Everything you need to know to get the best price you can when selling your current iPhone for cash or credit to put towards a brand new iPhone 5S or iPhone 5C.
If you’re itching to buy a brand new iPhone 5S or iPhone 5C the minute it hits store shelves but find yourself not eligible for an upgrade, or without enough cash to justify purchasing it without a subsidy, selling your old iPhone can help offset most, if not all of the cost. But before you put it up for sale or trade it in, there are some steps you should take to make sure you get the most money for your old iPhone.
Preparing to sell your iPhone
Before actually placing a listing for your iPhone, there are a few things you should consider before starting to put for sale ads up on the internet that can help you fetch a higher price tag.
Clean it up and take great pictures
iPhones hold their value rather well as long as you take care of them. If you’ve taken excellent care of your iPhone you can probably get a little more for it than someone else who is trying to sell off a banged up old iPhone. First of all, clean it up. Make sure you remove any surface dirt and get any gunk or lint out of the corners, crevices, and ports as you can. It doesn’t matter how great your iPhone works if it looks like crap, you won’t get the best price.
The key to making a quick sale is to make sure you’re honest and open about the condition of your iPhone. To make sure you are representing your product, take high quality pictures of the actual iPhone and avoid stock images at all costs. Many buyers will skip over listings that have stock images in them and only buy from sellers that include pictures of the actual iPhone. If there are any minor scratches or nicks, photograph those too. Buyers like honest sellers and it helps build trust.
Include accessories and original cables
If you’ve got the original cables and accessories that came with your iPhone, that’s a great selling point. If you have the original box it came in, that’s even better. For an even quicker sale, you can include some accessories or cases you’ve purchased for it over time. If you’re upgrading from an iPhone 4S or older, cases and chargers won’t be compatible so throw them in to sweeten the deal and sell your iPhone faster.
Unlock your iPhone
If you’ve got an iPhone that’s unlocked, it will most likely sell a lot quicker. AT&T and some other carriers will unlock out of contract iPhones so if you’re out of contract you may be able to just call your carrier and request an unlock.
If you aren’t out of contract, you may still be able to unlock it through jailbreaking with the help of a tool like evasi0n. This will depend on which model iPhone you have and what firmware you’re running so make sure your iPhone can be unlocked before attempting it.
Even if you can’t unlock your iPhone, jailbroken iPhones and ones that can be jailbroken tend to fetch a higher dollar amount than ones that can’t. So be ready to answer that question if a seller asks if the iPhone can be jailbroken. Check out the following links for more information and help with jailbreaking and unlocking.
- Everything you need to know about jailbreaking and unlocking
- Jailbreak and unlock discussion forums
Putting your iPhone up for sale
