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The standing advice was to hold your old iPhone until the new one is announced, because trade-in credit supposedly peaks in launch week. That did not hold this year. Apple's own trade-in values for older iPhones fell on September 9 — the day of the event — by as much as $120, while iPad and Mac credits moved the other way.
Apple unveiled the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max on September 9, 2026, pricing them from $1,199 and $1,299. Apple did not announce any change to its trade-in programme that day. But according to reporting from The Mac Observer, individual model values recorded before and after the event show trade-in credit for older iPhones fell across the board, with the steepest declines on the newest, most expensive models still eligible for trade-in.
| Model | Before Sept 9 | After Sept 9 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 16 Pro | $630 | $510 | −$120 |
| iPhone 16 Pro Max | $720 | $610 | −$110 |
| iPhone 15 Pro Max | $530 | $455 | −$75 |
| iPhone 16 Plus | $485 | $430 | −$55 |
| iPhone 16 | $480 | $430 | −$50 |
| iPhone 15 Pro | $420 | $370 | −$50 |
| iPhone 14 Pro | $335 | $285 | −$50 |
| iPhone 14 Pro Max | $405 | $360 | −$45 |
| iPhone 16e | $310 | $270 | −$40 |
| iPhone 14 | $235 | $195 | −$40 |
| iPhone 13 Pro | $285 | $255 | −$30 |
| iPhone 13 | $205 | $175 | −$30 |
Values as recorded and reported by The Mac Observer, 10 September 2026. Each is an up-to ceiling for a device in good condition, not a guaranteed amount.
The pattern is consistent: the newer and more expensive the phone, the more credit it lost. Those are also the models whose owners were most likely to have been waiting for launch week to trade in — the exact behaviour the old advice recommended.
The same day's changes pushed iPad and Mac trade-in values up. Recorded values moved from $855 to $1,315 on MacBook Pro, $580 to $705 on MacBook Air, $480 to $620 on Mac mini, and $720 to $905 on iPad Pro. Mac Pro was unchanged. Apple has not explained either move on any page it publishes.
Set against the $1,199 iPhone 18 Pro at 256GB, before tax: at the earlier trade-in value of $630 the upgrade cost $569 net. At $510, it costs $689. The wait bought nothing and cost $120. An iPhone 16 Pro Max owner is $110 worse off on the same basis.
Ahead of the announcement, trade-in comparison site SellCell published a study — reported by MacRumors on August 25 — looking at the iPhone 15, 16 and 17 launches. Across those three cycles, trade-in values dropped for 117 of 156 tracked models, or 75%, in the ten-day window between Apple's announcement and the actual release. The iPhone 17 launch last year saw the steepest declines: 50 of 54 models tracked, 92.6%, lost value, averaging $36.46 per device. The single largest fall in that dataset was an iPhone 16 Plus 512GB, down $129; the steepest percentage loss was an iPhone 15 Plus 128GB, down 20.2%.
SellCell also surveyed 2,000 US iPhone owners and found 61.4% plan to keep their current iPhone until the replacement is in hand and set up, rather than trading in around the announcement — precisely the behaviour that this year's cut penalises. Apple had raised its own official trade-in estimates in early August, ahead of the announcement, which made the September 9 reversal more pronounced by comparison.
Trade-in credit is not just a consumer-finance detail. It is the mechanism that fills Grade A refurbished inventory. Every iPhone traded in against a new purchase becomes stock for a refurbisher, a carrier's certified pre-owned programme, or a marketplace listing within weeks. A cut in trade-in value the same week a new model launches does not reduce how many people upgrade — Apple's own price increases on the phones it kept selling suggest demand is holding — but it does change what sellers were paid for the devices now entering that pipeline, which flows through to the price and grading you see as a buyer over the following one to three months.
It is also, more simply, a reminder that Apple's trade-in estimator is a live, unannounced, adjustable number, not a fixed reference point. Neither AT&T nor Verizon had published its own iPhone 18 Pro trade-in offer as of September 10; carrier bill-credit trade-ins in the same period can reach up to $1,200, but arrive as credits over 24 to 36 months rather than instantly at checkout, and stop if you leave the plan early.
Yes. On September 9, 2026, the day Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, trade-in credit for older iPhones fell, in some cases by as much as $120. Apple did not announce the change and publishes no per-model table; the figures are values recorded for individual models before and after the change, reported by The Mac Observer on September 10.
The iPhone 16 Pro recorded the largest fall, from $630 to $510, a drop of $120. The iPhone 16 Pro Max fell from $720 to $610, down $110. Older and cheaper models lost less in dollar terms — the iPhone 13 fell $30, from $205 to $175.
No, they moved the opposite way on the same day. Recorded values rose from $855 to $1,315 on MacBook Pro, $580 to $705 on MacBook Air, $480 to $620 on Mac mini, and $720 to $905 on iPad Pro. Mac Pro was unchanged.
Not this cycle, for iPhone specifically. The standing advice was that trade-in credit peaks around launch week, but a SellCell study covering the iPhone 15, 16 and 17 launches found trade-in values dropped for 75% of tracked models in the window between announcement and release, and Apple's own iPhone 18 Pro cycle followed that pattern rather than breaking it.
Trade-in credit is the mechanism that fills refurbished inventory. A cut in trade-in value the same week a new model launches does not stop people upgrading — it just means more devices enter the resale and refurbishment pipeline over the following weeks, typically at grades and prices set by what sellers were paid for them, not by sentiment.
Trade-in values referenced here are recorded observations reported by third parties, not figures Apple publishes as a table. They change without notice and vary by device condition.