So You're Waiting for the White iPhone 4, What to do with Your Old One?

While many people are selling their old iPhone 3Gs and 3GS' right now to help pay for their upgrades, people waiting for the white are faced with a problem.  On the one hand, you want to get the most value out of the sale of your old iPhone.  On the other hand, you want to use your iPhone while you wait.  So I've taken some time to examine the best options.



Option 1: Sell Sell Sell!

The price is dropping fast at the online buyers' websites, and you can forget about eBay.  As the flood of old iPhones reaches its peak, they're going to continue to lose value as supply outstrips demand by vast margins.  If you want to maximize value, sell fast, sell hard, and sell now.  Of course, that leaves you with an iPhoneless gap where you'll have to pull out an old AT&T or unlocked crap-phone, or even pick one up on eBay for $10.00.  But you'll preserve the equity in your current handset so you can put it toward your white iPhone 4.  If you do sell now, make sure to save the proceeds somewhere safe!  You don't want to accidentally drain away your iPhone money.  That equity is your ticket to an inexpensive upgrade.

Sellers' tip: the best prices I've found today are on Bewoop.com.  They're still offering nearly $300.00 for a 32 GB 3GS in good condition, shipping included.  This definitely won't last.

Option 2: Save and Sell Later

If you think you can handle saving a couple hundred bucks, you should be confident that your 32 GB will retain at least $100.00 of value through the end of July.  So use it carefully, and start pinching those pennies.  Put it away in a safe place, and as above in option 1, don't touch that money!  It's your iPhone money!

Option 3: Buy Black Now, Sell It Right Away and Buy Unsubsidized White

If you were to, hypothetically, go wait in line for a black iPhone 4 and immediately turn around and list it on eBay, you'd make enough to recoup your costs and then buy a white iPhone 4 at the unsubsidized price.  Then, you can do whatever you want with your old one, because you will actually profit from the black one you buy tomorrow.  Not a bad way to go if you can handle buying a black one, not even opening the box, and then turning around and gouging black iPhone buyers on eBay or Craigslist.  I've seen some people selling their pre-orders successfully for as much as $900.00.  (If you jailbreak it and unlock it first, as much as $1,250.00 is possible).

Option 4: Give Up

You could just pick up a lame Android handset and develop an obnoxious ego with included logic deficiency.  Oh, wait.  That would suck.  If you pick this one, life has made you a doormat and you should consider a more permanent type of giving up.  Like buying a snuggie and moving into your parents' basement.  Please.  Don't be a Droidbag.

Option 5: Be Rich

If you're loaded, you can just dump your old iPhone 3GS in the trash, give it to a poor friend, or even better, toss it in the drawer with your iPhone 3G and your 2 original iPhones to wait patiently for your estate sale.  In fact, you probably should just go ahead and get a black iPhone 4 and a white one, so you can do Facetime calls to yourself while you wait for the feature to be implemented on devices your poor friends and family own.  Hell, pick up a third one.  They're pretty cool looking, and you could display it in a glass case or wall mount it or even use it as an expensive coaster.  The bottom line is, we all wish we could go with option 5.  So if you're reading this and thinking, "Yeah, this sounds like the way I'll go," I'll just say it for all of us.  You suck, you jerk.  But not as much as the basement-dwelling snuggie-clad Droidbag in option 4.

However you do it, the important thing is to have a plan of action.  Someday very soon, you'll be opening up your new white iPhone 4, and all will be right with the world.  So to all you future white iPhoneers out there, keep your spirits up.  The wait will be worth it.