Now's the best time to trade-in or sell your iPhone. Why? It's because prices are currently the highest they'll be before they decline very soon.
The best thing you can do is confirm a trade-in price before the announcement to ensure a high price on trade-in - although you're too late for that this time.
You don't have long before prices fall
MusicMagpie reckons that handsets could lose up to 30 percent of their value in the 24 hours following Apple's Tuesday announcement of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro.
By contrast, CompareMyMobile reckons you have four days grace following a new iPhone launch to sell or upgrade in order to get the best value.
The trade-in site says that in the week leading up to an Apple Event and in the four days following the event, the value of iPhone handsets didn't really depreciate but that subsequently prices significantly declined.
Most trade-in sites will guarantee the offer they give you for a week or two - CompareMyMobile, for example, will guarantee your iPhone trade-in price for 14 days.
What can you expect to get for your old iPhone?
MusicMagpie's figures for last year's phone are quite favourable. If you trade in an iPhone X 256GB you can expect to gain £680 now. So if you go and buy this year's model it will be a more palatable £319 upgrade providing the iPhone XS retains last year's £999 price point.
However, Compare and Recycle believe that depreciation is lower on models with lower capacities if you're going to sell and upgrade year after year but interestingly higher capacity models are the best bet if you're going to keep your phone for a long time.
MusicMagpie reckons the iPhone X has held its value higher than any other Apple model released in recent years. After six months on the market, the iPhone X had a trade-in price of £610 - a 39% deprecation rate. The iPhone XS trade-in value was only £404 after six months.
Even now the iPhone X is worth pretty much the same as the XS - £379. By contrast, the iPhone XR is valued at £421, dropping by 44 percent in a year.
We've known for some time that iPhones tend to retain value better than other handsets. Compared with Samsung devices, Apple prices remain very favourable. The last three launches of the S Series ‘Plus’ range has seen on sale prices skyrocket from £779 (S8 Plus) to £869 (S9 Plus) and £999 (S10 Plus).
Five months after launch the S8 Plus retained 52 percent, the S9 Plus 51 percent, and the latest S10 Plus just 41 percent. That's quite a drop on the recent device, possibly caused by the advent of the latest Galaxy Note 10 Series that
The Google Pixel 3a, which was released in May, has lost a whopping 62 percent of its value, while the Huawei P30 (not P30 Pro, note) has a trade-in value of just £75, losing a massive 89 percent.
What about Apple GiveBack?
Apple also offers its own programme, called Apple GiveBack which enables you to trade in various devices (they don't have to be Apple-made) in exchange for an Apple Store Gift Card.
However, the prices quoted often don't give you as good a deal as you can find elsewhere. Rival recyclers are quick to jump on this, of course, with SellMyMobile going so far last year as to issue a price comparison chart of the contrasting prices offered for the iPhone X. As always, our advice is to shop around.
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