Ahead of the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and first foldable iPhone announcement next month, trade-in comparison site SellCell reports most iPhones lose significant value between Apple's announcement and product launch. Examining iPhone 15, iPhone 16, and iPhone 17 launches, SellCell found trade-in values dropped for 117 of 156 models (75%) during that window. The steepest declines occurred with the iPhone 17 lineup, where 50 of 54 models (92.6%) lost value with an average drop of $36.46 per device.

The largest individual decline was the iPhone 16 Plus 512GB falling from $695 to $566—a $129 loss. The iPhone 15 Plus 128GB saw the steepest percentage decline, dropping from $440 to $351 (20.2%). SellCell surveyed 2,000 U.S. iPhone users and found 61.4% plan to keep their current iPhone until replacement is ready, citing continued use and data transfer needs (77.4% combined).

Apple recently updated and largely increased its official U.S. trade-in estimates ahead of the iPhone 18 Pro and foldable iPhone announcement.