After smartphones became popular among people and companies, Apple knew it was working with a successful product. Soon, Apple wanted to take the features of an iPhone and create something larger. These thoughts led to Apple creating and releasing the iPad. LifeWire reports that Apple sold over 360 million iPads since 2010.
Now, the iPad remains one of the best-selling tablets on the market. Considering that, you might be thinking about buying and reselling iPads. Many people continue to manage successful companies by doing this. If you want to learn how they do it, follow our tips for buying and reselling iPads.
Preparing Wholesale iPads for Online Resale
Hopefully, you’re getting excited thinking about making money from selling iPads. Before you can do this, you’ll need to complete a few steps to get them ready. Here are a few important steps to take to get your iPads ready for resale.
Checking Serial Numbers
The first and most important step is to check the serial number or IMEI of your iPads. It’s beneficial to think of an IMEI or International Mobile Equipment Identity as a type of unique fingerprint for this device.
Why is it so important to check IMEIs of any devices you’re interested in? This is because IMEIs tell you whether the device has been reported as lost, stolen, or behind on payments.
A lost or stolen device is fairly self-explanatory. Mobile carriers lock devices that customers report lost or stolen. If a carrier locks an iPad, it will be unusable and basically becomes a paperweight. As you can imagine, lost or stolen devices aren’t going to help you bring profits. Even worse, trying to sell these types of goods can get you in a lot of legal trouble.
Fortunately, checking an iPad’s IMEI is quite simple. All you need to do is navigate to this device’s Settings menu. Next, select the General option and then find and tap on the About option. After opening the General menu, scroll down and look for the “IMEI/MEID” section. This is where you’ll find your iPad’s IMEI.
Testing an iPad
As soon as you get your iPads, you’ll want to start testing them. While it might sound complicated, testing iPads is fairly simple. These electronics checks involve inspecting an iPad’s features and functionalities, making sure everything works correctly.
Charging Capabilities: If an iPad can’t charge and receive power, it isn’t going to be worth a lot. Fortunately, this test is easy to perform. All you need to do is have a charging cable handy and your iPad. If you connect the charging cable to an iPad and see a lightning bolt on the upper-right battery icon, your device charges properly.
Testing the Touchscreen: Another important feature of the iPad is its touchscreen. These devices also contain an accelerometer, which is the mechanism that orients the screen horizontally and physically. To do this, open the calculator application. With the screen held vertically, touch every button on this calculator and make sure it registers each tap. Now, tilt the device horizontally and the calculator will switch to scientific mode. After this happens, do the same test by pushing each button on the touchscreen.
Camera Testing: You’ll also want to test your iPad’s camera. This test is also simple, you’ll just need to take a few pictures. Next, pull up these pictures on your iPad and look for any signs of imperfections or lackluster photo quality. If you’re seeing unclear images, try lightly wiping the camera lens with a soft cloth and retake the photos. After doing this, if your images are still unclear, it might be a sign these iPads have camera problems.
Antenna Test: One of the most important features of an iPad is its antenna. This feature allows iPads to make either Wi-Fi or 3G/4G data connections. To test this feature on your iPad, go to the Settings menu and switch the Wi-Fi on. If your iPad has Wi-Fi capabilities, you should soon see a list of connections appearing.
To test data modems, switch the Wi-Fi setting off and turn on the cellular data option. If your device has this functionality, you should see a 3G or 4G appear in the top-left corner of the home screen.
Removing Data and Personal Information
Unless you’re buying brand new iPads for sale, these devices will likely have personal information on them. Fortunately, Apple makes wiping data easy to do. First, you’ll need to navigate to the Settings menu and select the General setting. Next, scroll down and find the Reset option.
Now, choose the Erase All Content and Settings option and then select Erase Now. Before doing this, you’ll need to enter the passcode registered to this device. In a minute or two, your iPad will restore itself and wipe all personal data.
Taking Pictures
One of the most important tips for selling your iPads online is to take high-quality pictures. This means taking clear images of all sides of your iPad. Also, if your iPads have any defects, make sure to use pictures to explain any issues with these devices. Doing this sometimes explains a problem or defect more than you could by writing it out in your listing’s description.
To take great photos, we recommend doing this in an area with a lot of light. With that said, make sure that these lights aren’t causing lots of glare in your photos. Next, take a minute to look through the images you took. Many new sellers rush this step, only to waste more time retaking photos of what they’re trying to sell.
