Now that Apple has made the rumored October 22nd date for its iPad event official, it’s now time to seriously start thinking about trading in your old iPad in order to get the most for your money. The chart above from NextWorth is a little taste of what you can expect from trade-in values for iPads in the coming weeks, so if you’re planning on pulling the trigger, now is definitely the time.
Resale prices for previous generation iPads will inevitably drop following the introduction of new iPads– as they have for iPhones since the introduction of the new 5s and 5c last month– so we’ve put together a list of the best places around to get maximum value for your aging iPads, as well as some exclusive promotion codes to get a bonus 10% on your trade-in through a couple popular services.
1. NextWorth: A few benefits of NextWorth over the guys: you’ll get free UPS shipping to send in your device with free insurance as well as the ability to lock your quote in for up to 30 days. You’ll also get the option to be paid by PayPal or check instead of a gift card like many competing services. In addition, NextWorth teamed up with Target and others to offer 1500 physical locations that you can go trade-in your device without having to send it in and wait. Quotes seem to be slightly lower than GameStop and Amazon, however, with the 16GB WiFi iPad mini fetching $179 and the iPad 4 WiFi+LTE going for $400. You’ll get an extra 10% on your trade-in if you use the NextWorth link at the top of this paragraph. If you want to wait until after Apple’s announcement next week to make your decision, NextWorth’s price lock window is the way to go.
2. Amazon: If GameStop credit isn’t your thing, Amazon offers some of the highest trade-in prices around for used iPads in the form of Amazon.com gift cards. Unlike some of the other services that offer price lock windows up to 50 days in some cases, Amazon will unfortunately force you to send in your iPad within 7 days. The good news is you’ll get your credit within two days of Amazon receiving your iPad and in some cases you’ll get even more than GameStop. Compare GameStop’s $180 for the 16GB WiFi iPad mini to $200 through Amazon.
3. GameStop: If you’re willing to take GameStop credit instead of cash, GameStop offers some of the highest value for your old iPad, as we also recently discovered for iPhone trade-ins. GameStop is currently offering $239 for the 16GB WiFi iPad 3 and $180 for the 16GB WiFi iPad mini. At the high end of the product line, you can get as much as $469 for your 64GB WiFi+LTE iPad 4 and $368 for the 64GB WiFi+LTE iPad mini.
4. eBay/ Craigslist: The truth is you’re likely to get a bit more out of your old iOS hardware in any situation by going the sell it yourself route opposed to the usual trade-in programs. You can typically get an extra 15-30% for your old iPad by selling directly to a buyer on sites like eBay and Craigslist, but you miss out on a few of the benefits provided by the trade-in programs. On top of the overall convenience of not having to find and deal with a buyer directly, the trade-in programs typically offer a price lock window allowing you to lock in a price now and wait until after Apple’s announcement to make a final decision and send in your iPad.
5. BestBuy: BestBuy is offering trade-in values comparable with the other big guys including $175 for the entry level iPad mini in good condition and up to $365 for a 64GB iPad 4 with WiFi+LTE. You’ll be limited to a BestBuy gift card and won’t get the ability to lock in your price and wait to send in your device, but it does offer the added convenience of completing the trade-in in-store at BestBuy.
6. Gazelle: Another popular option is Gazelle. It’s currently offering quotes comparable to the other guys– $185 for the Wifi-only 16GB iPad mini or $365 for a WiFi+LTE iPad 4– and also offers PayPal, check, or Amazon credit and 30 day price lock window like NextWorth. Using the link above will get you an extra $10 on top of the prices normally quoted on the site.
7. Walmart: If you’d prefer Walmart credit, you can get slightly less than you’ll get through Amazon and GameStop through Walmart’s program. However, the company currently has a promotion offering $250 for any iPad 3 model on AT&T, more than NextWorth and Gazelle are offering for the 16GB and 32GB models.
The new iPad 5 is rumored to get the refreshed design and improved internals, while the second generation iPad mini is rumored to include a Retina display. There have also been some less than reliable leaks showing the new iPads in similar colors to the new iPhone 5s and even whispers of a TouchID fingerprint sensor for the larger of the two new products. They could also sport an upgraded 8 megapixel camera system according to recent reports. It will almost certainly be a compelling upgrade for iPad 2 and iPad 3 owners at the very least, especially as the new iPad mini gets upgraded internals that will now be much more powerful than those devices.
If you find trade-in programs offering more than the services above, let us know in the comments and we’ll add them to the roundup.
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Actually, that chart says that you should’ve already sold your iPad, and if you can’t get it sold by the time the new one is released, you might want to wait a couple weeks. It also says that the maximum drop is about 10%, though it doesn’t say what the drop is from: retail price or average sale at the start of October. Depending on starting price, you may only lose $50 by waiting it out.
If you go by the general trend over all three models covered (and it’s unclear whether the first two models’ data is from their release years or if it’s all from the same year), you should only lose 1-2% by waiting till after the new iPad is released: you’ve already lost about 6%.
So the title should maybe be: You’ve already missed the opportunity to sell your old iPad for the maximum amount of money, so waiting a little longer won’t be much of a problem.
So how do we “lock in” the prices/trade-in for the item without sending it in? I went through the process on both Next Worth and Gazelle and is being logged in and the iPad in the “cart” good enough to hold this price for 50 (NW) and 30 (Gazelle) respectively ?
on Gazelle… it is indeed go all the way through the process until the final “Get Paid” stage….
My Gen 3 32GB WiFiOnly goes for $240 max on Gazelle. And the chances are good that it will be just as functional on October 23 as it is today.
Since it set me back $600 about 550 days ago, that implies a daily cost of about $0.65/day. But if I keep it for another year and sell it for about $175, it will have cost me $0.46/day.
In the mean time, I will have a retina display, a back-up screen, a loaner and an alternative test article for stuff I want to know, like how well does this iBook work on that machine?
I’m keeping it.
I’m keeping mine too. I might mount if above the bath for watching Netflix.
Any suggestions or recommendations for those of us outside of the United States?
Looking at trading in my iPad Mini and upgrading this time around, but most of these seem to be US only.
There is always Amazon. You could get the highest value from them buy selling it directly to a buyer through their site. I just sold mine for $260.
That’s great that we can turn our old iPads into cash/credit but what about including another great name in with that list? Reboot Charity in West Palm Beach FL has set up a program similar to Gazelle and some of the others listed minus the gift card. Reboot Charity pays you cash. But the best thing about Reboot is the fact that I know that I’m not only getting paid for my old iPad but I’m helping others too! It’s a Charity…non profit, all of the rest of the companies listed here in this post are for profit. Help out somebody needy, use Reboot…I found them at rebootcharity.org.
There are some decent prices here, but I can’t help but feel this list is incomplete without price comparison sites being featured as they help us get more cash back. I’ve used http://SellCell.com in the past after seeing them on NBC News and ended up getting $50 – $60 more than I would have got by going direct.
It’s also worth pointing out SellCell.com who are a comparison site that help see all the prices offered from a variety of different companies. Good if you want to get more money back.
I tried Gazelle to sell my ipad 3. they offered $215, nextworth offered $205, I sold it on ebay for $340.
ebay is always the best way to go
AppleShark.com seems to have some good prices