Where to Get the Most Cash for Your Old iPhone

Every time the latest version of a smartphone or tablet arrives, a new market for the previous models arrives too. Some buyers hope they can get decent used smartphones for less money than brand-new ones, and others think the latest version is too small an upgrade to justify the higher price. If you strategize well, you can sell your old phone on this secondary market for a surprising amount of cash. But before you can sell it, you have to get it ready for its new owner by backing it up, erasing your data, and restoring the factory settings. To boost the phone's resale value, you might also consider using Ultrasn0w (a program available on iphone-dev.org) to unlock it so that it can work on different carriers. Unlocking is legal but won't work on all phones?Verizon and Sprint devices, which operate on the CDMA network, can't be unlocked to work on AT&T and T-Mobile's GSM networks and vice versa. Finally, box up the phone in whatever original packaging you have left so it looks as close to new as possible.

Some electronics stores, among them Apple and RadioShack, have trade-in programs, and many websites serve as go-betweens for you and potential buyers. For gadgets such as the iPhone that cause near mayhem when new models come out, you need not look any further than Craigslist, where a few sentences including the state of your phone, your asking price, and any extra features?an intact warranty, for instance?will be enough to flood your inbox with emails from interested (and nearby) buyers. As of this writing, a 16 GB black AT&T iPhone 4 could fetch about $150.

Electronics more than one or two generations older than the current version are tougher sells, but it's certainly not impossible. Amazon, Best Buy, and Gazelle all have programs that let you trade your gadgets in exchange for gift certificates. You rate the condition of your phone?perfect, good, or mediocre?then send it in for the service to verify your judgment and to receive a gift card. With Amazon's exchange service, if the phone is worth more than what you guessed, you'll get a gift certificate for the higher amount, and if you overestimated, Amazon gives you the option of taking the lower amount or not selling at all. Though all three programs are nearly identical in process, they aren't in results: At press time, Amazon offers the most for a 16 GB black AT&T iPhone 4?a "like new" phone will get you $170 and a "good" one goes for $145. Best Buy offers slightly lower amounts?$152 for "perfect" and $145 for "good." Gazelle is the cheapskate of the group, offering just $145 for a "flawless" phone and $140 for a "good" one. Prices are bound to fluctuate as new models arrive, so it's still important to check all your options before choosing one.

The same services will work for much more than iPhones. If you have something really old, though, you might be better off giving eBay a shot. There, an obsolete-technology collector may be just the match for your old Walkman.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/tips/where-to-get-the-most-cash-for-your-old-iphone-14784863?src=rss

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