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Why iOS 11.3 will lower iPhone resale value and make Craigslist buyers pickier and harder to find

sniffies

sniffies

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jul 31, 2005
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You can blame the battery life indicator for it

While it's nice to know how healthy it is, it's guaranteed to become one of the first questions asked by your potential second-hand buyer. And god forbid it's anything lower than 99% because if it is, prepare for a bargain war.

It may not be a big deal today or tomorrow, but in a year or two, things will change, for sure

Whenever I sell my used Mac, the first question my buyer asks is warranty, the second - battery health

Expect the same with iPhones very soon

And if you think that most won't even know such a feature exists, even the ignorant learn eventually

P.S. Just to be clear, I’m not upset about the feature. Am merely pointing out that it may affect the iPhone resale market in the future.
 
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sniffies said:
You can blame the battery life indicator for it

While it's nice to know how healthy it is, it's guaranteed to become one of the most important questions asked by your potential second-hand buyer. And god forbid it's anything lower than 99% because if it is, they will demand a $200 discount.
Click to expand...

Soooo.... Are you saying battery health is unimportant?

And if they demand a $200 discount, go down to apple, change the battery, and you will now have a selling point.

If you were a buyer, wouldn't you demand a working battery?
 
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sniffies said:
You can blame the battery life indicator for it

While it's nice to know how healthy it is, it's guaranteed to become one of the most important questions asked by your potential second-hand buyer. And god forbid it's anything lower than 99% because if it is, they will demand a $200 discount.
Click to expand...

People with slow phones will know why they’re slow, fix the battery and perhaps keep their old handset longer.

So it could push up resale values.
 
sniffies said:
You can blame the battery life indicator for it

While it's nice to know how healthy it is, it's guaranteed to become one of the most important questions asked by your potential second-hand buyer. And god forbid it's anything lower than 99% because if it is, they will demand a $200 discount.
Click to expand...
$200 for a $29-$79 fix? I think your exaggerating the effect considerably..
 
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My wife has an X and doesn't know anything about it in terms of ios versions or anything like that.

My guess is that very few people will worry about this. I see a good number of people on swappa asking which version of ios is installed on the phone (jailbreak) but the vast majority of people just want a good deal and no cracks on the screen.

Battery info helps, but I don't think the majority of people who have or want an iphone even know it exists.
 
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It may not be a big deal today or tomorrow, but in a year or two, things will change, for sure

Whenever I sell my used Mac, the first question my buyer asks is warranty, the second - battery health

Expect the same with iPhones very soon

And if you think that most won't even know such a feature exists, even the ignorant learn eventually
 
MacDawg said:
I'm on Apple's upgrade program, so won't make any difference at all to me
I've never sold a phone and I have had them all since the 3GS
I passed a few along to family, but never sold
I still have many of them from before the upgrade program
Click to expand...

Selling my old iPhone is the only way I can financially justify buying a new one.
Betting there are a lot of people like this.
 
Still not seeing what the problem is. You are upset because the buyers will be able to tell you have a crap battery in a device you are selling?

Perhaps a better use of energy is being upset that Apple is using crap batteries...

Spend $30-$100 to change the battery, or sell the phone after a year of use. Problem solved.

If you were buying a used phone, would you pay the same for a phone with a 3 year old battery as the same model with a brand new battery? Wouldn't you want to know?

EDIT: And if you really are changing your phone that frequently, it might be an advantage for you to do the Apple trade-in program. 0% interest, and costs about the same amount you will lose after selling the used phone.
 
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JT2002TJ said:
Still not seeing what the problem is. You are upset because the buyers will be able to tell you have a crap battery in a device you are selling?

Perhaps a better use of energy is being upset that Apple is using crap batteries...

Spend $30-$100 to change the battery, or sell the phone after a year of use. Problem solved.

If you were buying a used phone, would you pay the same for a phone with a 3 year old battery as the same model with a brand new battery? Wouldn't you want to know?
Click to expand...
Who claimed apple uses cheap batteries?
 
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JT2002TJ said:
The entire reason for the snowball leading to the battery meter was defective batteries causing reboots under high processing.
Click to expand...
That was the 6. This is my first iPhone, but so far my 8 plus is holding up well. I have a family member with a launch 6s that still works great. I don't think the batteries are bad, but some people abuse them and get less longevity.
 
sniffies said:
It may not be a big deal today or tomorrow, but in a year or two, things will change, for sure

Whenever I sell my used Mac, the first question my buyer asks is warranty, the second - battery health

Expect the same with iPhones very soon

And if you think that most won't even know such a feature exists, even the ignorant learn eventually
Click to expand...

I think most people know that when they buy a used old phone, say an iPhone 6. They know it won't act as a brand new device, battery life included.
 
tonybarnaby said:
That was the 6. This is my first iPhone, but so far my 8 plus is holding up well. I have a family member with a launch 6s that still works great. I don't think the batteries are bad, but some people abuse them and get less longevity.
Click to expand...

Good thing we have a new battery health beta, to go by more than "still works great."

I have a buddy that said their phone still works great when I could clearly see the slowness. I suggested they go to Apple and have them test it (they didn't have 11.3 beta), and after going to Apple it failed the in store battery health test.
 
JT2002TJ said:
Good thing we have a new battery health beta, to go by more than "still works great."

I have a buddy that said their phone still works great when I could clearly see the slowness. I suggested they go to Apple and have them test it (they didn't have 11.3 beta), and after going to Apple it failed the in store battery health test.
Click to expand...
How much stock can we put in a beta feature, though? I'm glad to have it, but it's in beta for a reason.
 
tonybarnaby said:
How much stock can we put in a beta feature, though? I'm glad to have it, but it's in beta for a reason.
Click to expand...

I brought my original battery iphone 6 to the apple store, they determined the battery failed, and they said they ordered the battery for me. This was before the beta came out. I got the phone back and once the beta came out it showed "Maximum Capacity 80%". This was enough for me to go to Apple's advanced support where they eventually offered to express replace the phone because of a lack of batteries.

So it was able to show an apple confirmed bad battery. And I was able to confirm that my Apple store did not actually change the battery like I paid for them to do.
 
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People buying (i)phones have for a long time asked to see screenshots of CoconutBattery etc. with the device's battery stats showing, so this really isn't anything new and will, in the long run, change pretty much nothing.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong and it will change everything.
 
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