When it comes to figuring out how much a pawn shop will pay you for your iPad, there are a few different ways you can look at it, as you will learn here.
Every time I answer one of these “How much do pawn shops pay for…” type of questions, I always feel a bit funny. With that in mind, I want you to understand that as you’re reading this, I will do my best to give you “Evergreen” information, meaning information that won’t go bad over time.
If I just lost you, what I’m saying is this…
If I tell you the price of an iPad Pro today, it won’t be the same thing for the same tablet 5 years from now. Technology doesn’t age well, and it almost never appreciates in value. Normally, as technology like iPads get older, the value only goes down, and fast.
However, what I will tell you are some ways that you can figure out exactly what a pawn shops ill pay you for your iPad, no matter when you are reading this, and no matter what iPad you have.
Wait, what? What am I going to do exactly?
Basically, I’m going to train you to think like a pawnbroker and figure out how much you would loan on an iPad if someone bought it into your shop. You will be able to use that information and figure out what a pawn shop might pay you for yours when the roles are reversed.
I’m “Miyagiing” you essentially. Did I just date myself with that reference? I bet I did… Let’s move on.
If you are trying to make a loan on your iPad or sell it to a pawn shop, you are going to need to know the pin, but most importantly, the iCloud password if it is locked!
How Do pawn Shops Determine How Much To Pay For iPads
When it comes to something like an iPad, there’s typically going to be one of three main rules that pawn shops follow to determine the prices that they loan their customers on these items.
Of those three, two you will be able to use to take a guess at what you may get for yours, and the third, well, you will be at the mercy of the pawn shop in question unfortunately.
The First, Most Common Way – eBay/Amazon
The most common way that pawn shops determine how much they will pay for something like an used iPad is to see what that model, with that storage, and in that condition is selling for used on sites like eBay and Amazon.
More often than not, you can bet that they will use eBay since it is a slightly faster moving marketplace that more pawnbrokers are comfortable with.
If you want to do this yourself, you just have to look up the specific model iPad you have (iPad Air 2, 64GB, wifi only for instance) and then use the advanced search to find “Sold” listings.
You will want to sort by lowest price+shipping first (as they obviously aren’t going to pay you based on the most expensive listing they find) and when you see an iPad that matches yours in terms of condition and accessories, you should take the final sold price and figure that you will get about 30-50% of that.
The Retail Rule
If there’s any pawnbroker’s out there that use this rule, please don’t be offended by what I saw next, I’m sure you run great businesses and are amazingly kind people. Moving on…
This is a really lame way of determining pawn shop values, but a lot of pawn shops have moved to this system for pricing things.
Basically, they take the retail value of an item, and then offer 10-20% of whatever that retail price was.
So, if you spent $449 on your iPad, they will offer you someplace between $45 and $90 for it on a loan, or to buy it of course.
The reason I think this is so lame is because an iPad 2 cost that much and is nowhere near as valuable as an iPad Air 2, which also cost the same amount when it was new.
If the pawn shop in question isn’t careful with how they are evaluating goods, they can either give you too much for something, or WAY too little. Just be prepared for this possibility as well.
The Flat Rate
The next most common way for pawn shops to figure out the prices for things like iPad is to make it a flat line for all things, across the board.
An iPad 1, $20. An iPad Air, $50. An iPad Pro 1 9.7″, $100. Something like that.
They often don’t really take into account things like the amount of storage your iPad has, if it is just wifi or wifi and cellular, etc.
To them, and iPad Air, is an iPad Air, is an iPad Air.
In defense of pawn shops that operate this way
– It makes things perfectly fair and equal for all of their customers. – It makes training their staff to all perform the same way very simple so that you never have a significantly different experience from one day to the next.
– It speeds up the rate that the pawn shop is able to complete buys and loans because they don’t have to look things up or figure out all of the little details along the way.
How To Figure Out How Much You Might Get For Your iPad At A Pawn Shop
So, now you are armed with the information on the top three ways that a pawn shop might use to evaluate how much to offer you for your iPad.
While you can’t do much with the third scenario, if you spend a few minutes looking up prices on Google and eBay before you leave the house, you might have an idea of how much a pawn shop will pay you for your iPad, but we aren’t done yet.
Remember that pawn shops are largely negotiation oriented businesses, meaning that there will probably be some degree of wiggle room in the price.
As the customer looking to get the most money possible for your iPad, it’s your job to put the odds in your favor to make it as easy as possible for the pawn broker to justify giving you more for you iPad than the next guy in line.
