Resellers Score Easy Profits on Apple iPhone 17 Preorders

Apple opened preorders for the next generation of iPhones this morning. Customers were able to reserve a new iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro (and Pro Max), as well as the greatly-hyped iPhone Air. With MSRPs ranging from $800 to nearly $2,000, this was an easy opportunity for resellers to pad their wallets. Apple’s generous return and cancellation policy also meant this was relatively risk-free. We’re already seeing resellers turn triple digit profits following the launch.

Another year, another high profile political assassination, another iPhone. The wheels of the world keep turning as they always do, which invariably means billions in profit for Apple and another batch of e-waste headed for the Indian Ocean.

So, what’s on the menu this time? Apple revealed the next generation of iPhones earlier this week at the Apple Event, and the new phones were officially available for preorder early this morning.

The iPhone 17 consists of three (or four) new models. The standard iPhone 17 carries an $800 MSRP and modest upgrades over the previous generation, while the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max start at $1,100 with optional storage upgrades boosting the MSRP all the way up to $2,000.

The star of the show was the iPhone Air. This is a return to form for Apple, leveraging lightweight materials and ground-up redesign to produce the “thinnest iPhone ever”, as long as you don’t count the oversized camera bezel.

You’re just gonna put it in a case anyways. The iPhone Air starts at $999 with storage options boosting the price further.

The entire iPhone 17 collection opened for preorders on September 12 at 5 A.M. PDT. Phones are expected to start shipping in early October, while in-store pickup will be available on September 20.

As with past iPhone releases, new colorways and unique offerings are always the most popular. This time that was the blue and orange designs, while the iPhone Air would be the first item on the shopping list for most resellers.

And it’s worth noting that Apple offers a pretty good refund policy. As long as you return your iPhone within 14 days of when you received it (and in good condition), you’ll get your money back. That’s makes this flip almost entirely risk-free.

This is definitely one of the biggest iPhone releases we’ve seen in recent years. While previous generations have been a bit too “meh” to really spur sales, Apple seems to have turned things around a bit with their marketing for this generation.

And that’s translating to healthy profits for resellers. We’re already seeing Apple iPhone 17s reselling for hundreds, even thousands over their MSRP. The iPhone 17 Pro Max with 2TB of storage appears to the most profitable, reselling for around $3,500 from a $2,000 retail price.

Meanwhile the iPhone Air is reselling for a little over $1,000, underperforming our expectations for such a radical new design. It’s still quite early though, and there’s plenty of time for more sales to roll in.

If you’re considering reselling iPhones, we have some simple advice for you: buy fast, sell faster. This is not something you want to hold for months, but try and flip as fast as possible while the hype is strong and people are impatient.

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