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14-day lock
Offer holds when description matches.
48-hr processing
Two business days from arrival to confirmed offer.
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Prepaid USPS label in your inbox.
BBB 4.69
Ten years. Same Phoenix team.
IPHONE XS MAX BUYBACK
A used iPhone XS Max pays from $28 at the bottom of the table below to $177 at the top. Those are the strongest numbers anywhere in the iPhone X generation, higher than the X, the XR and the smaller XS at every step, so a Max that has been in a drawer since 2021 is the one worth digging out.
A word on where the price comes from, because this phone is a good place to see it. The iPhone XS Max is one of the first iPhones where your phone number stopped living in a piece of plastic and started living in software. That was useful, and it also split what the phone is to you from what the phone is to us. To you it is a service: a number, an account, a plan, and the little tray on the right edge has not mattered since about 2019. A Buyback is not a service arrangement. We are buying the object, tray and all, because the object is what the next owner has to put their own SIM card into. That is how a part you have not thought about in four years ends up costing more than a scratch you look at every day.
Now go and find a paperclip.
The iPhone XS Max is one of the first iPhones that could hold two phone numbers at once. There is a nano-SIM in the tray on the right edge and a second, built-in eSIM inside the phone. That was new in 2018 and it is genuinely useful, and it is also the reason so many XS Max sellers lose money on this page.
Here is the connection. Once your number lives on the eSIM, the physical tray stops mattering to you. It comes out to get a SIM into another phone and never goes back. It gets levered at with a paperclip and comes out bent. Or you forget the phone has one, because you have not touched it in four years. And our rule is blunt: a missing or damaged SIM tray grades the phone Faulty. Not a deduction, not a discussion, the Faulty row.
So do this before you pick a grade. Look at the right edge, below the side button. Poke the paperclip into the pinhole and slide the tray out. Three things to check: it is actually there, it slides out and pushes back in without any forcing, and it sits flush with the frame when it is home rather than standing proud on one side. A bent tray counts the same as no tray. If it all checks out, take your SIM card out and put the empty tray straight back in before you box the phone. On a 512GB those ten seconds are worth about two thirds of the price, and in dollars that fall is the steepest in this generation, because the Max starts from the highest numbers in it.
One exception worth naming. Apple sold a mainland China version of this phone, model A2104, with two physical nano-SIM slots in one double-sided tray and no eSIM at all. Same rule applies, and there is more to lose. Everything else about selling an iPhone XS Max is ordinary: sell it used, sell it cracked, sell it with a dead battery, and the price for each of those is in the grid below. If it will not power on we cannot buy it, because we cannot test it or clear your data, but we will recycle it free or send it back free. Not sure whether yours is the Max? It is the 6.5-inch one. The smaller 5.8-inch phone is the iPhone XS.
LIVE PRICES
The used resale value of an iPhone XS Max runs from $28 for a cracked 64GB to $177 for a sealed 512GB. Most working ones land between $82 and $109, depending on capacity and how it has been treated.
Only two things move the figure, storage and condition, and both are yours to pick. Every price in the grid is read live from the same feed the quote tool uses.
| Comparison row | 64GB | 256GB | 512GB |
|---|---|---|---|
Brand New | $157 | $170 | $177 |
Flawless | $119 | $129 | $134 |
Good | $94 | $104 | $109 |
Average | $82 | $90 | $95 |
Fair | $56 | $62 | $65 |
Faulty | $28 | $31 | $33 |
HOW IT WORKS
Choose 64GB, 256GB or 512GB, choose unlocked or your network, choose the grade. Pull the SIM tray out and look at it before you decide, because that one part can move you three rows down the table. The Buyback price you accept is fixed for 14 days, so a slow week in the mail costs you nothing.
A prepaid USPS label comes by email. Save what you want off the phone, sign out of iCloud so it is no longer registered to you, then erase it in Settings. Take out your SIM card, put the empty tray back in, and send the phone by itself. No cable, no box, no case.
Your phone is inspected within 48 hours of reaching us and paid the same day it clears, by gift card, PayPal, bank transfer or check. Bought or recycled, every device that comes through here gets a DoD-grade wipe, so your data does not stay on it either way.
SPEC SHEET
A-numbers here come from Apple's own identify page, not a third-party list. Yours is printed on the back near the bottom and repeated in Settings, General, About.
| Apple's name for it | iPhone XS Max, pronounced ten S Max |
|---|---|
| Released | September 2018 |
| US model number | A1921 |
| Other model numbers | A2101 and A2103 outside the US, A2102 in Japan, A2104 in mainland China. All quote on this page. |
| A2104 | The mainland China version, with two physical nano-SIM slots in one tray and no eSIM |
| Display | 6.5-inch Super Retina OLED, 2688 by 1242 at 458 ppi. The largest iPhone screen Apple had made at the time. |
| SIM | Nano-SIM tray on the right edge plus a built-in eSIM. Missing or damaged tray forces Faulty. |
| Dual SIM | Two numbers at once, one on the nano-SIM and one on the eSIM. One of the first iPhones to do it. |
| Chip | A12 Bionic |
| Storage we buy | 64GB, 256GB and 512GB |
| Rear cameras | Two 12MP lenses, wide and 2x telephoto, on a diagonal. Three lenses in a square means an iPhone 11 Pro Max instead. |
| Unlocking | Face ID. No home button and no Touch ID. |
| Pressure sensing | 3D Touch, the same as the iPhone XS. The XS Max generation was the last to have it. |
| Charging | Lightning, plus wireless charging through the glass back |
| Colors | Silver, Space Gray and Gold, all priced identically |
IPHONE XS MAX BUYBACK QUESTIONS
Storage and condition, nothing else. A 512GB in Good condition is $109, the same phone at Fair is $65, and a cracked 64GB is $28. Use the quote tool at the top of the page for your exact combination.
