Speaker 1: Rich Demiro here Rich on Tech with another interview. And
Speaker 1: this is the time when everyone is thinking about upgrading
Speaker 1: their iPhone, because Apple has announced that we will now
Speaker 1: get our look at the new iPhone on October thirteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, that's Tuesday, at ten am. They sent out
Speaker 1: an invitation to journalists, but anyone can watch it. This
Speaker 1: is their new virtual event that's happening from Apple Park.
Speaker 1: And the tagline this time around was high Comma speed,
Speaker 1: which is most likely a nod to, of course, faster processors,
Speaker 1: but also the first time that iPhones will have those
Speaker 1: speedy or promise to be speedy five G connections. Here
Speaker 1: to discuss what to do with your current phone is
Speaker 1: Sarah Bean. She works with Swapa, one of the places
Speaker 1: where you can sell your existing phone for some cash. Sarah,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining me.
Speaker 2: Hi Rich, thanks for having me today.
Speaker 1: All right, so explain first off what swapa is, because
Speaker 1: I've always known Swapa to be kind of like the
Speaker 1: insider place where I guess more techies sell their stuff
Speaker 1: because you get higher amounts for your phone.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, swapa is a user to user marketplace for
Speaker 2: gently used or like we as we like to say,
Speaker 2: Newish Tech. So we're a marketplace where you can buy
Speaker 2: both online and in person if you want to buy
Speaker 2: or sell a used device.
Speaker 1: And so what's the difference between something like Swapa and
Speaker 1: like Gazelle or eBay.
Speaker 2: Well, you can buy with confidence when you buy through Swapa.
Speaker 2: The biggest difference between us and other marketplaces is that
Speaker 2: we vet every item that is listed for sale. We
Speaker 2: require a lot of criteria to meet, and you can
Speaker 2: know that you are buying a safe device. Not all
Speaker 2: marketplaces do an Imicheck, for instance, that checks the fifteen
Speaker 2: digit number on an iPhone or on a phone in general.
Speaker 2: So this is important difference between US and other marketplaces.
Speaker 1: So not only do you know as a buyer that
Speaker 1: it's a bit more secure, but it's also as a
Speaker 1: seller you're getting a little bit of a premium because
Speaker 1: you're going through some of these hoops. Well, let's talk
Speaker 1: about what to do with the iPhone, because I'm looking
Speaker 1: at the prices here and let's see. So I've got
Speaker 1: the iPhone eleven Pro Max that would get me about
Speaker 1: seven hundred and eighty six dollars on Swapa. That sounds
Speaker 1: like a pretty good deal considering I paid about thirteen
Speaker 1: hundred for it, iPhone eleven Pro seven hundred dollars, iPhone
Speaker 1: eleven five twenty nine, ten S Max four seventy, iPhone
Speaker 1: ten R three sixty nine. Then down to the success swich.
Speaker 1: You're only going to get seventy three bucks for that one.
Speaker 1: Maybe better to give it to a child. So let's
Speaker 1: talk about how to prepare our phone. Number one, make
Speaker 1: sure your device is eligible for sale? What does that mean?
Speaker 2: So you want to check with your carrier to see
Speaker 2: whether your device is fully paid off, and you want
Speaker 2: to perform an IMI check to verify that your phone
Speaker 2: hasn't been reported lost or stolen. And Swap offers free
Speaker 2: IMEI checks to anyone on our site.
Speaker 1: All right, now, this is a big one. Back up
Speaker 1: your phone. I know folks that generally, you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: they don't up their phone when they're using it. But
Speaker 1: if you're gonna sell it, you have to back it up. Now.
Speaker 1: This is interesting because as I'm talking to you, I'm
Speaker 1: checking on my phone because a lot of times people
Speaker 1: don't realize that their iCloud backup has not fully like
Speaker 1: if they're doing it iCloud, you know, which is wireless,
Speaker 1: generally your phone does that at night when you're asleep
Speaker 1: and it's charging. But sometimes that doesn't happen because you know,
Speaker 1: you may not have a Wi Fi connection, you may
Speaker 1: not have enough storage in your iCloud. And as I
Speaker 1: talk to you, Sarah, I'm looking at my If you
Speaker 1: go into your settings Apple id iCloud and then you
Speaker 1: scroll down to iCloud backup, mine is actually turned off.
