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Find Out Who Will Give You The Most Money For Your iPhone 6s

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Anthony Karcz

If you're on the iPhone Upgrade Program and decided not to cash in on an iPhone 7 upgrade last year, congratulations! You now own (or will soon own) your iPhone 6s outright and can do whatever you want with it. But do you sell it or trade it in? It depends.

Apple Trade-Up

If you're going to go back to Apple, they've got a pretty sweet deal

Anthony Karcz

Apple wants to make the process of transitioning from the previous generation of iPhone to the new iPhone 8 a seamless one. Scrolling through the Apple Store app, you'll find a tile with a tempting offer - up to $260 towards your new iPhone.

Clicking through takes you to the Apple Trade-Up page. Follow the prompts and you'll find out how much Apple will give you in store credit (after they verify the iPhone's condition, of course). For my 64GB 6s, they offered a generous $215. It's a tempting offer if you're going to turn around and sink that money into a new iPhone directly from Apple.

Trade-In Companies

If you choose a third party trade-in company, use someone that's trusted

Anthony Karcz

If you're more comfortable taking your iPhone to a third-party to trade it in, you're not going to do quite as well. I hopped over to Gazelle and entered my iPhone's details and was offered $195, pretty close to Apple's offer. If all you want is some quick cash from selling your old iPhone, it's one of the best options you'll find. Other sites, like Best Buy's trade in program, offered considerably less.

Wireless Carriers

Wireless carriers try, but only Verizon gets close

Anthony Karcz

Wireless carriers are also hungry for your old devices, but not enough to offer top dollar. I checked out AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile and was left underwhelmed. Out of the three, Verizon was the only one to offer anything close to the trade-in value of Apple or Gazelle: $190. AT&T and T-Mobile offered so little that I had to double-check that I'd entered the details for my 6s correctly. If you really want to leverage your old device for credit at your wireless carrier, you'd be better served taking it in to the store to see if they have any special deals running to coincide with the iPhone 8 launch.

But none of these offers get close to how much you can actually get for your iPhone 6s.

eBay

If you're willing to work for it, eBay is your best bet

eBay

If you're willing to do a little more work, eBay is your best bet to get the most bang for your used iPhone buck. You can trade it in with the eBay Quick Sale service for about as much as Gazelle, but the more lucrative option is listing it yourself. By definition, an auction is only worth as much as the market is willing to pay for it. However, eBay is currently offering guaranteed values for certain iPhone listings. For my iPhone 6s, eBay determined the average auction price was around $301 and would give me an eBay coupon for the difference if my iPhone didn't sell for at least that much.

What's nice about the eBay service is that they will take the details you entered into their form and use those values to fill out an auction template if you decide to list it. All you have to do is take a couple of pictures of the device, modify the description (if you want), and enter shipping details. In general, I've found eBay auctions to be the best way to get the most money out of your old i-devices.

The only caveat when selling your iPhone yourself is that you're never sure where your old device will end up. Wiping your iPhone, deleting linked accounts (like Facebook and Twitter), and completing a factory reset are all essential to ensuring your security. If you can't power up your iPhone to secure it, you're better off trading it in to a reputable company that will make sure it's handled properly.

So what's the TL:DR? To get the most money out of your old iPhone 6s, you'll need to do some legwork. But if you're looking for some quick credit to turn into a new iPhone 8, as long as your iPhone is in good condition, you'd be well served by taking Apple's offer.

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