How to sell an old iPhone

Do you want to sell your old iPhone for the possibility of you buy one of the new iPhone 12 ?. If so, you probably want to know how much they’ll give you for your old iPhone before you sell it on the used market, or hand it over for a discount on the new purchase.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the iPhone selling options that will give you an idea of ​​how much money you can make from selling your old iPhone. We also offer some tips for preparing your iPhone for sale so that your data is not exposed.

Finally, we talked about the methods to recycle an old iPhone. Without a doubt, a great idea to adopt measures that are beneficial for the environment and so that you can get some kind of discount on the purchase of your new iPhone.

Also take a look at our new iPhone buying guide.

Prepare your iPhone for sale

Before proceeding with the sale of your iPhone, you should make sure that you have deleted everything stored on it in order to prevent the person who buys it from having access to your confidential data or certain applications. Appreciate the fact that this could turn into fraud or theft of credentials and identity.

Cleaning an Apple device is a fairly straightforward process that we explain in our article on how to restore iPhone or iPad to factory settings.

We advise you not to risk selling your iPhone with the data intact and the apps in your associated account ID, even if you think the data itself increases the value of the device. This could lead to short and long term problems.

There have been cases like when the Flappy Bird game was removed from the iOS app store in 2014, and users started selling older iPhones for higher prices on eBay, announcing that they had installed the game.)

An app or game may seem like innocent software that cannot be exploited, but it will be logged in and associated with your Apple account, which for a smart hacker could become a key tool for accessing your data.

You’ll also want to collect all the cables, chargers, cases, and accessories that you have from the iPhone. Make sure you specify what the iPhone comes with in terms of cables and packaging, especially if you sell it on eBay. It all adds up at the time of the sale to get a better valuation.

The best places to sell an iPhone

At this point, as expected, the better you’ve treated your iPhone, the higher the price you can get from selling it. Good photos posted on the buy and sell portals will get many more people to contact us.

Keep in mind that there are a lot of users who are willing to bid or buy a new iPhone, but there are also a lot of offers, other users who, like you, want to sell theirs for acquire a new model of new generation.

Keep in mind that only the new generation iPhone 12 supports 5G connectivity, so if this turns out to be a big deal for you for some reason, the entire lineup of previous iPhones are excluded from this feature.

You must know that your own Apple also offers a program called “Trade In” With which the delivery of your old device is encouraged in exchange for obtaining an Apple Store gift card for your next purchase with amounts up to 350 $.

The advantage offered by these renewal programs is that you can also finance the purchase of your new model, with an offer subject to prior authorization from Banco Cetelem if you buy it in Europe.

In the event that the iPhone is no longer valuable, Apple also promises to recycle it for free. It does not matter what model or state the product may be in, in order to follow the recycling processes in an environmentally friendly manner.

If you decide to bring your old iPhone to an official Apple Store, the usual procedure is for qualified store staff to review it to give you a rating based on the iPhone’s model, age, specifications. and its condition.

If you decide to use it, you will receive an Apple Store Gift Card to purchase your new model, or to use it as a balance to purchase any other device, accessory, or peripheral you can find in the Apple Store. .

Inside, what’s the sale online It is possible to choose two different modalities. On the one hand, you will find platforms or places like Wallapop, Milanuncios, Used apples O certificate where you can advertise the sale of your iPhone so that other people can contact you privately.

The other method is to go to the buy and sell pages as is. the case of CeX, in which after having carried out an expertise of your device, you have two possibilities. On the one hand, receive the money, for which you have expertise, or use it to buy another second-hand product, for which you benefit from more advantageous conditions.


There are places like iPhonePlace in which within a specific iPhone model, the buyer can check, at a glance, the different prices of a product depending on its condition.

If, for example, you are looking to buy a new iPhone SE, these are presented in five different categories of “Useful” as the cheapest option priced at 160 $, to ‘Magnifique’, the price of which would be much higher. In between, you have the Excellent, Privileged and Good range.

How much is your old iPhone worth?

The price you can get for selling a used iPhone depends on what model you own and where you sell it. Typically you will get more money from a private sale than from a store or service where they then give some guarantee to the new buyer.

In these cases, you can get a higher amount:

  • A new iPhone
  • A Pro, Plus or Max model (against the smaller phone of the same generation)
  • Big capacity. Models of 256 GB and above are rare compared to 32 GB or 64 GB.
  • A phone without superficial damage
  • An iPhone whose battery has been replaced in the official store

Original iPhone (1st generation)

Generally speaking, a smartphone that’s over ten years old isn’t worth selling, but the original iPhone has a nostalgia factor that can’t be matched by later models.


However, Apple seems to be in complete agreement with this policy, since if you enter the part number of a first generation iPhone, the company responds with the message “it has no resale value”. For these cases, it is better to search a collector on eBay.

iPhone 3G and 3GS

Unfortunately, the iPhone 3G and 3GS share the obsolescence of the original iPhone, so they can’t make up for that with the nostalgia factor. They will hardly generate any money for their sale.

iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s

Even the iPhone 4 is too old to attract most buyers. Stores like GAME offer an iPhone 4s trade-in value of just $ 30 for the iPhone 4 (in good condition), while Highest CEX Offers They can be bought for only 22 $ (in cash) or 32 $ (in coupons).

iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s

These are iPhone models that can no longer be updated to the latest version of iOS, thus losing some charm and value for users, despite its compact size which is still highly appreciated by a certain sector of users. .

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

Here the offer is very large and numerous, your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus must therefore be in very good condition if you want to derive added value. This is probably the generation that sells the most in the used market, so it will be difficult to get good pay.

iPhone 6s and 6s Plus

Models with 16GB of base memory are heavily undervalued, so you could get a little over $ 60 and $ 90 respectively. The camera thingbia if its capacity is greater, with which you can increase the figure above 100 $.

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus

It is known to all that Apple products tend to maintain their high value, and it is not for less in the models shown here. There is a big leap from the previous generation to this one, in which photography has made a pretty big leap in quality.

iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X

The chaos of Apple’s iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X is bigger. If your iPhone is one of these models, you can make a bit more money, especially if you’ve been careful and all of its accessories and packing box are in good condition.

How to recycle an old iPhone

Almost three years have passed since that introduction of the iPhone SE in which Apple spent a lot of time talking about its recycling programs, and in particular, using a new robotic system called Liam to take apart the old phones and facilitate component disassembly.

Years later, Liam was replaced by Daisy, which does essentially the same thing, but compatible with more modern generation iPhone models. This was announced during Apple’s iPhone XS presentation in September of last year.

Apple is committed to recycling each device it manufactures in case the user takes them to an Apple store. They do not need to be Apple branded: the company will dispose of “old electronic equipment such as smartphones, tablets, computers or batteries” responsibly and free of charge.

Obviously there will be exceptions to this offer, and if in doubt we suggest you call the store before lugging large material around the site, especially if your item is in high volume. You won’t want to take it home anymore.

For some iPhone models (as well as iPad and Mac), Apple offers a gift certificate so you can get cash on your next purchase.

So if you have an original iPhone, iPhone 3G, or iPhone 3GS in your possession, Apple will recycle your device, but will not offer any money back, with the incentive that you will have to bring it personally to a store. Apple.

Although we have already made it clear that devices from this era will not allow you to get a lot of money from the used market sale, unless they are in perfect condition, you may be able to. give a parent or give a second life as a music player or the like.

You can test by query if your iPhone is compatible with the latest version of iOS 14, for which it will surely be more valuable on the second-hand market, and if you really wanted to see massive performance improvements.

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