Apple iPhone 'Reuse and Recycle' program starts this week in select stores
If competition is good for consumers, then the phone trade-in market is looking up. Best Buy, Walmart, Gazelle and your mobile provider all accept trade-ins on old iPhones, giving you money to upgrade to a new phone. Now Apple is launching its own trade-in program at select Apple Stores starting on August 30, with a larger expansion of the program coming in September.
Regardless of whether you're a business or standard customer, if you want to purchase a new iPhone, your trade-in is welcome at Apple. 9to5mac.com published the following details about the program.
Apple decides the value of your iPhone based on information entered into the standard EasyPay system. The system takes into account the quality of your phone -- button quality, damage, if the display is scratched, if you engraved "I love Slayer" on the back, etc. -- and then calculates your trade-in amount.
Apple Store employees will help you back up your iPhone before turning it in, and will hand over your old SIM card (the iPhone 5 uses the new nano-SIM card format). iPhones of all generations are eligible for trade-in, though obviously you'll receive less money for an iPhone 3G than an iPhone 5. As of now, the program is only available in the United States.
You may want to shop around a bit before heading to the Apple Store, though. As 9to5mac.com has noted Gazelle offers significantly more for a iPhone 5 16 GB than Apple's own store. The online trade-in destination has been working hard to get as much iPhone business as possible before the September 10 announcement of new Apple products.
