Old iPhones flood the market
A deluge of used iPhones are hitting eBay, recyclers and discount sites, following Apple’s wildly successful debut of the iPhone 4.
Ryan Flinn from Bloomberg reports that in the two weeks after preorders for iPhone 4 started, Gazelle.com – a site that buys electronics from consumers – bought 20,000 used iPhones – compared to 350 in a typical two-week period.
Apple aficionados scramble to purchase the latest iPhones in the annual introduction of new models by the company. While many of the old phones are thrown away or abandoned in a drawer, millions are recycled via secondhand dealers.
Secondhand stores can sell them at more than the price of a new phone from AT&T because AT&T subsidizes the price but comes with a contract.
eBay’s online site has seen the number of used iPhone 3GS and 3G listed for sale increase by 124 percent between June 5 and June 28.
BuyMyTronics.com, which purchases used electronics, has gone from buying 10 iPhones a day, to a daily averaged of almost 40 in recent weeks.
The flood of old iPhones has led to a drop in price in the secondhand market. Gazelle’s offer price for a mint-condition 32 GB iPhone 3GS – last year’s model – has fallen from US$304, prior to the launch of iPhone 4, to US$168.
