Technologies

Smart Ways to Sell Your Old iPhone

Here’s how to get maximum profit to help subsidize a new iPhone.

This story is part of 12 Days of Tips, helping you make the most of your tech, home and health during the holiday season.

If you were tempted to treat yourself to the latest iPhone this Christmas or you plan to gift one to someone else in your family, you might be wondering what the most cost-effective way to do it is. Saving as much money as possible is paramount if you’re wanting to regularly upgrade to the best iPhone which is why subsidizing your next phone by selling your current one is such a great idea. But how do you get the most money back for your existing device?

Well, there are numerous ways to trade in an old iPhone and earn hundreds toward your new one, but each option has its own list of pros and cons. Fret not, though, as we’re here to help guide you through the process. We’ve put together a list of the best places to sell, so you can work out the best iPhone deal for you. Below, you’ll find three different ways you can make some cash, as well as when to make the sale and what you can expect from the process.

1. Sell it to a buy-back service

Looking for a quick and easy option? Consider selling your old device to a buy-back service. Although it’s not entirely without risk — if the old iPhone isn’t in the condition you said it was, for example if it is a broken iPhone, you may not get the full value quoted by the buyer — it does minimize the time and hassle, especially compared with trying to sell it yourself on, say, eBay or Craigslist.

There are traditional trade-in options like those offered by Apple and Best Buy (see the next section), and then there are buy-and-sell marketplaces like those listed below. Before you spend a lot of time hopping from one to another to get quotes, head to Flipsy, which compares US trade-in values at multiple buy-back stores. It shows you the payment methods, price-lock duration (that’s how long you have before you need to send the phone in) and price based on the condition of the old device. (Because each buyback program and store is little different when it comes to «condition» definitions, Flipsy doesn’t drill down beyond phone model, carrier and storage.) SellCell is another price-comparison service for anyone looking to score top dollar for an old iPhone.

If you’d rather check out some individual marketplaces yourself, below are a few options that are worth a look. The sample quotes are based on iPhone 13 trade-ins for «good» condition devices in December 2022 and were correct at the time of writing.

An honorable mention goes to Swappa, which has a sky-high TrustPilot score (4.8) but isn’t really a buyback service. Rather, it’s a marketplace designed to connect buyers and sellers. Think eBay, but with a focus on devices like your iPad, iPhone or other Apple product. To list your older iPhone (which doesn’t guarantee a sale), you must first create a Swappa account and then connect a PayPal account. You also set your asking price, which necessarily includes a sale fee, but not any additional PayPal fees that may apply.

Worth the extra effort? Perhaps: Swappa recommended a sale price of $646 for my iPhone 13, while noting that the same phone had recently sold for $596 — still higher than most buy-back services and more than enough extra to put towards a couple of new iPhone cases for your next phone. But a marketplace is almost always going to net you a higher profit (see below).

2. Trade in for credit toward a new one

Want to cut out the middleman, so to speak? You can start by going back to the source. That can be either the manufacturer or a big-box retailer, the largest of which generally offer solid trade-in options for a new device. Consider two of the biggest fish in the pond: Apple and Best Buy.

The key takeaway here: Shop around. There are plenty of services with program options that will buy your old iPhone or take it in trade, but you might do better selling it yourself.

3. Sell it yourself

Selling an iPhone yourself will usually net you the most profit, but it’s not without risks and hassles.

When to sell your old iPhone

Your old phone is losing market value by the day, so the best time to sell it is always as soon as possible. It’s estimated that within 24 hours of a new iPhone’s unveiling, your old phone loses up to 30% of its trade-in value so you can try to time it right and sell it in the weeks leading up to an iPhone event if you’re smart.

One concern is that if you sell your old smartphone immediately, you’ll be phoneless until the new one arrives. Thankfully, many of the aforementioned buy-back and trade-in services give you a grace period (also known as a «price lock») of up 30 days after selling your phone before you have to send it in — time enough, hopefully, to purchase and receive your new phone and get everything migrated over (including the SIM card — don’t forget that!). Since the iPhone 14 is just a few months old, this is less of an issue currently.

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What to know before you sell your old iPhone

Whether you sell by yourself or trade to a third-party company, make sure you prep your iPhone properly before selling it
. Here are some tips:

Back it up: Back up all of your important data — including contact, photos, videos and apps — using Apple’s iCloud service or a third-party cloud storage service.
Turn off Find My: Apple’s Find My app (formerly known as Find My iPhone) is a security feature that must be turned off before you sell your phone — or nobody else will be able to use or reset it. To turn off Find My, open the Settings app on your iPhone and go to Settings > [Your username] > Find My and turn it off.
Wipe it: Sign out of all apps, services and connected accounts (like your iCloud account). Then, open the Settings app and go to General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings to erase everything from your iPhone. Once this is complete, you can also go to General > Reset > Reset All Settings to restore the iPhone to factory settings, just in case.
Remove the SIM card: Don’t forget to pop out your SIM card, which you’ll likely need for the new phone to keep your existing number and service.

You’ll receive the most money for your phone if it’s in tip-top shape, but you can still do well if it’s in «good» condition: No cracked screen, no big dents or scratches in the casing, no water damage, and everything working well (meaning the phone turns on, holds a charge and so forth).

If your phone is damaged, you can probably still get something for it, even if the device doesn’t turn on. It’s not worth it to repair a cracked phone screen before you sell, but if your screen is only slightly damaged — a small hairline crack in the corner, for example — you may want to sell it on your own instead of trading it in. An individual may be willing to overlook superficial screen damage for a good price.

The Final Supermoon of 2025 Is December’s Cold Moon

It’ll be earning its name as temperatures across the US are expected to be lower than average.

