A lot can change overnight in this industry, especially the value of a device following a new product announcement.
Just this Wednesday, Apple announced the new iPad, which features a Retina Display (2048 by 1536 pixels), a dual-core A5X chip that features quad-core graphics, 4G LTE connectivity, a 5-megapixel camera and over double the battery capacity as last year's model. (The battery life actually levels out to about roughly the same as earlier models. This one, however, is sort of like the Hummer of tablets and sucks up a ton of juice.) These new iPads start at $499 for a 16GB Wi-Fi model – 32GB and 64GB models cost $599 and $699, respectively. And the LTE models cost $130 more than their Wi-Fi counterparts.
What all of this means, though, is that the pricing on the iPad 2 has dropped across the board. In normal Apple fashion, last year's model took a $100 price cut. The 16GB Wi-Fi iPad 2 starts at just $399 for new in box, and the larger models with 3G work their way up to $729.
Of course, the upper-end iPad 2s are still rather pricey, but the point here is that you can now get your hands on a brand new iPad 2 for $400. It's no surprise, I know. It happens every year with all of Apple's iDevices. But this year is a bit special for iPads.
The first generation of iPads was a success. There's no question about that. But the iPad 2 was undoubtedly a lot more refined than the original, as any second-gen product usually is. It is thinner, lighter and had a much better processor than the first iPad. And it featured (poor) cameras to boot – clearly, a lot more bang for your buck.
What's more, though, is how many people bought the iPad 2, or even the original iPad. During the new iPad announcement, Apple revealed that they had sold 15.4 million iPads in Q4 2011 alone. If anything, those numbers have gone down since the iPad 2 was initially released, meaning that there are a ton of older models out there. And a large number of those iPad owners were looking to sell or trade-in their old model to buy a new one. In February alone, over 125,000 people used eBay's Instant Sale program to get the best value for their old tablets before the announcement this past Wednesday. Over 97 percent of those trade-ins were from iPad owners.
In other words, there are a ton of old iPads out there for grabs. And now that the retail value starts at just $400, used models can be found on the cheap.
This is a great opportunity for anyone who has been on the fence about tablet pricing to jump on a good deal. The price change hasn't been reflected completely on eBay just yet, but there are a lot of 16GB Wi-Fi iPad 2 models ranging from $300 to $375.
There's no doubt that $300 for an iPad 2 is a good deal. But eBay is only one of many outlets that offers cash for old electronics. Gazelle and NextWorth saw a lot of pre-iPad announcement trade-ins, too. If you play your cards right, however, you might be able to score an iPad for even less. Just by scanning some local Craigslist listings for a few minutes, I found several people who were desperate to sell their old iPads so they could put some money down on pre-orders. The longer you wait (within reason), the lower these prices will go.
I'm not all over myself to buy another iPad. But at $300, even I'm considering picking one up, just so I can use some of the old iOS tablet apps I purchased and have been missing on Android. You can never have too many tablets, right? Right?
What say you? Are you interested in buying an older model iPad now that the new iPad will be out next Friday? Is $300 for an iPad 2 too good of a deal for you to pass up? Have you already picked one up? Tell us in the comments below!
