After you have bought the new iPhone 3G (to be rolled out on Friday, July 11) and have replaced your original iPhone with new iPhone 3G and have verified that its restored with the personal data from the original iPhone, I guess the next logical step would be to sell the original iPhone unless ofcourse you want to use it as a Wi-Fi iPod or have already sold it.
There are quite a few options available out there so I thought it would be a good time to check them out to see which one would be the best place to sell your original iPhone.
1. Flipswap
Peter Ha at CrunchGear had reported of an interesting service called Flipswap which claims to give the highest trade-in value for your iPhone. All you need to do is input your info, answer a few questions about your original iPhone and it’s IMEI and they’ll give you an estimate for your iPhone and send the check right out. As per their website, they sent a check for $195.53 for an 8GB original iPhone. The service is free and they even pay for your shipping costs.
They also have option where the proceeds of your old iPhone can be donated to your favorite charity. They claim that "if a phone has reached the end of its useful life it will be broken down into component materials and painstakingly recycled using the greenest methods available today" and "pledge to plant a tree for every phone that is recycled through the reLeaf program".
2. Ztail:
Ztail, a new startup is also looking to help you sell the original iPhone. They are offering two options:
a. eBay Insurance:
The first option is an insurance policy for eBay that guarantees that you’ll be able to auction your iPhone off for a reasonable price as can be seen in the table below. If your auction ends at a lower price, Ztail will pay you the difference, and if it goes higher, you’ll get to keep everything you earn.
However, you will need to follow Ztail’s instructions for posting the auction (for example, they specify certain times for your listing to go up).
b. VenJuvo:
Ztail has got into an affiliate deal with VenJuvo, a cash-for-electronics trade in site. This is a no-hassle option but offers 20% less cash for your old iPhone than the earlier option as can be seen in the table above. Its similar to the Flipswap service mentioned above, all you need to do is provide the details of your old iPhone, print off VenJuvo’s packing slip and include it with your shipment (which is free). The payment for your old iPhone will be made either to your PayPal account or via check.
If you are wondering why Ztail is looking to help you sell the iPhone, its because they are using the iPhone offer to test their eBay insurance product, which they hope to extend to other products in the near future.
3. Craiglist:
One of our regular iPhone readers, Louis, sold his 8GB iPhone on Craiglist for $300 which is more than what Flipswap and zTail are offering for a used original iPhone.
4. eBay:
eBay still seems to be the best places to sell your used original iPhone. Christopher Mascari at Gizmodo had an interesting article on this topic, he "noticed something strange, of the 1,800 iPhones on eBay, a whopping 1,200 are unlocked. And of those 1,200 unlocked, 800 are basically brand new. These new unlocked iPhones will easily reach over $500 for 8GB models and $600 for 16GB models.
But current iPhone owners have, by definition, used iPhones. Turns out, that’s OK. In my research, used 8GB iPhone auctions usually ended around $350, which is good money. But by following a few strategies, a used iPhone can easily sell for more than that."
You can read his article here in which he goes on to explain the strategy to follow to sell your original iPhone for more than you paid.
In case you have found a better way or strategy to sell your original iPhone do let us know in the comments below for the benefit of fellow readers. If you found this article useful, please don’t forget to leave a comment on where and for how much you finally ended up selling your old iPhone.
Note: Before you sell your iPhone its recommended that you either use Wipe App or this method to erase the personal data from your iPhone or wait for iPhone firmware 2.0 which is expected to have a new secure erase feature.
[image courtesy Gizmodo]
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