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iPad 3: Why I Buy a New iPad Every Year

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Every year, in March or April I head to the closest Apple store and buy a new iPad.

On March 16th, or whenever the iPad 3 release date is, I will go out and buy a new iPad.

I don’t care if it is the iPad HD with nothing more than a Retina Display or if it is the iPad 3 with a major upgrade, I’ll be buying the new iPad on launch day.

I’m not lining up to buy a new iPad 3 because I’m an Apple fanboy. No. The real reason I buy a new iPad every year is simple economics.

Read: Everything We Know About the iPad 3

Why I Buy A New IPAd Every Year

Every year Apple releases a new iPhone or iPad, and every year the value of the old model decreases dramatically as soon as the new iPad hits store shelves. The price drops because of the new model, but also because Apple usually sells the older model for $100 less.

By selling my iPad before the new iPad is announced, I can make back much more money than if I were to keep it for a second year and try to sell it. As it stands, I am basically renting an iPad for a year.

“rather sign up the an iPad for life program.”

I was able to sell my first iPad 16GB for $370 to Gazelle.com after 12 months of use, which meant I paid around $11 a month to use my first iPad.

This time around Gazelle is paying less, $270 for a 32GB iPad 2, so the deal isn’t as sweet, but I still only paid $27 a month to use the iPad 2 in 2011.

UPDATE: Amazon Offering $100 More Than Gazelle for Old iPads

If I had kept my first generation iPad for a second year, to try to sell, I would only be able to get $150 for it, assuming it was in flawless condition after 2 years of use.

Read: Sell Your iPad 3 Before March 7th For Maximum Profit

iPad subscirptionsThe monthly amount I pay for my iPad is about what I pay for Hulu Plus, Netflix and Rhapsody — services that let me subscribe to content instead of purchasing it to own forever.

I would rather sign up the an iPad for life program, where I paid Apple $20 a month to have the most current iPad than own each iPad and need to resell it.

When the iPhone 5 is announced later this year, I plan to sell my iPhone 4S and buy the new iPhone for the same reasons.

You can always sell your iPad on eBay, but it is more hassle than I care to deal with. If you do want to use eBay, be sure to check out, How to Sell Your iPad 2 on eBay like a Pro.

When it comes to Android phones, the resale value makes selling them almost worthless. My HTC ThunderBolt, which isn’t even a year old is worth just $88 on Gazelle.com — and that’s the best price I’ve seen for a year old Android. The iPhone 4 32GB on Verizon, which came out around the same time with a similar price is fetching $177.

9 Comments

9 Comments

  1. Michael Anderson

    03/02/2012 at 11:36 am

    My iPad 1 went to my kids, particularly my younger son who uses it exclusively as a very serious music production workstation – (I wrote about it for GearDiary but won’t link because I still think that it is bad practice to link on someone else’s site without an invite.) 

    I use my iPad 2 so heavily that I haven’t really thought about what to do yet.  I know it is costing me money every day I keep it, but I want to give my wife the option to take it before I sell.

  2. zhengyou37

    03/02/2012 at 4:10 pm

     https://xvr.in/h9

  3. ol1bit

    03/03/2012 at 12:09 am

    Hmph..never thought of it that way before.

  4. jiajia22

    03/03/2012 at 4:22 pm

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