last, but not least, the face-to-face intended classifieds Craigslist.org. Craigslist's advantage is allowing you to make a transaction with local sellers and, therefore, be able to inspect a product before ever handing over the cash. Browsing of two Craigslist locations showed 32GB iPhone 4s being priced from $600 to $1,050 and the 16GB version from about $250 to $500. Craigslist certainly has its downsides, such as no hints of how many sellers actually got offered even near of what they were asking. A serious reminder when selling face-to-face: safety. It really should seem extremely obvious but some go far beyond simple scamming. Telling someone that you'll have a $599+ item in your possession is a huge temptation. I won't pretend to be your parent but plan appropriately. I'll have more suggestions for Craigslist use in the Buying section. Buying After checking out the selling portion of this article, you should have an idea of what these electronics have for a demand, as far as price goes. Although, you're looking for a "deal," right? Many sales will be from iPhone users desperately seeking to leave AT&T while still being under contract, so they'll be attempting to recoup as much as possible from selling the phone. Their desperation may get the best of them, where you can make a tempting enough offer. One of those ways, if you're a currently satisfied AT&T customer or could utilize the service, would be to offer a compensation by taking over the remainder of their contract responsibilities. If you're really clever, perhaps finding some other way to save the seller money and preventing an early termination fee will ease the price greed. Speaking of Craigslist buying tips, Gizmodo ran an article throwing out their own suggestions. The primary point is to test everything: all buttons, the entire screen, both standard speaker and earpiece speaker, Wi-Fi, make a call, camera, etc. Bryan also suggests asking and checking if it has been jailbroken / unlocked and if either the headphone or Dock connector water damage indicators have turned red. All of these are very good pointers, and should be done with any sale. As far as any classifieds and auction sites go, there are a few other things for you to mind. Bryan suggests that you could ask the seller if returning the item is possible, but most "sales are final." Despite most face-to-face transaction sellers requiring cash; take as many notes and leave as much as possible about the scenario as possible for proof. Most honest sellers won't have any gripes against providing any reasonable information and making acceptable compromises. Do you have any further buying and selling tips or suggestions of good used avenues for purchasing and selling electronic gadgets?

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