How much is your old iPhone worth?
On eBay today there are thousands of unlocked first-generation iPhones being offered for sale — individually or in lots of 10 or 20 or more — for prices ranging from about $450 to $700 per 16 GB phone.
But if you want to sell yours, you’d better move fast, say people familiar with the business of buying and selling used iPhones.
“I think the eBay market is going to dry up pretty quickly,” says Aaron Vronko, service manager for Rapid Repair, an iPod and iPhone service bureau in Kalamazoo, Mich. “The market is very different today than it is going to be a month from now.”
What’s changing is Apple’s (AAPL) new iPhone 3G, which goes on sale on July 11 for $199 (8GB) and $299 (16GB) in the U.S. and is being offered for free or nearly so in Europe (see here).
As Engadget’s iPhone 3G FAQ puts it: “The funny thing about a $200 3G iPhone is that it makes it pretty difficult to sell your original iPhone.”
Engadget suggests that if you don’t know someone who doesn’t need 3G, you might want to keep your old iPhone as a backup or unlock it for use overseas with another carrier’s SIM card.
Gizmodo’s FAQ points out that your old iPhone will still work as a cheap iPod touch, even after the SIM card has been removed. “Everything but the calling features should be active, except it will say ‘No SIM’ at the top.”
Rapid Repair’s Vronko thinks there will be a significant after market in these re-purposed iPhones. “The original iPhone is a really capable off-network device. It’s got a more powerful processor than the iPod touch, a speaker, a microphone, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth headset support. If you unlock that iPhone and get a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) client, you might even be able to use it as a phone.
So what can you get for your old iPhone today?
If you don’t want to take your chances on eBay or Craigslist, there are any number of resellers that will take it off your hands. BuyMyTronics.com, for example, will give you an immediate quote based your answers to their online form. For a 16GB iPhone in good condition with the box intact and all the extras (including working earbuds), they’ll pay $190.92.
That’s if you sell it today. After July 11, all bets are off.
Rapid Repair, which has been buying broken iPhones and refurbishing them for resale abroad, hasn’t set its post July 11 price, but it’s looking at somewhere between $50 and $75 for a working phone.
With 6 million first-generation iPhones out there, many of them purchased by early adopters who will want to upgrade to 3G, Vronko is pretty confident he’ll get thousands of takers.
I had T-Mobile service for a couple of years, worked fine. Gave it up for the iPhone and AT&T. Big mistake! My work area had lousy service, about half the calls either did not go through, or disconnected. Cancelled service, went back to T-mobile, returned phones. Would buy a Gen 1 iPhone and connect it to T-Mobile if they do come down, no sign of it yet.
San Francisco: Wow, I just love the way Apple stiffs it’s most loyal customers. First a massive price drop, now a huge overall of the iPhone.
Apple stiffing users??
Somehow I don’t feel that and I’m happy to buy an 8gb iPhone 1.0 which I just sold at eBay for $450, now I’m ready to buy the 16gb for $100 less :D. Letting me sell used Apple products at a profit or slightly less than the original price cannot be matched by any other brand that I’m aware of.
Apparently Baltimore, MD doesnt know the cellular world.I work for a carrier (selling cellular for 13+ years) and right now the ETF is $175 and there are no other fees.You have been reading to many BS stories on the net or just misinformed..
How is APPL stiffing their customers? Does every company do this, is that computer, flat-screen tv, cell phone that you or others bought last year cost the same this year? Doesn’t this years technology offer more than last years in all products? I’ve never bought any technology and the following year the company kept prices the same and offered the same tech on it. People who bought CD-burners, DVD players, etc first generation paid a premium over those who waited. Even car makers add new features from year to year, the below post is ridiculous and the commenter is a moron!!
I’m still waiting for a 32gb iPhone, 16gb just isn’t enough for me. But I definitely plan to buy one, 32gb Steve - come on.
Wow, I just love the way Apple stiffs it’s most loyal customers. First a massive price drop, now a huge overall of the iPhone.
The impending glut of used iPhones is probably Steve’s most incredible stroke of genius to date.
What better way to enlist new customers than to make that shiny new model cheap (conveniently at the end of a 1 year contract)
I’ve already pledged my old iphone to my assistant, who would have never been able to afford one at the original price. Apple and AT&T will see a huge bump in users.
But time will tell
has anyone heard anything bout the rebate apple is offering people who bought the 1 st generation iphone. i think its only after a certain date but i dont know the date or the actual rebate…also rumors might get free 3g iphone for trade in.
ex ped: Rebate if you bought after May 27, as I recall.
If you are not dying to be on the cutting edge and you want a deal the 2.5g iphone can be a great deal.
You get data + 200 SMS for $20/m. If you get the iphone for $80, you are paying $520 for 24 months of iPhone use over your regular phone bill.
The 3g costs you $35/month for the same level of service plus $200 for the device. Over 24 months you pay $1040 - twice as much for faster connectivity and on-board GPS.
Personally I’d rather keep my original and keep my cheapo plan for now.
the comment from Portland, OR obviously shows think doesn’t know anything about cellphone contracts. If you terminated an contract early, not only do you have to pay an early termination fee, but you also have to pay back the subsidy for the phone and a host of processing fees. Trust me, it’s very costly to get out an contract.