Creating Your Listings
An essential part of buying and selling electronics involves creating listings. This is where you describe what you’re selling and any notes about the condition of these devices. When it comes to creating listings, it’s best to be as descriptive as possible.
If your electronics have any defects, list them here. It might sound like doing this could hurt your chances of getting a sale. But, that’s not the case. Sellers hope every listing they find will have detailed and honest information. If you can do this with your listings, you’ll gain a reputation as an honest seller.
Another helpful tip is to include as much information in your title as possible. Imagine that you come across two listings for an iPad. One of these listings has a title that says: “iPad (32GB).” The other listing says: “Like New iPad (32GB) With Original Accessories (Tested).” Most likely, you’ll visit the second listing because it tells you more about the product.
How Much Money Can I Make From Wholesale iPads?
Considering the popularity of iPads, it’s understandable to want to learn how much money you can make selling them. As is the case with electronics, there are several generations of iPads on the market. The newest iPad models usually bring in the highest resale values.
Right now, there are four current types of iPads. First, you have the base model iPad. Then, there is the iPad Air, iPad Mini, and iPad Pro. The iPad Pro, with its long list of features and larger memory capacity, typically resells for the most amount of money.
Expect to receive anywhere for $450-$600 for iPad Pro devices in great condition. The base model iPad, as well as the iPad Air, have resale values ranging from $150-$350.
With that said, we want to mention that these are only estimates. As you start pricing your items, market conditions might change. On the positive side of things, factors can happen that increase the resale value of iPads. If you keep an eye out for news in the electronics industry, these changes won’t catch you off-guard.
Where Are the Best Places to Sell iPads Online?
You’ll now need to learn about where to sell iPads online. There are many ways to do this, but not all are going to bring in major profits right away. Let’s look closer at some of the best places to sell iPads.
Trade-In Tech
When you’re trying to connect with buyers, it’s understandable to want this to happen fast. At Trade-In Tech, we’re here to make this happen for you. Our platform specializes in only working with people in the electronics industry. We allow our members to sell used electronics, new devices, and refurbished inventory.
Whether it’s iPads, smartphones, laptops, or other types of electronics, our members are always working to help each other companies grow. To become a member, you’ll need to verify your status in this industry. This is a safeguard we use to keep out buyers and sellers who aren’t serious off of our platform.
After you become a member, Trade-In Tech has seemingly endless resources to help you grow your electronics business. We make it easy to create a customized page for your electronics business. You can also connect with our members through direct messaging, groups, and even chat rooms. We’re also proud to offer zero fees to our membership network, whether they’re buying or selling.
Swappa
Another great place to sell your iPads is Swappa. We can’t say enough good things about this company. Swappa’s platform is similar to eBay but without the auctions. So, selling on Swappa is great for someone that doesn’t want to watch bids, check reserves, and similar tasks. All you do is enter information about what you want to sell.
While we love Swappa, it’s important to note that it doesn’t accept trade-ins or refurbished electronics. If these are the types of goods you’re wanting to sell, you might want to look elsewhere.
Amazon
If you need another place to sell iPads, Amazon might be a viable option. This giant retailer certainly has a lot of brand awareness, making it a comfortable place for buyers and sellers. Unfortunately, it’s also become one of the most competitive marketplaces online. Such a high level of competitiveness can make it tough for new sellers to break even.
There’s the option of trading in your tablet to Amazon. The major drawback of doing this is that Amazon only offers gift cards in return. Amazon is great, but trying to pay business costs with its gift cards probably isn’t what you want to try and do. If you choose to sell your iPads on Amazon to other people, prepare to lose some profits on seller fees.
While mentioning some of the most popular websites, we have to mention Facebook. Always looking to expand what it offers to users, Facebook recently launched its own marketplace. The catch with Facebook Marketplace is that people can only post what they’re selling. You can’t purchase and receive the item online.
With Facebook Marketplace, you’ll have to meet the seller in-person. This isn’t something that some people are comfortable doing right now. If you do meet someone in-person, make sure all parties agree to meet in a public location. Also, try to meet this person during daytime hours if at all possible.
eBay
You might also consider selling the iPads you own on eBay. With how long this website has been around, you probably know this business well. Since 1995, eBay has provided a large auction platform to buyers and sellers all over the world.
If you’re wanting to start reselling iPads, doing this on eBay can be profitable. While eBay now has a “Buy It Now” feature, many resellers still enjoy the auction experience. Certain people find online auctions exciting, others want to avoid all aspects of them at any cost. How much you enjoy auctioning off your inventory will help determine if eBay is the right platform.