“Best Buy says it had the biggest day ever for its four-year old trade-in program on June 1,” Edward C. Baig reports for USA Today.
“That’s when the electronics retailer gave customers the opportunity to trade in iPhone 4 and 4S models and get a ‘free’ iPhone 5 in return,” Baig reports. “Best Buy won’t disclose just how many older iPhones were turned in that day. But the company is about to re-launch the promotion on Friday and keep it going for 9 days.”
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Baig reports, “Under the program, customers who trade in an older working model iPhone 4 or 4S can earn a credit of up to $150, which can be used to cover the purchase of a new 16 gigabyte iPhone 5, at the retailer’s current $149.99 price. The price factors in a $50 instant rebate that stays in effect until June 29.”
More details in the full article here.
Wait. I don’t get it. What’s the catch. Tax? I can pay tax.
I WANT AN IPHONE 5. WHAT AM I MISSING. THIS IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.
The catch for me is: “…new 16 gigabyte iPhone 5”.
I do NOT want to trade my 4S with 64 gigabytes for a 16 gigabyte iPhone 5. Especially when my 2 year contract is up in November and the next iteration of the iPhone will likely be out then. The 4s is good enough for me until then.
An iPhone 4 in excellent condition can be sold on eBay for $300 or more. Meanwhile, BestBuy is paying you only $150 for it. The new iPhone 5 costs $650. Even with Best Buy’s “instant rebate”, it is still $600 (for a 16GB model). So, instead of getting $300 (half of the new phone’s value), BB will only give you one quarter, and you get to pay the remaining $450 (over the two-year contract with your carrier).
There is nothing exceptionally good about this offer. It is in fact rather bad, but that’s fairly common; whenever a big chain store offers trade-in of old devices, they pay no more than half of market value for the traded device. Most people don’t know the real value of their device, and these offers make it easy and convenient to replace old devices with new ones.
This is actually not a great deal at all. An iPhone 4 in good condition can fetch up to $300 on eBay or CraigsList.
iPhone 5 (16GB model) costs $650, and even with Best Buy’s instant rebate, it is still $600 and up. So, your old iPhone 4 would normally pay for half of that new device, but BB only gives you 25% off.
This is not unusual. Whenever big retailers offer trade-in deals, these are almost always barely half of the actual value of the device (and often even less). Most people don’t know the real value of their old phone, and the convenience of trading in the old one for the new one makes it appealing. But a good deal it certainly is not.
Apologies for two posts; my browser never showed the first one, so I thought it never went through, and wrote another one.
AT&T already does this… Renews your 2 year contract
You have to do the two year contract
You have no idea what you’re talking about. It absolutely renews your 2 year contract! Wise up!!
Never mind. I miss read your sentence.
Never mind? How about something like “I’m sorry. Not only did I misread your post, but I was a total dick about it when I did. My sincere apologies.”
There has to be one HUGE local & international business in used iPhone 3GS & 4 models.
Irrelevant to this article but if anyone is interested Woz is on at 9pm EDT in CNN with Piers Morgan
Thanks but Woz is irrelevant to me.
Have to agree with you this time. Though I do have the ultimate respect for his past accomplishments.
They’re doing this because Target Mobile did a better offer for 2 weeks and spanked Best Buy in their promo.
Best Buy? Are they the bright sparks who decided to open stores over here in the UK amidst economic meltdown a couple of years ago and lasted a matter of weeks? The one near me was only open 4 weeks and then stock was liqiduated, got some good bargains though with 75% off official Apple cables/chargers etc. 🙂
“Best Buy” = just the name of the shop: one of THE WORST PLACES TO BUY THINGS, but even worse if you should, God forbid, need to RETURN something.
They’ll never see another penny of mine, and their certain demise can be none too soon.
Very nice indeed.