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The Underrated Second-Hand iPhone Market

When we hear the word “Apple,” we always think of it as a luxury product because of its staggering price tags — from their smartphones down to its accessories. Even though they introduced a cheaper iPhone model in the form of the 2022 iPhone SE, most consumers still find it expensive because of its price tag of Php28,990USD 494INR 41,879EUR 471CNY 3,598 (the previous 2nd-gen iPhone SE was just Php24,490USD 417INR 35,378EUR 397CNY 3,039).

Instead of buying straight from Apple’s authorized resellers or even directly from the Apple Store, most consumers are looking out for an older brand new model, or a second-hand unit, but the latter seems to be less attractive because a used iPhone can be less attractive to some even if it is more affordable. But, that wasn’t always the case, since there are second-hand iPhone models that are good as new even if it was released a few years back.

Table of Contents

Where does it come from?

With Apple releasing new iPhone models each year, some consumers who own last year’s iPhone often do trade-ins to get the best deals for the latest iPhone model. The carrier trade-in companies then sold these old iPhone units without much refurbishment. Of course, prices will vary on the shape of the phone. Some units with a few bumps or scratches will then be sold at a much lower price, especially when it is tied down to a carrier.

That is why when you buy a second-hand iPhone on these online sellers, there are always two variants, the Factory unlocked model, which costs a little bit more than the other variant, which is a GPP model.

Some buyers actually thought that a GPP variant iPhone was fake, but these iPhones were just carrier-locked units in reality. GPP chip is just a small sheet of copper placed beneath your SIM card that temporarily unties an iPhone from a carrier. But then, there might be some issues on a GPP iPhone like signal strength issues, and sometimes even updating to the latest iOS can mess everything up; that is why it is cheaper.

What are the second-hand iPhones sold in the market?

All in all, there are 21 iPhone models that Apple has made, and 11 of those can still be used to this date starting with the iPhone 6s — since it was the last iPhone to support iOS 14, up to the new iPhone 12 line up. Most iPhones you might encounter when buying second-hand came from either Korea or the US is very rare to encounter a unit that is locally purchased

Although prices may vary on the unit’s condition, it is still cheaper than getting a brand new iPhone.

Value and Profit

iPhones have a good market value, and even today, iPhones released 4 years ago cost not less than PHP 20,000USD 341INR 28,892EUR 325CNY 2,482. According to a seller, they are buying it in bulk, costing them around PHP 500,000USD 8,520INR 722,300EUR 8,115CNY 62,050 for 30 pieces of iPhone X which costs approximately PHP 17,500USD 298INR 25,281EUR 284CNY 2,172 each unit. They were selling it for PHP 22,000USD 375INR 31,781EUR 357CNY 2,730 with complete accessories and even a replacement box. With the high demand for cheap iPhones, it isn’t possible to sell out all those 30 units with a huge mark-up.

The seller I interviewed didn’t disclose directly where they are getting the units, but she said that you could get one through Alibaba if you want to start this kind of business.

But why is it popular?

Apple products, in general, were costly for most people, and as the years go by, these expensive devices cannot skip depreciation; that is why most people were eyeing getting the older generation iPhones instead. Aside from it being more affordable, old iPhone models still are receiving software updates and can still perform well today, not to mention iPhones were one of the most well-built smartphones in the market — except for the iPhone 6’s bend gate issue. And for some reason, there is a slight novelty in owning an iPhone.

When you visit Greenhills, you’ll see that most of the smartphones they sell are iPhones. That is because iPhones are very easy to market because of their features, camera capabilities, and optimization of apps that an Android smartphone lacks.

Should you buy one?

There’s no doubt that some of the older iPhone models are still capable up to now; plus, these sellers also offer it for much more affordable prices. There’s nothing wrong with buying a second-hand iPhone from these resellers; however, being cautious and checking if everything is working before purchasing is a must. Meanwhile, there’s a second-hand iPhone buying guide in the mix, and we’ll put a link in this article once it becomes available.

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Arel Ebana

Arel studied Material Science Engineering at Mapúa University while working part-time as a multimedia producer in YugaTech. He is also a theater actor, cinematographer, and editor at Tanghalang SAWAKAS, and Vincentiments. He has been doing films for a year while doing stage performances for 5 years already.

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One Comment

johns laballad says:

2 years ago

I bought an iphone xs max 512gb made in Japan GPP way back Feb. 2019 and I don’t have any problem when it comes to updating of latest IOS I always updated it every single IOS comes out and everything went smoothly as the years gone by. I can turn off camera shutter sounds if I wanted to unlike before and no issue on wife, LTE, 4g connection. Now I don’t have any problem when it comes to switching of sim card it is like factory unlock unit. The only downside now is the battery, it easily drained fast as it aged as expected.
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