Bulk buyers are paying above retail for the iPhone 16, for four reasons

In most cases, you’d expect a shiny new Apple device to be worth less than you paid as soon as you walk out of the store, at least once you’re past the 14-day return period. You’d also expect companies buying in bulk to pay significantly less than retail.

But one of the biggest resellers in the business tells us that neither of these things is true, and that it is currently selling bulk lots of the iPhone 16 for above retail …

B-Stock describes itself as the world’s largest business-to-business reseller of returns and over-stocked products. It’s selling a lot of iPhone 16 models to bulk buyers, and tells us that it is currently able to demand and get 1.5% above retail.

The company says it last saw this phenomenon with the iPhone 12, and there are four possible explanations for the price premium.

Four reasons iPhone 16s sell for more than retail

First, while some iPhone 16 models are available for immediate pickup today from many Apple stores, there are some configurations that have longer wait times. There are countries around the world where the delay is long enough that some are willing to pay a premium for immediate delivery.

Second, there are many countries where the retail price is significantly higher than it is in the US, thanks to high import taxes. What are technically used phones – even if they are sold on day one in their original unopened packaging – may attract lower rates of duty. There is thus significant demand for these in regions like Asia, South America, and the Middle East.

Third, the same thing can apply within the US. All US states offer some level of sales tax break for wholesale transactions, so it can be cheaper for a business to buy in bulk at a small premium than to pay retail and be subject to the full level of sales tax.

Finally, there are resellers willing to pay full retail or more in order to get early stock. That’s because they can take a modest loss on hardware sales in order to profit from ancillary services like insurance and phone plans.

Older iPhones still selling well today

B-Stock also says that the last model to the benefit from this effect, the iPhone 12, continues to sell well today.

Used pricing for iPhone 12 is holding strong: the generations to come out since the 12 release have given consumers few compelling reasons to upgrade, given that they were all very similar to the iPhone 12 in terms of function and form factor.

The top sellers on the used market, however, are the iPhone 13, with the Pro Max model particularly popular.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is selling in bulk for up to 74% of the original retail price, and B-Stock says that value hasn’t been hit by the iPhone 16 launch.

Photo by Semeon Hrozian on Unsplash