The three best places to sell your old (even broken) iPhone and make the money to buy the new iPhone 5

The iPhone 5 is just days away (see my iPhone 5 features & rumors post here), and getting it into your hot little hands is totally justifiable. You just need to sell your existing one first.

You can sell on eBay, but there’s risk involved. My friend Whitney had to deal with three bad buyers in a row. We’ve had good luck, but Steve handles that. He also accidentally sold his car to pirates in Nigeria once. 

Now you can skip the eBay process entirely and sell to PowerON or Gazelle.
For the sake of an apples-to-apples comparison I’ll give you the price of my current phone on each site:

16gb White iPhone 42

Excellent condition (no signs of wear at all)

PowerON

PowerON PROS:

• Apple has contracted with PowerON directly, which gives them instant credibility.
• The process is very easy. Just go here, answer a couple simple questions and send your phone in. You will receive an Apple giftcard in return.

PowerON CONS:

• You get paid in Apple giftcards after you send your iPhone (or other device), which is a problem if you don’t want to be without a phone for a period of time.
• PowerON has the lowest payout of the three

PowerON Payout: $285

Gazelle

Gazelle PROS:

• Like PowerON, Gazelle buys your phone directly from you, which means you don’t have to mess with eBay or Craigslist buyers.
• My favorite feature of Gazelle is that you can lock in your price. The iPhone market fluctuates nearly as much as the stock market. The value will go down as soon as the new iPhone 5 is out, but Gazelle lets you lock in your price now, which means you can buy your new phone, and wait to send in your old one so there is no gap without a phone.
• Lowest risk because they have an established repution

Gazelle CONS:

• You won’t make quite as much as you could on eBay

Gazelle Payout: $290

eBay

eBay PROS

• You could make the most here

eBay CONS

• Risky for many reasons (non-paying buyer, unhappy buyer, etc.)
• Pain the arse to list, and to manage questions from buyers

eBay Payout: $365

A couple things to keep in mind:

1. Buy your new phone before you sell your old one, so that you aren’t stuck phoneless. I like Gazelle here because they lock in the price until October 1st once you decide to sell.
2. I spent $199 on my white 16gb iPhone 4S, and will sell it for $280, making $81. That cash will buy my new iPhone 5!
3. AT&T (I don’t know about all of the providers) usually honors the contract renewal price on a new iPhone even if you aren’t due for an upgrade. Your situation may be different.

See.

Justified.

You’re welcome.

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