So the real math is $199 (upfront) + $200 (subsidy) + another $200 (early termination fee) + $50 - 100 (processing/credit check fee) = $649 - 699. Way more than the phone itself is worth.
One reason that the current version of the iPhone is not going to go down in price is because it is unlockable and usable on T-Mobile’s network. The 3G iPhone will not be compatible with T-Mobile’s 3G network (different frequencies). Plus, AT&T is going to force you into signing up for the 2 year contract. And I have heard that the termination fee is going to be higher for the iPhone.
Iphone 1 will drop in price.
Iphone 3G will be unlocked within 1 month of release as it did with the first phone.
What is all this non-sense about being tied into ATT for 2 yrs???? Let see, you buy the phone at $199 and sign your agreement for 2 yrs. Unlock the phone and break the contract and pay $200 or $240 to ATT. Now you are free with your iphone 3G.
$199 (299)+ $200 early termination+ $399 ($499)…it’s actually cheaper than the 1st Iphone.
Yes, I use my 1st gen. iPhone to surf at home all the time, works great and is money on the FiOS.
“does a first gen iphone safari surf with wi-fi?”
Original iPhones CAN be upgraded to iPhone v2.0 software. That gives them the ability to play all the games, run all the other applications, etc… that will be available on the new app store. This store will sell programs of all sorts, approved by apple, virus free, etc… It will work a lot like the iTunes store, and wirelessly.
You can’t get on the 3G network for very fast surfing over the 3G cell network. The original iPhone will still work, but on the slower 2.5G cell network, or any open WIFI network (wireless computer network– “802.11g”) which is faster than ANY cell network, including 3G.
So the original iPhone is FAR FAR from obsolete. It trumps any other phone, and probably at some point will be worth FAR more than the 3G iPhone, since it’s an original. Keep the box, it will be worth a lot of money someday.
The old iPhone can be used as an iPod touch without a phone plan. You can use wifi for the internet. The App store will revolutionize the iPhone and iPod Touch. They will become portable game consoles and PDAs. All other competitiors will try to catch up.
I had no problem with Cingular and had fine reception, but after they merged with AT&T I almost felt compelled to bag on them and their reception just because It was the popular thing to do even though everything was the same.
Silly people.
Q: Does a first gen iphone safari surf with wi-fi? … A: Yes. Full Speed.
Oh tee hee,… you techies are too much. All I have to say to you is, “1001000010011100. 101110110. 110111011011110″
@ John Murray
T-Mobile and ATT use the same technology and share the same cell phone towers so one will never have better reception than the other.
The only valid reason to switch to T-mobile would be so that you didn’t have to purchase a data plan, plus you wouldn’t get visual voicemail.
I predict there will be a healthy market for older iPhones after July 11. The new 3G iPhones come with a two-year contract that’s hard to shake, so few of them will show up in the resale market. Unlocked older models are still very useful for people who don’t want an expensive data plan or live in places where the iPhone is not yet marketed. Most of the 6 million will find new homes.
@Christine there is no software upgrade that can make an old iPhone 3G. There is different wireless hardware in the new iPhones that lets them use the 3G network. Sorry!
dontbelieve all that u read
http://www.giftedtouch.com
ummm… no you can’t upgrade to 3G speeds using software. It requires a hardware chip to do so.
does a first gen iphone safari surf with wi-fi?
In response to Christine’s comment on why sell if they will be releasing software dr the old iPhones to bring them up to speed, the new software will allow them to support third party applications, but not 3G or GPS. That would require a hardware upgrade, not a software upgrade.
There is no magic software to get the phone to do 3G. The old iPhone s stuck on the edge network.
oops messed up the previous post.
On eBay today there are thousands of unlocked first-generation iPhones being offered for sale — individually or in lots of 10 or 20 or more — for prices ranging from about $450 to $700 per 16 GB phone.
It looks like iPhone 2 will be harder to unlock making iPhone 1 more valuable to some.
Locked or unlocked 8gb iPhones are still selling well at eBay at an average price of over $400 and most likely continue to sell well even after the release of iPhone 2.
Eh, not true, the new phone requires activation at purchase, this will make the old versions worth even more as people that want to unlock and use an iphone on another carrier will have to buy the old version.
I have read that there is upgrade software for the old iphones to bring them up to speed. This being true, why would someone sell?
Buyers like me, who have lousy coverage with AT&T, will still be interested in a Generation 1 iPhone to get service from T-Mobile.
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Silicon Valley veterans like to joke that Steve Jobs must be surrounded by a reality distortion field; if you get too close to him, you start to believe what he's saying. Thanks to the success of the iPod, the launch of the iPhone and the renewed interest in the Mac, Apple has made believers out of millions of customers - and made a lot of investors rich. But Philip Elmer-DeWitt believes that an ounce of skepticism never hurts when writing about the company. He should know. He's been covering Apple - and watching Steve Jobs operate - since 1982, first for Time Magazine, then for Business 2.0, and now for Fortune.
Baltimore, MD..Have you read a contract or ever sold them? The ETF you pay -IS- the subsidy. That’s the whole point! There aren’t any BS credit/processing fees or anything like that.