Apple launched 4 new iPhone 16 fashions in September 2024. Whereas the announcement, hype, and launch occurred simply as shoppers and gamers within the cellular trade have come to count on, what occurred subsequent within the secondary market was one thing of a shock. 

iPhone 16: Secondary Market Efficiency

Barely a month after its launch, purchaser’s regret kicked in for the iPhone 16 and returned gadgets started flowing via B-Inventory’s B2B on-line public sale resale channel. Whereas the timing for this early wave of returns has been roughly in step with prior years, the pricing is actually not. Often, B2B bulk transactions don’t method retail costs, however within the case of the iPhone 16 collection gadgets, the secondary market costs are surpassing retail. Within the first spherical of auctions, which have been for bulk portions of the iPhone 16 Professional, pricing per unit fetched above retail.

Whereas this phenomenon isn’t unprecedented—we noticed one thing comparable occur with the iPhone 12 shortly after launch—it’s actually uncommon and price exploring. 

One month post-release, a practical and cosmetically sound, latest-generation iPhone sometimes fetches 82-89% of the unique retail worth; this time the iPhone 16 variants bought for 101.5% of retail worth. Particularly, the typical worth per unit was $1,016  (in contrast with $999 retail). How might this occur? 

Why would B2B secondary market costs be increased than retail?

There are a couple of completely different potentialities:

Larger Costs in Larger-MSRP Areas

New iPhone 16s may very well be in any other case unavailable in sure configurations and sure areas. For instance: a majority of those gadgets will find yourself exterior of the US. The telephones are bought into geographies with increased MSRPs from Apple like Asia, South America, and the Center East, in addition to areas during which provide from the OEM can not sustain with demand.

Resellers Take Upfront Losses to Safe Rewards & Upsells

A portion of those gadgets may also keep home: along with bodily digital/cellular phone resale shops, these gadgets will get bought on e-commerce platforms like eBay. In lots of instances {the marketplace} might run promotions or provide incentives to sellers with this stock in order that their website can turn out to be a vacation spot for patrons in search of the most recent tech, so the vendor is prepared to pay the next worth. Alongside these strains, small mother and pop retailers or carriers are sometimes prepared to take a loss on {hardware} in trade for promoting a plan or ancillary service like insurance coverage.

Regional Tax Variations

Gross sales tax arbitrage additionally comes into play given the excessive worth of those new fashions—there could also be cash to be made for sellers prepared to purchase and promote throughout markets with important pricing and tax variations.

What else are we seeing within the iPhone secondary market?

With cellular trade-in charges considerably down and longer improve cycles, demand and pricing for used iPhones on the secondary market are up. Here’s a fast snapshot of among the different tendencies we’re seeing:

• Round 50 million iPhone 12 gadgets are getting into the improve window, and Apple is showcasing iPhone 16s’ enhancements by benchmarking its CPU, GPU, and digital camera efficiency in opposition to the iPhone 12 collection. The OEM additionally referred to as out iPhone 12 collection customers might commerce in to safe $800-1,000 in credit score towards an iPhone 16 variant
  
• Used pricing for iPhone 12 is holding robust: the generations to come back out because the 12 launch has given shoppers few compelling causes to improve, on condition that they have been all similar to the iPhone 12 by way of perform and type issue.
• iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Professional Max are at present the highest two used iPhone fashions bought throughout B-Inventory’s B2B platform.
  
• Within the mixture, used pricing for prime iPhone fashions peaked on the finish of Q2 after which remained constant in Q3. General, pricing has remained excessive attributable to an absence of provide from shoppers holding onto their gadgets for longer.
  
• Wholesale pricing for the iPhone 15 Professional Max goes for as much as 74% of unique retail, with little to no depreciation.
  
• Even with the brand new Apple Intelligence function, the market has tempered its expectations for iPhone 16 gross sales. Presently, no large improve cycle is anticipated as iPhone fashions 12 via 16 stay principally unchanged.

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