Introduction
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know Apple announced the new iPhones yesterday. I had bought extra iPhone 6S phones but didn’t buy any extras of the iPhone 7. I think for the iPhone X, I’ll get back into reselling it. Some quick thoughts –
- Don’t even bother trying to resell the iPhone 8. They look marginally better than the 7 and no one is talking about these devices
- There seems to be supply issues with the X due to the OLED screens. This is probably why there’s only 2 colors and 2 memory variants – so they can streamline production.
- The phone ships on November 3. If you remember the iPhone 7, especially the matte black color, those were delayed up to 6 weeks. With pent up demand and little supply, it’s clear these will be a hot Christmas item, even with the $1K price.
Which model to resell
I think the smaller memory variant 64GB will be a hot seller although 256GB is more usable. I also like silver, but it’s really a coin flip. I’ve resold so many iPads and watches on Ebay that it’s really a coin flip between silver and gold. I would also try to flip the unlocked variants from Apple directly. I also think carrier locked ones will sell (maybe not as well as unlocked,) but I think you’ll still make money. I’d avoid the Sprint locked ones though; just saying. With Washington tax, I’d be paying $1100 for the phone. I’ll try to sell for $1500 but I think it’ll more likely be in the $1250 range.
T-mobile does have a $300 off trade-in deal if you trade in a 6 or better. If you think about buying a phone off Ebay to take advantage of this, make sure you read this post.
Conclusion
Should be interesting to see how well these will do on the secondary market. Good luck.
I pre-ordered iPhone X from AT&T and had to enter my cellphone number. If I resale it, when iPhone X is activated will my current cellphone stop working?
When you preorder do you deliver to the house, or pickup from the Apple Store?
And is there a limit to the amount you can preorder? And is there a way around the limit?
In the past, to my house, but for this one, i may pick up in portland. limit is 2 per account.
Thanks! Is there a way to sign up for multiple accounts? Or would I have to use family/friend accounts?
apple.com?
Noob here. If I order a few and cannot resell them worst case I can return them right?
yea, 14 day return policy, but you better double check just in case.
All that work for $150 unadjusted profit. Then take out fed and state income taxes…doesn’t seem worth it.
Seems worth it to me to order these in my pajamas and then drive 15 min to meet someone at a bank/Starbucks. But to each their own.
Did you stay up till midnight to order the phone through their website? Can you share any tips in doing so?
Yes, I stay up until midnight on pre-order day. That’s the ONLY way to do it unless you want to stand in line for hours in the morning.
Do you turn around and put up an ebay listing for your “pre-sale” since it seems those who pre-order first can get the first guaranteed ship week and those seem to go for a lot of money? After that the price drops. Or, do you wait until you have the item in hand and sell that way? The first way garners large $$$$, but lots of fake buyers therefore more risk, while the second is less profitable, but a little safer I’ve found. I hate that ebay won’t allow sellers to block buyers who have 0 feedback. I have found it safer to only sell using BIN and never auction, and have it so they must pay immediately or the listing stays up. Even with all safeguards in place, phones seems to attract the worst buyers compared to other electronics. I’ve never gotten ripped off because I have high feedback and paypal sides with me, but have found more fraud attempts from U.S. buyers than from worldwide. They never get away with it though, if you take precautions.
I did notice that trend with the SNES pre-order. That’s something I’ll look into doing once time is near.
I do have an Ebay store so my fee will be 6% on this I believe. Add 3% to PP. That’s why I plan on doing CL/FB for this.
Will this be the first time you’ll be avoiding ebay for an iphone launch resale? Year after year I’ve seen profits go down when using ebay. It’s not the same as it was 5 years ago. It has incredible when we were selling iPads, the newly released Nintendo Wii (making $200 profit each) and so forth. I had international clients that would buy from me every launch and didn’t even need ebay. Then, the economy collapsed everywhere. I saw things started to head down in the fall of 2017 (worldwide) and knew a recession was coming. We never recovered in the resale business back to those days.
I never resold iphones on Ebay. I started with the 6S and flipped those on FB/CL.
I sold a couple of the 6+ models on eBay. I was able to net profit $500 each with those since stock was a bit constrained. Haven’t done much for iPhones on eBay since then.
Did you ever encounter problems on CL with your posts constantly being reported and deleted?
Pretty much my same plans. 64GB unlocked, both colors, through Apple. Easy $ especially during the holidays.
what medium are you selling through? with such a high-price item, i’d feel that CL or FB may be ideal. get cash, dont worry about returns.
Right. CL or FB only. I want cash in hand for these.
When you sell an iphone on CL, do you typically give the buyer the receipt in case he wants to have it serviced in the future or just for his peace of mind? Or is there a downside to giving up the receipt that I’m not thinking of?
No I usually don’t. I think I gave it out once but that’s it. They say they need it for warranty purposes, but I don’t want them to know my home address. So now when they ask for it, I tell them to go buy it from the store.
If they take it to apple for service your name address and receipt pops up on their iPad at the store. Receipt is only needed when removing iCloud from locked iPhone at the store.
That’s good to know John. I’m still okay with that since I can’t avoid that.
I’m the opposite. I don’t feel that comfortable selling on CL or FB — especially with higher priced items. I like the ease of leaving a package with my doorman to be picked up. I also don’t pay 10% on ebay. That would hurt. With new iPhones, though, I have contacts who I sell to directly (having done a bunch of business with them over the years on ebay). Usually they’ll pay 3% less than the market rate on ebay. Works for me, because I trust the buyers and make a little extra money.
Aren’t you concerned about getting bad cash bills? Wouldn’t a recently made money order be better for selling in person?
Also curious if anyone sells on Swappa or similar sites, and if not why.
No I’m not. But I guess I could buy one of those fake bill pens to bring with me.
I know some ppl are looking at Swappa to flip, but I haven’t tried them.
My favorite for big cash things like that is at my local bank. That way I get the bills deposited right away and if they try anything, the cameras have good coverage. Not to mention, some banks have a security guard visible.
Mind elaborating on logistics? Like you do the transaction at a bank parking lot and try to deposit the cash at the ATM before handing out the item, or something different?
Sure! I would go into the waiting room and tell the front desk rep (who all were used to me visiting the bank for actual banking) hi before sitting and waiting. When the person comes in, I invited them over and we did the deal. When they gave me the money, I went up to the counter and deposited it. Easy and safe!
CL or FB is really your only option for profitability, as there are essentially no fees. With eBay, the 10% seller fee + 2.9% PP fee, leaves no room for profit.
I know it’s Apple. but how do you feel about yesterday’s unveiling and the general public response? Anecdotally both me and my wife were disappointed with this one, being the 10th anniversary and all. I’m sure there will still be a large crowd vying for these but I’m probably gonna stay out of this one. Hope it works out for you though!
I always enjoy them even though I’m always disappointed just because it’s no longer a surprise. With today’s day and age, nothing is kept secret unlike when Steve was doing these. So nothing was really truly shocking. With that said, going from the 7+ to the X seems to be a big jump with the OLED screen and Face ID, so worth it for me to upgrade.
You’re not alone. I’ve read quite a bit of the same sentiment since yesterday. Those with an objective eye who aren’t being biased one way or the other will probably avoid the iPhone X.
I’d personally be pretty cautious with this as far as reselling is concerned.