Buying An iPhone 5? Sell Your Old Phone At uSell.com

This post is sponsored by uSell, a price-comparison website that helps you find the best price when it's time to sell your iPhone, Blackberry, smartphones, and other used electronics. Find reputable buyers for your used devices on uSell. #selliPhone

Congrats on your snazzy new iPhone 5. The retina display is brilliant, the camera takes fantastic pictures, and the battery is the envy of all your friends. But now what do you do with your old phone?

Options For Your Existing Devices

The obvious answer is "sell it," but where? And how much should you charge?

You could sell it to your mobile carrier, but you won't make market rate, particularly if your phone is more than a few months old. Auctions are a popular option for the adventurous, because they pay better than the carriers do, but they're a gamble. Buyers change their minds, you might price your phone too high or low. Even if you do find a buyer at an agreeable, you still have to worry about packing, shipping and payment.

If you want to skip the auction circus and get on with enjoying your new iPhone, you could always sell your phone to a reseller. Resellers take the guesswork out of device sales, quoting you a fair, fixed price, and often provide free packaging and shipping. You send the phone, they send a check, and you both part ways happy.

The trick with resellers is finding the best deal. One reseller may be able to move AT&T phones, but have trouble with Verizon devices, for example, so payouts between resellers can vary by more than $100 for the same device.

uSell.com: A Reseller-Comparison Shopping Engine

That's where uSell.com comes in. uSell partners with dozens of resellers and helps you find the right one for your device. Just answer a few questions about your iPhone's model, carrier and condition, and uSell returns a list of resellers that are interested. You can sort the list by uSell's own "best fit," customer reviews, or price.

Those prices are actually pretty good. We checked eBay for sold iPhone 4S listings over the past month, and uSell's reseller offers were extremely competitive. A 64GB Verizon 4S tended to sell for $220 to $285 on eBay, before fees and shipping. uSell found a fee-free $235. The same phone on AT&T's network went for $150 to $320 on eBay, and uSell found us an even $300, with free shipping and no hassle. They even found a buyer for an original 2G iPhone.

Of course, not everyone is trading in an iPhone. if you're stepping up from a different device, you're still covered. uSell partners with resellers for all types of cell phones, as well as tablets, game consoles, cameras, and other electronics.