Speaker 1: I have no idea why my backup is turned off,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna turn that on and make sure that
Speaker 1: my phone is backed up, because I'm surprised that that's
Speaker 1: turned off. But anyway, check that that's backed up. And
Speaker 1: when it is on, it will give you the last
Speaker 1: date that your phone was backed up, so you can
Speaker 1: confirm that if it was the night before. You know,
Speaker 1: everything should be backed up and safe and sound now
Speaker 1: once your phone is bad. And I don't take that
Speaker 1: lightly because you want to like triple check that everything's
Speaker 1: backed up. You can do that on your computer as well,
Speaker 1: which I'd probably recommend if you want like a real
Speaker 1: nice you know, a whole file of your whole phone,
Speaker 1: that's a nice way to do it as well. In
Speaker 1: addition to iCloud. The next step here is a factory reset.
Speaker 1: Why is that so important?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you want to just when you sell a phone,
Speaker 2: you want to make sure that you know everything is
Speaker 2: wiped off of it. You don't want any of your
Speaker 2: personal information left over.
Speaker 1: And that's why. Okay, so let's move on to the
Speaker 1: next one, which is clean your phone. So this is
Speaker 1: a big one, especially with COVID times.
Speaker 2: Definitely. You know, if cleanliness wasn't important before, it certainly
Speaker 2: is right now that you know. We don't want to
Speaker 2: do any harsh chemicals around your phone, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: You want to thoroughly clean the exterior of your phone,
Speaker 2: fully power down your phone, moisten a lent free cloth
Speaker 2: with soapy water, and gently wipe down your device.
Speaker 1: Now it's interesting because for so many years people would
Speaker 1: ask me, you know, can I use alcohol on my phone?
Speaker 1: Can I use alcohol? And I'd say no, no, no.
Speaker 1: And then when the whole coronavirus thing happened, Apple actually
Speaker 1: came out and on their support page and said that
Speaker 1: you could use something like a Clorox wipe to clean
Speaker 1: your phone. And I thought that was really interesting. So
Speaker 1: I'm going to actually go right to the Apple website
Speaker 1: and read you what they said is it okay to
Speaker 1: use a disinfectant on my Apple product, and it says
Speaker 1: using a seventy percent isopropyl alcohol wipe or Clorox disinfecting wipes,
Speaker 1: you may gently wipe the hard, non porous surfaces of
Speaker 1: your Apple products, such as a display, keyboard, or other
Speaker 1: exterior surfaces. Don't use bleach, avoid getting moisture in any opening,
Speaker 1: and don't submerge your apple product in any cleaning agent. So, Sarah,
Speaker 1: we don't want to dunk this in some sort of
Speaker 1: you know, like a car wash bucket. You don't want
Speaker 1: to do that.
Speaker 2: Absolutely not. No, you know, when it comes to cleaning,
Speaker 2: you know, less is more. I believe you want to
Speaker 2: make sure that you've done it in a safe way
Speaker 2: so it doesn't you know, affect the actual phone. And
Speaker 2: we recommend on our blog that you use a state
Speaker 2: damp lit free cloth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that really helps too. I've been wiping down my
Speaker 1: phone a lot more. I've also been using that the
Speaker 1: phone soap to disinfect my phone. But what's interesting about iPhones,
Speaker 1: and I sort of alluded to this at the beginning
Speaker 1: when I talked about some of these prices compared to
Speaker 1: other devices like an Android, they really don't lose a
Speaker 1: ton of their value over time. I mean, they're they're
Speaker 1: quite valuable for a while. Why do you think that is?
Speaker 2: You know, I just think that they just really hold
Speaker 2: our value very well. And you can see on our
Speaker 2: site by when you look at the prices that's that's
Speaker 2: consistently the case.
