iPhone trade-in programs: Where to sell your old smart phone

Enamored with the iPhone 5S? Ready to chuck your old iPhone 5? Hold up before you drop your outdated model in the trash – that phone could get you a hefty discount on your Apple update. Several smart phone trade-in programs have recently popped up, allowing smart phone owners to cash in their old phones before upgrading to new technology. This recycling process is better for the environment and could save you a pretty penny on the newest technology. Plus, many retailers may be willing to buy your phone for a higher price than you paid in the first place. In other words, you can come out in the green (before you buy your new phone, that is).

But which to choose? We’ve broken down the big players in the game to find out how to get the most buck for your phone.

Apple

Yves Herman/Reuters/File
A customer holds up an Apple iPhone 5 (left) and iPhone 4S. Apple is offers an iPhone trade-in program that gives users store credit for their old iPhones.

You’re buying from Apple anyway; why not trade in your old phone to them as well? Apple rolled out a trade-in program in August (likely in anticipation of the iPhone announcement) where customers can bring in their old (but not water-damaged) phone and receive a gift card in return (which can only be used toward a new iPhone). Customers can expect to get back $120 to $250 toward a new phone, which is a major discount off contracted or non-contracted phones. Android users are out of luck of course, as the Apple stores will only accept old iPhones.

Level of ease: Easy – as long as you're an iPhone user who wants the new iPhone and not another gadget from the Apple store.

Estimated trade-in value: $120 to $250

1 of 7

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.