How To Get A Pawn Shop To Pay You The Most For Your iPad
No, there you are. You need to pay a bill, get something for your spouse, family, or yourself, but you don’t have the money.
You do however have this iPad that you don’t really use so much anymore and can put to good use. Why not pawn that to get a few extra bucks right?
Well, depending on what you need the money for, you may need more than a pawn shop is typically willing to give on your iPad. So you’ve got to prepare yourself for battle!
No, don’t do that, I’m kidding. But you should make your iPad appear as desirable as possible so that the pawnbroker is more inclined to make you a better offer than they normally would otherwise.
Here are some of the steps that you should follow to help make sure that happens way before you ever leave the house!
Sign Out Of iCloud
I can’t repeat this one enough. If you are going to take an Apple product to the pawn shop, make sure that you are signed out of iCloud.
I can’t tell you how many pawn shop workers I’ve seen be annoyed to find that the same customer keeps coming back with Apple products that are always signed into iCloud and possibly activation lock.
Then they have to give it back to you, you have to find wifi, sign out of iCloud, delete the account from the device, bring it back into the pawn shop… it’s just a hassle for everyone involved.
You can make things a lot easier for yourself and the pawnbroker if you sign out of iCloud before you bring the iPad into the pawn shop. Trust me, them not having to ask you to do that will instantly put them in a better mood, if even by the smallest degree, and that can almost always work in your favor when asking for a little more money than normal.
Clean Your iPad Up
This is a big one that for whatever reason, so many people just skip doing and with everything, not just iPads.
Please understand that a pawnbroker is looking at your iPad as if they may be in the position of having to sell it one day to get their money back out of it if you default on your loan.
The newer and cleaner your iPad looks, the better. It will put them under the impression that it may be worth a little more than the normal iPad, or that at least, it was well cared for and therefore easier for them to sell should they have to.
So, take a damp cloth (not soaking wet, water and electronics aren’t friends, don’t destroy it) and wipe the iPad down. Try to remove any smudge marks and fingerprints from the screen. Remove any darks marks from the sides and back if you can.
Do not use alcohol or anything like that on the screen. Apple puts a special coating on the screens that help fingers glide over them and solvents like alcohol destroy that coating, so don’t do it.
Bring Everything You Have For The iPad With You
The most really important thing for you to do is to make sure that you bring any parts, accessories, or boxes for the iPad that you have with you when you go to the pawn shop with it.
With Apple products, boxes matter! So do the inserts and manuals in most cases.
You absolutely must have the USB cable and probably the charger (wall plug) if you want to get the most money possible for your iPad when you sell it or make a loan on it.
If you have things like a keyboard, or pencil in the case of the Pro, bring that with you as well. Those things can only help your cause.
What About iCloud Locked iPads?
If you have an iCloud locked iPad, you can pretty much bet that most pawn shops will stay as far away from it as possible.
While forgetting your iCloud password happens, if you are the true owner of it, you can normally get that type of thing taken care of by Apple Support for you.
However, when someone can’t get that iCloud lock removed and it comes into a place like a pawn shop, most people immediately assume (and rightfully so more often than not) that the iPad is stolen.
Because of this very strong likelihood, most pawnbrokers want nothing to do with iCloud locked iPads. Despite what you may have heard, pawnshops are not a big fan of stolen merchandise coming into their stores and will do just about anything they can to stop it when possible.
What About Pin Locked iPads?
If you have an iPad that has a simple PIN lock, you MAY find that there are pawn shops that will still take it in, but those are really few and far between.
There’s still a lot of issues with taking pin locked iPads that pawn shops would just like to avoid overall if they could.
Fist and foremost, in most cases, if the iPad is pin locked, there is an equally good chance that it is stolen as pins can normally be removed by Apple Support with much trouble at all, as long as you are the rightful owner.
The next big issue with PIN locked iPad’s is that you can’t actually get into the settings for the iPad to see if it is iCloud locked as well.
As we have covered before, if an iPad is iCloud locked, the chances of a pawn shop taking it in are virtually zero.
There Are Some Exceptions
While it is not often the case, what I have seen is that when an iPad is PIN locked, but the user name matches the name of the person bringing them the iPad, they may offer to remove the PIN lock by master resetting the iPad via a special process with iTunes.
That having been said, if the iPad then still turns out to be iCloud locked, but the person bringing the iPad to them doesn’t know that PIN, you can almost always forget it, they just won’t take that iPad in at all. Now there are way too many things looking back to take the risk on accidentally buying someone’s stolen iPad and giving a thief money they don’t deserve.
