Using Craigslist to Upgrade your Electronics

I would like to share that you can also use Craigslist to upgrade your electronics. My plan was to get rid of my first gen iPad (it's super bulky) and buy an used iPad using the money I got from the first gen iPad. The idea is simple, sell the old electronic for as much as possible and buy the newer electronic for as low as possible, and hoping the two prices overlap at some point.

Back story: So I traded an iPhone 4 for a first gen iPad base model a few years ago. I bought the iPhone 4 for $200 and the first gen iPad going price was around $250+. I decided to keep the iPad for personal use.

Recently, I brought my iPad over to a friend's house and compared it to his iPad mini. I fell in love with the Mini because it was so much more portable. So I decided to see if I could sell the first gen iPad and use that money to buy an iPad Mini. I scoured Craigslist for weeks looking for the cheapest price and at the same time listed my iPad for the most expensive price I think I could sell it for ($250). $250 was not very realistic since almost all websites were selling it for much less. The lowest price I saw the Mini go for was $250 and I was too late to catch the deal.

I had to settle with the next best deal I could find; I bought an used iPad mini base model for $260 (it was in almost-new condition minus the finger prints). About a week later, I was able to sell my first gen iPad for $220 on Craigslist. So, I upgraded my first gen iPad to a iPad mini for $40. It was not my intentions to pay anything for the upgrade but I'm happy. (Oh, and I know a new iPad mini is coming out)


I know the same method can easily be done to upgrade cellphones too. Let's say you have an iPhone 4, you can easily sell that for $200 and find an iPhone 4S for that price. (Sorry for all the Apple examples; it's just that they sell like hot cakes)

This was the pristine condition iPad 1 with an otterbox case