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Think twice about where you sell your old iPhone

Published Aug 26th, 2014 2:40PM EDT
Best iPhone Trade-In Deals
Image: Zach Epstein, BGR

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The Wall Street Journal

 has come up with a handy guide to reselling your old iPhone before splurging on a new model. For comparison purposes, all prices are for 16GB models, though phones with more memory will naturally command a higher value. In all the WSJ’s study came up with some fascinating results.

FROM EARLIER: Incredible trade-in deal could net you $350 to spend on the iPhone 6

It’s interesting that among sites offering cash, Glyde consistently pays more than Gazelle or Next Worth. For an older model like iPhone 5, the Glyde premium is roughly $50 for Verizon or AT&T models. But for T-Mobile models, the premium suddenly jumps to $100 over what Gazelle or Next Worth yield. For the relatively new T-Mobile iPhone 5s, Glyde actually pays about $150 more than its rivals. So T-Mobile customers should be particularly nitpicky over where they sell their older iPhones.

The same pattern persists with reselling options like Apple, Walmart, Target and Amazon, which offer gift cards rather than cash for used models. For an AT&T, Verizon or Sprint iPhone 5s, Amazon offers $100 to $125 better deals than Walmart or Target. But with a T-Mobile iPhone 5s, the Amazon premium stretches to $125 to $150 over what Walmart or Target yield.

Interestingly, the rather new but more affordable iPhone 5c can actually generate bigger payoff gaps than the pricier iPhone 5s when it comes to Verizon. Amazon pays $150 more for a Verizon iPhone 5c than Walmart, a surprisingly large chasm.

In general, the WSJ study found larger differences between resale prices than you would have expected. For aging models like the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s, the gaps are negligible, but with iPhones launched in 2013 or 2012, it pays to do the background research before unloading the old model.

Check out the WSJ’s full guide by clicking the source link below.

After launching mobile game company SpringToys tragically early in 2000, Tero Kuittinen spent eight years doing equity research at firms including Alliance Capital and Opstock. He is currently an analyst and VP of North American sales at mobile diagnostics and expense management Alekstra, and has contributed to TheStreet.com, Forbes and Business 2.0 Magazine in addition to BGR.