How You Can Sell Your Old Phone for the Most Money

Did anyone else hear that Apple has introduced a new iPhone? It happened yesterday, and it was one of the worst kept secrets in America for the past few weeks. The company that famously invented the iPhone is now introducing a newer, better, probably much larger so you’ll need a new car kind of phone that will do everything but change the baby’s diaper, and that means the iPhone 6 Plus we’ve all had for just a few months now obsolete. I mean, we don’t want to have a phone that’s almost the same but so much less cool, right? Right; because that would be the worst thing that ever happened (and really, I say that with sarcasm as if I’m not going to look into the new phone myself).

The point is that the new iPhone announcement just made your newest but not the newest anymore iPhone pretty much worthless. It’s not totally worthless, but it is kind of worthless. At this point in time, the iPhone 4 is totally useless, the iPhone 5 family is 89% useless and now the 6 family is working its way toward ‘old and haggard’ over the coming weeks. What this means for us is that we have to find a way to get rid of the 6 and 6 Plus phones we have in our handbags now so that we can all get the new phone. But how do we do that for a good price? Let me tell you a few ways you can sell your old iPhone for as much as possible.

Sell it now

Now that the announcement has been made, it’s going to mean your phone is worth a lot less. However, you’re going to get more selling it right now that you will if you wait until the new phone is unveiled. This means you need to get on it and sell, sell, sell. It might mean you have to use an old phone for a few weeks until the new iPhone is released amongst the long lines and all that jazz, but we have to say that if you want the best price available for your current and now old phone, now is the time to sell. Don’t wait. The longer you wait to sell, the less it will be worth as more and more people start selling their own 5’s and 6’s once the new one is released. If you’re able to go without your phone for a bit, you can do this and make a killing.

Talk to your wireless provider

Oftentimes your wireless provider is willing and happy to buy your old phone from you, but it’s not always for the highest price. Your best bet, right now, is to talk to them and see what they’re willing to buy it for. Some companies are offering more than others, but you have to check around to find out what is the most cost-effective way to go about this process. Additionally, you’re going to want to hold onto that number for a bit while you compare prices elsewhere.

Look into a gift card program

There are gift card programs everywhere, but you have to find them in your area. One that is everywhere in the country right now is the Walmart Gift Card program called Gadget’s to Gift Cards. Essentially, you can log into the website and see what you can get for a phone that you have lying around so that you can sell it and earn some cash for it. You’ll answer a few questions, follow the instructions and then you will see what the company has to offer you in terms of your own gift card amount. It might be more than others, and it might not be.

Gazelle.com

This is a great site, especially since they promise to give more for 5 and 6 models than your carrier will give you. You can log onto the site right now to see what your phone is worth and whether or not it is worth it to you to send it in to them. The thing you have to be very careful of here is that they will not always give you the price that they promise up front. You will see that there is a little notation that states they will give you “UP TO” the amount stated, and that ‘up to’ means that they can lower the price once they receive the device since it might have some issues that you were unaware of. The good news is that the company does provide another price to customers called the “at least” price, which is the minimum they will give you if you send you phone into them and it’s not as perfect as they had hoped. This price is still usually better than your wireless carrier.

Check local stores

There are plenty of stores across the country, in local areas and in some regions that will buy back used electronics for a nice price. One near my home is called Re-Tech and they will buy back phones at a nice price. Last year, my husband and I had a number of iPhone 4 phones lying around after we’d already upgraded to 5 models and realized that we had all these phones lying around and we knew we’d both go with the 6 when it came out. That’s when we took the phones there and sold them for a profit – and it was a nice one. They bought these phones for more than anyone else and they gave us cash on the spot that we were able to stick into our savings account for a rainy day.

Depending on where you live, the phones you have and what condition they are in, there is no telling how much you might get back or which method might be the most profitable for you. However, it does not hurt to spend your time doing a little research and understanding what’s been offered to you for your phone.

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