With the announcement of a new smartphone model, you may be wondering how to get the most money for your old phone to help offset some of the costs of a new one. You most likely won’t be able to cover the entire cost of a new phone but every little bit helps.
How much you can get for your old cell phone will depend on a few factors: the model, the condition, and the popularity of the phone.
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If you have a phone that is less than 3 years old, is in good condition, is a higher end phone, and is a popular color like black, then you can probably expect to get as much as $300-$400 for your old phone.
You also need to decide if you want cash, credit, or gift cards when selling your phone as well as how convenient you want the process to be. The more work you do, the more money you are most likely to get for your old phone.
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Get the Most Money for your Old Phone
The best way to get the most money for your old phone is to stay ahead of any new model announcements from Apple or Samsung. As soon as a new phone model is released, the value of the older phone can drop by as much as $100.
If you really want to get the most money for your old phone, try to sell it before the newest model is released or as close to the release date as you can get.
Some trade in sites will actually let you lock in a sell price so that once the new model is available for purchase, you can buy it and then automatically trade in your old phone for that set price.
Shop Around for the Best Offer
In order to get the most money for your old phone, you have to put in some work and shop around for the best offer. You can get multiple offers from sites like:
You may also want to go to your carrier’s store and see if you can do a trade-in and upgrade to a newer phone. A lot of times asking about any in-store offers will get you the better deal but you just have to do some research.
If you are looking to sell your phone quickly or just don’t have the time to get multiple offers, you may want to sell your phone on sites like:
- Craigslist
- eBay
- Facebook Marketplace
It is usually easier to sell on these sites but you probably won’t get the most money for your old phone. Also, if you have all of the chargers and original packaging, this can give you an even better selling price.
Just to give you an idea of the difference in quotes you may get, I got a few easy estimates from different sites for my phone and here is what they offered:
- Decluttr: $232
- Best Buy: $200
- Target: $159.04
- Amazon: up to $180
- Gazelle: $160
So you can see that getting offers from multiple sites does pay off, there is a big difference in price quotes! It only took me about 10 minutes to get all of these quotes so it really doesn’t take a lot of time to get the most money for your old phone.
Always remember to delete everything from your phone or do a factory reset before you send it in or sell it to someone to keep your information safe and secure.
Deborah Hopper says
I have stacked up so many cellphones over the years it would be great to get a little cash for them.