Speaker 1: And the other thing is that so many people keep
Speaker 1: these phones in a case and also a screen protector.
Speaker 1: So by the time it's, you know, generally time to
Speaker 1: sell your phone or hand it over to someone new,
Speaker 1: it almost feels like a new phone because we've kept
Speaker 1: it in such protective coverings and casings, right.
Speaker 2: Correct, Yeah, I mean it's like anything. The more you
Speaker 2: take care of something, you know, the more you're going
Speaker 2: to get for it when you go to buy it
Speaker 2: or go to sell it.
Speaker 1: All Right, So we talked a little bit about SWAPA.
Speaker 1: So explain to me the difference between going through something
Speaker 1: like swap and selling it yourself versus just handing it
Speaker 1: back to the carrier, because a lot of people are
Speaker 1: on that program where you can sell it back to
Speaker 1: your carrier. Do you get as much money for that?
Speaker 2: No. We always tell people that you will get about
Speaker 2: twice as much for it when you sell it yourself,
Speaker 2: then when you trade it back to the carrier.
Speaker 1: And what about the concern that people might have of well,
Speaker 1: am I actually going to get paid? Am I actually
Speaker 1: going to get money for this? They? I feel like
Speaker 1: a lot of people just default to the carrier because
Speaker 1: they don't want to have to deal with, you know,
Speaker 1: a problem. Send your money or you send your product
Speaker 1: and nothing happens. Is that a concern here when you're
Speaker 1: doing it yourself?
Speaker 2: Well, not through Swapa because we have so many We
Speaker 2: have PayPal protections, we have a moderation team that is
Speaker 2: with you the whole step of the way, you know,
Speaker 2: and we verify. We have a certain you know, criteria
Speaker 2: you have to meet. So when you sell on Swapa,
Speaker 2: and that's what I can speak to, you can sell
Speaker 2: with confidence, you can buy with confidence because we know
Speaker 2: that we have all these protections in place.
Speaker 1: And what about a commission to Swapa? Take a commission?
Speaker 1: How does that work?
Speaker 2: Small fee for the buyer and it's built into the price.
Speaker 1: Oh so the buyer pays it, not the seller.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's what also sets us apart.
Speaker 1: That's interesting. So you get the full amount basically on
Speaker 1: your end what about shipping a phone. I mean, not
Speaker 1: everyone is shipping electronics all the time. Is it easy
Speaker 1: to do that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know a lot of people, you know, use
Speaker 2: the post office, they use other ways. That's usually negotiated
Speaker 2: between the buyer and the sellers how it's going to
Speaker 2: be done, and the seller of course would want to,
Speaker 2: you know, consider that when they're setting their price.
Speaker 1: Or is it time for the upgrade for you?
Speaker 2: I have an iPhone eight, so it is probably going
Speaker 2: to be time here soon. But you know, we also
Speaker 2: have four people on our plan, so that that makes
Speaker 2: a big difference. Of course too when you have all
Speaker 2: family of phones.
Speaker 1: Well, it looks like you can get about one hundred
Speaker 1: and ninety nine dollars for your phone. So we don't
Speaker 1: know how much these new phones are going to cost,
Speaker 1: but I'm imagining, you know, we're looking at the thousand
Speaker 1: dollars range for some of the top of the line models,
Speaker 1: so you can you can get some money towards that.
Speaker 1: Sarah Bean with Swapa, thank you so much for chatting
Speaker 1: with me today. Can you tell folks how to find swap.
Speaker 2: Absolutely go to our website swapa dot com. We have
Speaker 2: plenty of information, plenty of blog blog articles, and you
Speaker 2: can look up what your phone might be worth.
Speaker 1: All right, thanks for coming on the podcast, and thanks
Speaker 1: to you for listening. If you have questions for me,
Speaker 1: you can always submit them to Hello at richon tech
Speaker 1: dot tv. I'm excited for the new iPhone. Let me
Speaker 1: know on social media what you're looking forward to. I'm
Speaker 1: at rich on tech. I'll talk to you real soon.