I have 2 iPad pros (had a work benefit that gave us money each year for random things and the only thing out of the list I felt was useful was an iPad so got a new one both years I had the benefit). I have an 11” iPad Pro and a 12.9” M2 iPad Pro. I’m thinking of getting rid of them for the new M4. I’m trying to decide which size to get and have been swapping between the two I have now to see if I have a preference and really see the benefit of both sizes. I do have the Magic Keyboard for the 11” and an Apple Pencil as well. My question is, should I trade these iPads into Apple for the M4 or try to sell them Privately? I am in the UK but they are US models as I moved here a few months ago, if that matters.

TL,DR should I trade in my 2 iPad pros to Apple or sell them privately?

Thank you!!

About 8 months ago I bought a Base Model M1 MacBook Air ($1299 here in Canada + AppleCare= $1550). The laptop has been great and has handled everything I’ve thrown at it especially video editing…so no performance issues to date. I’ve now seen the new 14inch pro and really want it! Also the 8gb ram is fine for now…not sure about the future tho.

Problem is Apple is only giving me $440 trade in value for my Air. It’s a great laptop and is worth way more than $440. And it’s in perfect condition too. Why does Apple do this? Don’t they know they are devaluing their own product…promoting trade in yet ripping people off with the value amount?

I've used Apple's Trade-in program several times over the years, every time with notebooks. The last time was 3 years ago when I traded in an Intel MacBook Air for a M1 Pro MBP, went off perfectly, without a hitch.

I know that the program isn't the best in terms of value, undercutting what could be gotten from other places by hundreds, but it's so simple. Or at least on the surface it's supposed to be. Now, I've heard over the recent years that the Mac trade in program has turned into a hellhole, but I have had good luck with them before so I went that route for the convenience.

How wrong I was to do that. Here's what went down:

Ordered m4 pro MBP on Dec 31 at the Apple Store, and since they didn't have the model I wanted in stock, we had it delivered, but before I left I wanted to cover my bases and had them look at my old MacBook due to the rumors I'd heard, he said it looked great. Jan 6 I got that "today's the day" text and got the trade in sent back Jan 7. Smooth so far. Enjoying the benefits of the newer chip, happy with my purchase. Jan 26th I receive an email, "Your trade in value has changed," immediately my thoughts went back to all of those horror stories I had heard in recent years. Sure enough, $850 in trade in value down to $0 due to "LCD display burn in damage/streaks/discoloration across the screen." Only one problem, there was no discoloration or streaks. The only problem with the Mac in any way is normal grime imprints of the keyboard deck.

So at this point, the logical thing to do was call Apple, which I did. The (lovely) Apple representative looked at the pictures from the trade in agency and agreed that nothing seemed to be wrong. She said she would put in a note and send it through again and everything should be fine. Okay. Cool. A little roadblock, but nothing too bad.

Feb 6th I receive another email, this one stating that they just decided to send the Mac back and charge me the extra grand. Received the trade in Mac back Feb 10. So here I am with my old Mac, I boot it and go to a white screen website to check and sure enough, there's nothing wrong.

So I'm left to conclude that the reason was the normal grime outline of the keyboard deck on the display that is seemingly impossible to prevent. I'm going to include pictures here of the display and the grime outline.

Some astute viewers may notice that on the bottom left and right of the display there is a dimmed portion of the screen. However, that was entirely normal for the 2021 MBPs. I have 4 2021 MBPs in my immediate circle and they all have the same dimmed portions on both sides of the display. I even had mine replaced under warranty and the replaced one had the exact same dimmed areas. Surely the trade in partner for the world's richest company knows that. The guy at the Apple Store sure did.

I had heard horror stories of the Mac trade in partner, but I didn't know it had gotten this bad. I have had Apple's trade in program for the iPhone accept phones that looked like they had been shaken in a bag of nails, and I get turned away for something as small as this.

You can blame the trade in partner as much as you want, but at the end of the day the program has Apple's name on it and, being the biggest company on the planet, they have to take responsibility for it. This is the opposite of what I've come to know from the company and I'm incredibly disappointed that a month and a half later I'm sitting here with a perfectly good MacBook and an $1000 charge on my card for no good reason.

I was trusting that Apple was doing device trade-in, not a third-party. I wish that I had come to Reddit and the internet before I had traded.

I sent a pristine 11 Pro Max that had never left its case. I even took video of it before I sent it. The third-party is claiming that the camera is broken, when it was fully functional before I sent my phone. Now, they’re sending me back a broken phone that was once totally perfect.

Does anyone happen to know if there’s any way to seek legal recourse? This isn’t right.

Either way. ONLY trade in your device in-person. I would never do or recommend this method ever again.

Edit: Thank you to everyone who has solid advice and info. I’m truly glad for the people who had good experiences, because that is what I expected for myself, but I’m also confused at all of the flippant responses and downvotes. I did originally believe that Apple was doing the trade-in in-house, which I will accept as my own oversight. I’m not afraid to drive to trade-in, but my purchase was a gift that I was using my trade-in for and my closest store was sold out of the device. Not only that, many people live hundreds and hundreds of miles away from Apple Stores. It’s definitely up to personal preference and what is available to you; I will ONLY do in-store trades from now on, but may my experience be a cautionary tale to the next person who needs to trade-in online: take photos, videos of functionality, and get your serial number prepared just in case! I am not the first person who has experienced this issue, and I’m sure that I will not be the last. Ounce of prevention, as it were.

