US man tries trading in his brand new iPhone Air to see what price he'll get offered and is left stunned

A US man decided to see what would happen if he tried trading in a brand-new iPhone Air.

Not a used model, not something a couple of upgrades old – a factory-fresh model straight out of the box.

So he walked it into every place that claims to buy phones, from big-box counters to trade-in websites.

And, almost immediately, the whole experiment went sideways.

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What happens when you attempt to trade in a brand-new iPhone Air

The man behind the test is US YouTuber Smokin’ Silicon, and he spent $1,000 on an iPhone Air purely to see what the real-world trade-in ecosystem thinks it’s worth. 

His plan to walk into every mainstream option – GameStop, Best Buy, EcoATM kiosks, electronics resellers, pawn shops, and the big online trade-in sites – and ask for a number.

But almost none of them could give one.

At GameStop, the system couldn’t even recognise the model – the computer just froze at the sight of something too new for its database. 

Best Buy’s in-store system wasn’t any better. 

And EcoATM – the robot kiosk that’s supposed to be the convenient option – scanned the phone for what felt like forever before spitting out a message basically saying it had no idea what it was looking at. 

Back Market didn’t list the iPhone Air at all, which meant it couldn’t make an offer even if it wanted to. 

Only two places were willing to attach a price to it: Gazelle and SellCell. 

And both offers left the creator unimpressed.

Gazelle came in at $500 – half the purchase price gone instantly – while SellCell’s best match still carved off almost $300.

No matter which way he turned, he would be losing a lot of money.

Why the offers left him stunned

What shocked him wasn’t just the lowball numbers. 

It was the fact that the newest phone in the pile was the hardest one to sell. 

Every store that turned him down gave the same reason.

Their systems simply aren’t updated for something this fresh, and without a model match, they won’t risk buying it.

Meanwhile, the older phones he brought along – models with years of depreciation – were the ones getting steadier, more predictable quotes. 

The iPhone Air, despite being the premium device, was treated like an unknown.

The gap between what a new phone should be worth and what the trade-in world will pay for it is exactly what caught him off guard. 

Early adopters pay extra without even realising it – not just at checkout, but again the moment they try to do a trade in.

In the end, the iPhone Air didn’t just lose value – it fell completely outside the system.

And that left this YouTuber most stunned.

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