A New iPhone Has Arrived: Now What About the Old One

The drawer is the most expensive option

When a new device comes into the house, the old one almost always moves into a drawer. There it stays, usually with the idea that it will come in handy later or that you will do something with it one day. What actually happens is that the device is worth less every month. The market moves, newer generations arrive, and demand for that model drops. Meanwhile the battery is not improving either, especially not if the device has been stored completely empty or completely full. So a device in a drawer does one thing reliably: lose value. That is the whole honest message of this piece.

Three options, soberly considered

Keeping it as a spare. This sounds more sensible than it is. In practice almost nobody reaches for that spare device, and if it is needed after two years, the battery has drained and the model may no longer get updates. It does make sense if you genuinely use it: as a navigation device in the car, as a music player in the garage, or as a device for holidays where you would rather not take your new phone.

Passing it on within the family. This is often the best destination, on one condition: that the model still gets software updates. Giving a device without updates to a child is not a present, because banks and schools will at some point ask for a more recent version. Wipe the device completely before you pass it on and let the new user set it up with their own account, instead of leaving your account on it.

Selling it. If the device is not used daily and is not going to someone else in the house, then selling is the only option that earns money instead of costing it. And preferably now, not after the winter.

Getting it ready to sell

1. Make a backup and check that it really is there, including your photos.
2. Transfer your eSIM to your new device before you erase anything, because a factory reset removes the profile.
3. Sign out of iCloud and turn off Find My. Do that on the device itself, not only on your new phone.
4. Remove an employer's management profile, or have the employer remove it.
5. Erase the device completely in Settings, and take the SIM card out.
6. Note down the IMEI number before you send it off, and take the case and screen protector off so the condition can be assessed correctly.

What cannot be bought in

We do not buy devices with a SIM lock, an MDM lock or an active iCloud account. That is not strictness, it is the technical limit: such devices cannot be set up again, so they cannot go on sale and they have no value for a next user. This is also why the steps above are in that order. A device whose previous owner can no longer be reached stays blocked, however long you wait. So sort that out while you still have the device in your hands and still know your password.

What a fixed price does for you

With us a trade-in price is fixed for 14 days. That looks like a detail, but it is exactly what makes the decision easy. You can have the price set at the moment your new device is ordered, and you then have two weeks to actually send the old device off without the amount shifting along the way. So you do not have to decide the same day and you do not have to gamble on whether it will still fetch as much next week. Once the device is approved, payment follows within two working days. You can have yours valued via sell your device.

How the condition is determined at trade-in

What your device fetches depends on the model, the storage, the battery and the outside. We look at that outside at trade-in in ordinary light: is the screen unblemished or cracked, and how much has the housing taken. What you only see when you tilt the device under a lamp barely counts. So give it a clean, but do not try to work scratches away and state honestly what is wrong with it. A crack or an earlier repair is no reason for rejection, it is simply a different price. The device then goes through 32 checkpoints in the workshop in Zarren and is given a new screen and a new housing before it goes back on sale.

And if you keep it after all

If you really want to keep the device as a spare, do it properly. Store it half charged, in a cool and dry place, not in a car and not next to the radiator. Check it every few months and top it up, because a battery that runs completely flat and stays flat for months rarely comes out of that well. Have the device wiped and set up ready to go, so that it is usable the moment you need it and does not first demand an hour of work. And be honest with yourself: if the previous device has also been lying in that same drawer for two years, this is not the way this device is going to be used.

If in the meantime you are looking for something for a family member instead of a new contract, the full range is in the iPhone overview, with 24 months of warranty, 30 days to change your mind and free shipping in Belgium and the Netherlands.