Yes, but it grades Faulty, and on this phone that is an expensive drop. A 512GB goes from $95 at Average to $33 without the tray. It is a small metal part and we understand entirely how it goes missing, especially on a phone people ran on eSIM for years. If you can find it, put it back in. If you cannot, quote the phone as Faulty and you will still be paid.
Straighten a paperclip, find the pinhole on the right edge under the side button, and push. The tray should pop out with light pressure and slide back in the same way. Check three things while it is in your hand: that it is there at all, that it is not bent or chewed at the edges, and that it sits perfectly flush when you push it home. A tray that stands proud on one side has been bent and counts as damaged. This takes ten seconds and it is the highest-value ten seconds on this page.
The Max is the big one, 6.5 inches against 5.8. Held side by side there is no doubt at all, but on its own it is harder, so read Settings, General, About. A1921 is the iPhone XS Max. A1920 is the iPhone XS. The Max pays noticeably more, so it is worth the ten seconds.
Count the lenses. The iPhone XS Max has two cameras on a diagonal in the top corner. The iPhone 11 Pro Max has three in a square block, and its back glass has a matte, frosted finish where the XS Max is glossy. They are close in size, so the camera is the reliable tell.
Yes. A crack or a chip anywhere on the phone, front, back or over either camera lens, grades it Faulty. On an XS Max that is $28 at 64GB, $31 at 256GB and $33 at 512GB. The back is a big sheet of glass on this model and it is easy to forget to look at it, so turn the phone over before you choose your row.
Under 80 percent it is Faulty, as is any phone showing a service battery message. Settings, Battery, Battery Health and Charging has the number. The XS Max has the biggest battery of this generation, so it can still feel usable while the reading has quietly slipped into the seventies. Check it rather than judging by how long it lasts.
Faulty. The sensors in the notch are the only biometric unlock the XS Max has, since there is no home button and no fingerprint reader. Lock the phone, pick it up, and see whether it recognizes you. Intermittent counts as broken, and so does an error message saying Face ID is unavailable.
Not for money, no. Without power we cannot test the phone and, more to the point, we cannot wipe your data off it, and buying a device we cannot clear is not something we do. Plug it into a wall charger for a good half hour before you conclude it is dead, because a fully flat XS Max takes a while to wake. If it stays black, we will recycle it free, wipe it to DoD standards, and dispose of it properly, or return it to you free if you would rather keep it.
Not until it is. A phone with money still owing on it, whether that is a carrier installment plan or a lease, is under a financial obligation, and we do not purchase devices under financial obligations. Your carrier account will tell you the balance. Clear it and the phone quotes here normally.
No. A clean ESN is a condition of every grade on this page, Faulty included. Lost, stolen, carrier blocked or still attached to an Apple Account all fail it, and a phone that fails goes back to you rather than getting paid. Only the last of those is in your hands, and it is easy: sign out of iCloud and erase the phone before you send it.
Yes, but not against every network. The prices in the table are the unlocked ones, and on the XS Max an AT&T or Verizon phone is quoted at exactly the same figure at every grade and every capacity. Only T-Mobile and Other land underneath. A few phones in our range go further and pay more on one specific network, so pick the honest answer in the quote tool. On the XS Max the table is your best case, and two of the four networks reach it.
No. Silver, Space Gray and Gold are worth exactly the same. Gold XS Maxes turn up more often than you would expect and they do not carry a premium.
Back up anything you want first. Then Settings, tap your name, scroll to the bottom, Sign Out, which is what releases Find My. Then Settings, General, Transfer or Reset iPhone, Erase All Content and Settings, and enter your Apple Account password when prompted. If you had an eSIM on it, erasing removes that too, so tell your carrier before you wipe if you want that number moved to a new phone. There is a full walkthrough on our erase your device page. We also run a DoD-grade wipe here, but that is on top of yours, not instead of it.
You pick the method at the end of the quote, and on a phone in this price range the choice is worth a few dollars either way. A gift card comes out about 3 percent above the cash figure, because the brands add a bonus of their own on top. PayPal is immediate, and PayPal charges its 2.99 percent fee on the transfer. A bank transfer takes 2 to 4 days and a check 3 to 5, with nothing taken off either of them.
Whichever you choose, the money goes out the same day your phone clears inspection, and inspection happens within 48 hours of the box arriving. One restriction to know about before you choose a row: a sealed Brand New XS Max is paid through PayPal only. The other three methods are not offered on that grade, on this phone or any other.
Check the SIM tray, pick your storage and grade, and the price is on screen in a minute. Held 14 days.
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