As the release of the iPhone 5 draws near, existing users, especially the loyal ones are looking to sell their older versions in the hope that they would purchase the new device. This is confirmed by eBay which has seen a marked increase in the number of customers looking to trade in their current iPhone’s through the online auctioneer’s “Instant Sale” program. The number of such users drastically increased after rumors about the new iPhone surfaced last week.
The Instant Sale program on eBay is rather simple to use as a user just has to submit the item that is being sold, describe the condition of it and list the accessories that may come with it. eBay then offers a proposition and if it is acceptable, the online auction site will handle all the shipping charges and take care of pick up and pay the owner via PayPal. This program serves eBay like third party trade in offers such as Gazelle or even the programs that manufacturers offer themselves when they release a new product. As opposed to the regular auctioning, the owner is assured of a sale and payment and doesn’t have to wait for other users to bid for the item.
According to eBay, traffic to the Instant Sale service and transactions through it pertaining to smartphones increased suddenly by 70%, which is in all probability because of the impending release of the iPhone 5. One would think that only existing iPhone users are looking to upgrade, but it appears that other smartphone users want to trade in too, showing the demand for Apple’s unique device. Over 100,000 smartphones were submitted to the program since last week and most of the Apple devices that were submitted were the iPhone 4S, 16GB.
While the iPhone 4S is by no means a vintage version of the iPhone, it does fit in with the pattern that Apple’s sales see when a new device is announced. Even last year, when the iPhone 4S was announced, 89% of the devices submitted to eBay were iPhones and eBay received a total of 375,000 submissions during the brief period. If the rumors and reports are to be believed, then the iPhone 5 will be released on September 12th and will likely go on sale on the 21st of the same month. There were also rumors of an iPad mini but there is no speculation as to when that will reach stores.
