Worst resale drop ever? iPhone Air prices collapse within weeks: Report

The iPhone Air has experienced a staggering drop in resale value, marking it as one of the most significant declines for any recent iPhone model. Within just ten weeks of its release, several variants of the Air have reportedly lost nearly half their original worth. According to a recent report from SellCell, there is a notable disparity between the new Air line and Apple's flagship iPhone 17 series. The analysis, which included real-time trade-in prices from over forty buyback firms across the United States, highlighted how much each model is selling for compared to its initial retail price. All devices were evaluated in good condition to ensure consistent results. The findings reveal that the iPhone 17 family has an average depreciation of 34.6% in its first ten weeks—a better performance than the iPhone 16, which saw a decline of 39% during the same period last year. The historical best performer, the iPhone 15, depreciated by just 31.9% in its initial weeks. In stark contrast, the iPhone Air has recorded an average decline of 44.3% across various storage options, with individual configurations ranging from 40.3% to 47.7%. This puts the Air close to the lowest resale performance observed since the iPhone 14 Plus and certain iPhone 13 mini models in 2022. The most significant drop is attributed to the 1TB iPhone Air, which SellCell lists as the least valuable model in the dataset. SellCell's model breakdown reveals a clear division between the premium Pro segment and the Air line. The 256GB iPhone 17 Pro Max leads the pack with a depreciation of only 26.1% after ten weeks, followed closely by the 512GB Pro Max at 30.3%. Notably, all Pro and Pro Max variants have maintained depreciation rates below 40%, indicating sustained interest from second-hand buyers. In comparison, the standard iPhone 17 sits between 32.9% and 40.8% depreciation, mirroring trends observed in recent non-Pro generations. Overall, the iPhone 17 series retains 9.7% more of its value than the Air during the same ten-week period. The iPhone Air occupies all bottom positions in SellCell's ten-week ranking. While the depreciation for the iPhone 17 lineup seems to stabilize by the tenth week—similar to patterns seen with the iPhone 15 and 16—the Air continues to decline. SellCell suggests that this ongoing drop could indicate buyer hesitance in the resale market.