iPhone 5 Debut Has Fueled a 256% Increase in eBay Trade-In Offers

Owners of the iPhone have accounted for 69% of the 256% increase in trade-in offers via eBay’s Instant Sale service after the announcement of the new iPhone 5. Android devices accounted for only 16% of the offers.

AppleInsider:

Since the iPhone 5 was announced on Sept. 12, eBay Instant Sale trade-in offers for legacy handsets increased 256 percent from the same period one week prior, according to metrics provided to AppleInsider.

The data only includes offers generated by eBay’s Instant Sale and don’t reflect actual trade-ins. The huge jump in offers is most certainly driven by existing iPhone users looking to sell their old handsets to finance the purchase of the new iPhone 5.

Offers generated for iOS devices amounted to 69% of all offers, followed by Android devices with 16%. Of the iPhone offers, 46% were for the iPhone 4, 40% for the iPhone 4S, 8% for the iPhone 3GS, and 6% for the iPhone 3G.

The top 5 devices that received offers were iOS phones.

1. iPhone 4 32GB AT&T
2. iPhone 4s 64GB
3. iPhone 4 16GB AT&T
4. iPhone 4s 16GB
5. iPhone 4s 32GB

eBay’s Instant Sale is the destination for my iPhone 4S, and my wife’s iPhone 4, upon the hoped for receipt of our new iPhone 5’s this coming Friday.

Also, before sending your phone off to any buyer, you should do the following. (Thanks to Glyde.com for the list.):

• Clean your phone. This seems like an easy step, but it’s one that’s easy to forget. Give your phone a thorough cleaning with a microfiber cloth.
• Wipe and back up your data. If you’re like most users, your phone has become your address book, music library, photo album and more. Back your files up to iCloud or your computer, and then wipe your phone to its factory settings. For easy instructions, check out http://glyde.com/glydecast/how-to/wipe-iphone/
• Call your carrier and deactivate your service. This is the last step in selling your phone and it’s an important one. If you don’t deactivate your service, many carriers actually consider the phone stolen and won’t let your excited new buyer activate it. If you’re staying with your current carrier, this should happen automatically, but if you’re changing carriers this round, be sure your old carrier has deactivated the phone.