Your last chance to see a supermoon in 2025 is approaching quickly. December’s full moon is scheduled to appear on Dec. 4, exactly one week after Thanksgiving. Even if you don’t make plans to see it, you’ll probably see it anyway, as it’ll be the brightest thing in the night sky.

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December’s Cold Moon is the third of four consecutive supermoons and the last one of 2025. Supermoons tend to come in packs of four thanks to how the moon orbits the Earth. The orbit is elliptical, meaning the moon is closer during some months and farther away in others. When it’s close to Earth, it’s referred to as perigee, and full moons during perigee are considered supermoons.

Since it is closer, the moon will be slightly bigger and brighter in the night sky. According to NASA, a supermoon is 14% larger and 33% brighter than a micro moon, which occurs during full moons when the moon is at its farthest point from Earth, a phenomenon known as apogee. Thus, it is the best time to view a full moon outside of special events like blood moons or lunar eclipses.

When is December’s full moon?

The Farmer’s Almanac reports that December’s full moon will take place on the evening of Dec. 4. It’ll reach peak illumination at 6:14 p.m. ET. Thanks to the recent daylight saving time change, it should be dark enough to see for most of the US, but if it isn’t, it’ll remain full all night. Those who can’t see it due to the weather can see a moon that is more than 90% full from Dec. 2-6.

You won’t need any special equipment to see the moon, as it’ll be the brightest thing in the night sky by a wide margin. Those who want to see more detail can certainly use a telescope or binoculars if they choose, which will make the moon’s various craters and textures easier to see.

December’s full moon is often referred to as the Cold Moon, as it typically occurs when the weather starts to become quite chilly. The moon is earning its name this time around, as a polar vortex is scheduled to hit the US during Thanksgiving and will stick around for a while afterward. The polar vortex will drive down temperatures in much of the US during the week of Dec. 1, so if you do go outside, make sure to bundle up.

Technologies

Anthropic’s New Claude Opus 4.5 AI Model Is Designed for Coding and Office Work

The new reasoning model can also power the Claude for Chrome AI browser extension.

Anthropic’s newest version of its most powerful generative AI model could upend how you manage your spreadsheets. The company said Claude Opus 4.5, announced Monday, is aimed at things you do on the job, like coding and office work.

Google unveiled its powerful new Gemini 3 model last week, and OpenAI released GPT-5.1 the week before. Now it’s Anthropic’s turn. The company, which is popular with businesses and software workers, said Opus 4.5 is focused on getting work done, not generating content.

Claude Opus 4.5 will be available everywhere and will be a default model for Pro (starting at $17/month), Max (starting at $100/month) and Enterprise users.

Opus 4.5 is built to produce documents, spreadsheets and presentations and can automate menial office tasks by using your computer and browser. That includes its deployment in Claude for Chrome, a browser extension that lets Claude do internet tasks for Max users.

This release puts all three Claude models in the 4.5 generation. Anthropic released Sonnet 4.5, its midlevel model, in September and Haiku 4.5, its smallest model, in October.

Advanced reasoning models like Opus are designed to handle complex, demanding tasks. While a smaller, cheaper large language model will provide an answer based on the probabilities in its training data, a reasoning model will rerun and refine its operations to get a better or more complete answer. This takes longer, but it means the AI can handle more difficult operations.

Reasoning models are particularly useful for complicated programming projects or intensive research. The downside is they are slower and more expensive to run, which is why companies often restrict them to paid plans or have strict limits on usage.

Technologies

New Spotify Feature Pulls Playlists Straight From Other Music Services

Moving to Spotify used to mean manually recreating your playlists or relying on third-party tools. Now, it’s seamless.

I use Spotify for hours every single day: on commutes, while cooking, during workouts, when walking my dog. Essentially, whenever life grants me a spare minute, I’m streaming Spotify. But even with all that listening, I’ve always wished the app had an easy way to scoop up the playlists I’d built on other music services. I’d call myself a Spotify loyalist, but there are some songs, such as covers or live versions, that are only available on other platforms.

Spotify finally delivered by recently rolling out a built-in feature that lets you import playlists from rival platforms directly into your library.

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Spotify’s new playlist transfer feature

Spotify announced late last week that it’s launching a new «Import your music» option in its mobile app. This feature, powered by TuneMyMusic, enables listeners to seamlessly import entire playlists from competing services directly into their Spotify library.

At launch, Spotify supports transfers from major platforms including Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, Pandora, SoundCloud and more.

The original playlists remain intact. Spotify doesn’t delete or alter them from the source app when it makes a copy in your Spotify account.

Why this matters for Spotify users

No more rebuilding your playlists from scratch: Previously, moving to Spotify meant manually recreating your playlists or relying on third-party tools. With this integration, Spotify handles the heavy lifting.
Unlimited transfers: Unlike some free third-party services that limit the number of songs or playlists you can transfer, Spotify’s in-app solution supports unlimited transfers.
Better personalization: Once your playlists are in Spotify, they feed directly into Spotify’s recommendation algorithms. That means personalized features like Daylist and Release Radar start getting smarter right away.
More to do with your music: After importing, you can remix your playlists by inviting friends to collaborate, designing custom cover art or adding transitions between songs if you’re a Premium user.

How to transfer your playlists to Spotify

Here’s a quick how-to so you can bring your favorite playlists over:

Open the Spotify mobile app on your phone.
Go to Your Library.
Scroll to the bottom. You should see a new option title, «Import your music». Tap that.
Follow the prompts to connect to TuneMyMusic. You’ll need to authenticate your account for the service you’re importing from.
Choose the platform you’re moving from (Apple Music, YouTube Music, SoundCloud, etc.).
Select the playlists you want to import.
From there, Spotify will copy them into your library. Once complete, you’ll find them in your Spotify «Playlists» list.