After hearing the woeful stories about trade-ins gone bad, I decided to go another route. I went to an AT&T store and they tried to sell me all kinds of services that I didn't want, so I left. I went on apple.com to see their trade-in values, and sadly my iPhone 12 Pro was only worth $360 to them, whereas AT&T was going to give me $1,000.00 towards a new phone. But, I found this on Apple's website and that changed everything: https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/carrier-offers. Basically, go through Apple's website and pick your phone's configuration. On the part of the page that deals with paying for it, you will see an option to pay for it in full, or finance it. On that finance button, there is some blue text that says something about Carrier Financing. Click that and your AT&T $1000.00 trade-in shows up. Complete the purchase and set up an appointment at your Apple store.

At the store, they took my old phone, asked me if I was ready to erase it, and then they ran some diagnostics and other verification stuff (I saw him take pics of the front and back of the phone etc.), and that was that. They brought me my new phone, walked me through the setup and data migration, allowed me to ask any questions, etc. My old phone was placed into a brown envelope with a label, and an email was sent to me to say that they received my old phone. When I clicked that email later that day, it showed me that my trade-in was approved because the old phone was already verified in the Apple store.

That's it!

TL:DR: Go to https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/carrier-offers and buy your phone there. Do the whole experience with Apple and have a hassle-free trade-in experience.

I sent my 10.5" iPad Pro to Apple's third party trade-in centre in excellent condition. The initial trade-in value was £105. Not amazing but better than nothing for an old iPad.

I've just received an email with a revised value of £0, because apparently there is "LCD display burn in damage/streaks/discoloration across the screen". Which is nonsense as the screen was in perfect condition when I sent it to them.

What is going on? I'm intrigued to see what condition it's in when I get it back because if I find it's in worse condition than it was when I sent it in I will be livid. There seems to be no way to dispute any of this though. It's quite a bad look for Apple, but they clearly don't give a s**t.

can i still get full trade in value if there’s a tiny chip mark on the lens? all the cameras work perfectly whole phone is in perfect condition just the minor chip on the camera.

"In addition to the changed values, Apple has stopped accepting 12-inch MacBook trade-ins."

So I have the iPad Pro 11 inch 256Gb. I got it at the beginning of this year and I have barely used it. It does not even have a blemish or a scratch on it. Now I see the new iPad Pro is out and I am interested in upgrading but the trade in isn’t very high. I chatted with Apple and they said if I go In Person to an Apple Store, they will potentially offer more for it.

How true is this? And how much more do you think I could get if they determine it is perfect.

thinking of getting 14" MBPMax (space black) and trading in my 16" MBPMax 2021 (space gray).

Apple is giving me $1070 for trade in value. curious if I should accept or sell elsewhere for higher price than what apple gives me? well kept computer for basic stuffs, nothing heavy use at all since bought.

just want to get some opinions, thanks !

Selecting a trade in service now redirects you to Likewize, Apple’s new service provider for trade ins.

Hi everyone, I’m planning to trade in my 2020 MacBook pro directly at an Apple Store when buying a new one. Has anyone done this before? Do they inspect the device on the spot, or is there a waiting period? Were there any unexpected issues or delays during the process? Also, was the trade-in value accurate compared to what Apple estimated online? Thank you very much 🫶🏻🫶🏻

Hey all. After reading reviews on here, I'm a bit nervous about sending my iPhone 12 and my wife's iPhone 12 Pro via the trade-in program. I've read it's through a 3rd party called Phobio. Is this still the case? I'm also concerned because my iPhone has very superficial scratches on the back (front has a glass protector so it's flawless). The scratches on my phone are those kind you can only see in the right light/angle, so not super obvious or detrimental to performance and function. So in summary, has anyone had a good experience with trade-ins via mail as opposed to the store? I already have an order online and expect to receive my new iPhone's tomorrow. Apple support let me know that I can just return those new phones at the store and just ignore the trade-in. Is it worth the 1 hour drive to go to the Apple Store instead for the trade-in?

I'm budgeting to get a new phone, it says I'll get $120 Canadian for my iPhone 8, but is that one of those things that turns out to be total BS? They only give you the money after it's been received and inspected from what the chat rep told me. Thanks.

Clean the outside of your phone as much as possible before trading in your phone at the Apple store. They take pictures of the phone as part of the evaluation process and these photos are analyzed online as part of the value determination process. A small amount of dust can cut your valuation in half. It happened to me today and the Apple guy said it is fairly common.

Background - I took my phone into the Apple store within the 14 day trade-in window and already knew the maximum possible valuation from the Apple website. I am one who really takes care of their equipment and knew the phone was in pristine condition. To be sure nothing happened on the way to the Apple Store, I even kept the phone in its case and left the screen protector in place. When the Apple guy took it out of the case and removed the screen protector, there was some dust on the backside of the phone. It wasn't much and mainly in a ring around the cutout on the back of my case (that reveals the Apple logo on the back of the phone). That is all it took to cut my valuation in half. Luckily, the Apple guy was honest and said he thought he could get a better valuation if he took it back to the back of the store and cleaned the dust off. He did this and then reran the evaluation. At that point, I was offered the maximum value that I had previously seen on the Apple website. Lesson learned. Take a cleaning cloth and cleaner spray to use right before you hand them the phone for an evaluation!

I have always kept my old iPhones up to the 13 Pro. I realize that I am accumulating iPhones and that I will never use them again. I now have a 15 pro and I was wondering if for the iPhone 17 I should have my 15 Pro taken back by Apple the prices are less interesting than selling it on the internet but it's still better than keeping it in a box No ?