You have ordered the iPhone 18, or you are about to. That decision took a while. The next one usually gets no thought at all: what happens to the phone already in your hand?
Most old iPhones end up in a drawer by default. That is not a plan, it is a delay, and an expensive one. Here are the real options, honestly compared, plus what your old phone is worth today and how to hand it over cleanly.
Apple's Surprise and Shine event was Wednesday 9 September at 18:00 UK time. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max were announced there, with pre-orders opening on Saturday 12 September at 1 p.m. UK time and phones on sale from Friday 18 September. Those dates are confirmed by Apple. Your old phone has a price today too, and you can check it in about a minute.
Option 1: Sell It for Cash#
The straightforward route, and the one most people underestimate. Get an instant online quote for your exact model, storage and condition, lock it, and post the phone with a free Royal Mail tracked label when you are ready. We inspect it and pay by bank transfer the same working day after inspection.
The price lock is what makes this work around an upgrade. A TechLoop quote is held for 21 days, which covers the gap between pre-orders on 12 September and the first deliveries from 18 September. You fix today's price and keep your old phone until the new one is set up.
Why lock early? Supply. Within days of an Apple event, a large number of people commit to upgrading at once, and their old handsets reach the resale market together over the following weeks. More stock means buyers can be choosier, and prices for the outgoing models soften. A locked quote makes that movement our problem, not yours.
In Swindon you can drop the phone in at Cheney Manor, and across Wiltshire SN postcodes we collect from your doorstep for free.
Option 2: Trade It In for Credit#
Apple, carriers and some retailers will take your old phone at the point of purchase and knock the value off the new one, or spread it across your bill. It is convenient.
Understand the trade-off before you tap accept. Credit only spends in one place. Apple credit buys Apple products. Carrier credit comes off that carrier's bill, often over the length of the contract rather than up front. Fine if you were going to spend the money there anyway. If not, it quietly removes your other options: a different carrier's deal, a refurbished handset, or simply keeping the cash.
A cash quote is money. It goes into your bank account and does not care where you buy your iPhone 18 from.
We will not tell you which pays more for your specific phone, because that depends on the model, the condition and the day. Get both numbers and compare like with like: a bill credit spread over two years is not the same as a bank transfer this week.
Option 3: Hand It Down#
If someone in your household needs a phone, this is often the right answer and no article should talk you out of it. An iPhone 15 or 16 is a very good phone for a parent, a teenager or a partner whose handset is on its last legs.
Two things to do properly. First, wipe it and set it up fresh for the new owner; a shared Apple Account causes months of odd problems with messages and photos. Second, actually hand it over. "I will give it to my mum" turns into a drawer if it is not done the week the new phone arrives.
Option 4: Keep It as a Backup#
This feels sensible. It usually is not.
A backup is worth having for a specific reason: you travel a lot, your job depends on being reachable, you have broken a phone before. If the reason is "just in case", be honest about what happens next. The phone goes in a drawer and comes out a year or two later worth a fraction of what it is worth today.
Used iPhones lose value every month, steepest for recent models in the weeks after a launch. A drawer does not earn that back. If you want a backup, sell this one now and keep an older, cheaper handset instead.
Option 5: Recycle It#
If the phone is badly damaged, ancient, or simply not one anyone wants, recycle it. Do not bin it. Lithium batteries and household waste do not mix, and every phone contains metals worth recovering.
Before you assume it is worthless, check. We buy phones in Poor condition, which covers cracked screens and faults, priced on repair and parts value rather than looks. More in our guide to recycling an old phone for money.
What Your Old iPhone Is Worth Today#
Our top Pristine quotes at the time of writing (8 September 2026). Each is the ceiling for a flawless, unlocked handset at the highest storage tier for that model. Lower storage, wear or a network lock brings the figure down, and prices move with the market, so treat this as a snapshot.
| Your old iPhone | Up to (Pristine, top storage) |
|---|---|
| iPhone 16 Pro Max | £711 |
| iPhone 16 Pro | £611 |
| iPhone 15 Pro Max | £511 |
| iPhone 16 | £476 |
| iPhone 14 Pro Max | £401 |
| iPhone 15 | £356 |
| iPhone 14 | £261 |
| iPhone 13 | £231 |
If you are coming from an iPhone 17, the numbers are higher and the launch-window exposure is larger. That phone gets its own article.
How condition changes the number#
Our smartphone grades run roughly Pristine 100%, Good 85%, Fair 70%, Poor around 26%. On an iPhone 16 Pro Max at the top storage tier, that ladder looks like this:
| Grade | Roughly worth |
|---|---|
| Pristine | £711 |
| Good | £604 |
| Fair | £497 |
| Poor | £184 |
The Fair-to-Poor step is the expensive one: roughly £310 on this phone, the difference between a scuffed handset and a cracked one. Keep the case on until the day you pack it.
Transfer Day: The Right Order#
Two ways people trip up here: posting a phone still locked to their Apple Account, and wiping before the transfer finished. Do the steps in this order and neither happens.
Back up the old phone
iCloud or a Mac/PC. Wait until it says the backup completed. Do this the night before your new phone arrives.
Set up the new iPhone with Quick Start
Hold the two phones together and follow the prompts. Photos, messages, apps and most logins move across. Our iPhone-to-iPhone transfer guide covers the wired option and what to do about WhatsApp.
Live on the new phone for a day
Open your photos, messages and banking app. Once everything is there, the old phone is a device you are selling.
Sign out of iCloud and turn off Find My
Settings, tap your name, scroll down, Sign Out. This is the step that removes Activation Lock. Skip it and the phone cannot be processed by anyone.
Erase All Content and Settings
Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPhone, Erase All Content and Settings. The full walkthrough is in our factory reset guide.
Remove the SIM or delete the eSIM
Pull the physical SIM. For an eSIM, transfer it to the new phone during setup or delete it from the old one before you erase.
Pack and post
Case off, phone in the box or a padded envelope, free tracked label on. If you locked a quote earlier, check the expiry date first.
Two Kinds of iPhone 18 Upgrader#
Everything above is about the phone you are replacing. There is a second group this month with a different phone to sell.
You are upgrading and selling the old one. Your iPhone 16, 15 or 14 is usually worth more now, before launch supply hits the market, than it will be later in the year. Check the number, lock it for 21 days, and post the phone once the new one is set up. That is the whole strategy.
You have a sealed iPhone 18 you do not need. Carrier upgrades, duplicate orders and change-of-heart purchases all produce brand new, unopened phones. A sealed, unopened handset grades as Pristine, and now that the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max have been announced we expect to be buying them once they are live on our site. Our guide to selling an iPhone upgrade covers how that works and what to check first.
Both paths start in the same place.
TechLoop is an independent Swindon business. We are not affiliated with Apple.