How HowMuchMac gets Apple’s figures
Every figure on this site is Apple’s own. Nothing is estimated, modelled, or copied from what other sites claim.
Where the numbers come from
Apple publishes one “up to” figure per product line. The real number — for your exact model and configuration — only appears inside the trade-in step of Apple’s own checkout. That is the system this site reads, in both the US and UK Apple stores.
What happens when you paste a serial number
The serial number goes to Apple exactly as it would if you typed it into apple.com. Apple identifies the device from it and returns the value it will pay, and that figure is what you see. We don’t store serial numbers: Apple’s answer is held in a short-lived cache for up to six hours so that repeated checks don’t hammer Apple’s servers, and the lookup appears in our host’s ordinary server logs the way any web request does. Nothing else is kept, and nothing is tied to you.
How the model pages are built
The pages listing every model don’t use a serial number at all. Instead we walk Apple’s trade-in catalogue: choose a device type, choose a model, answer Apple’s condition questions, record the figure, repeat. Doing that across both stores gives 2,855 priced configurations, which is what the tables on this site are built from. Each page shows the date its figures were last checked.
What “Damaged” means here
Apple asks a handful of questions about condition — whether the screen is cracked, whether the buttons work, whether the casing is bent. The Good-condition figure is what Apple pays when the answer to all of them is yes. The damaged figure is what Apple pays for a device that still powers on and works but fails one of those checks, with every follow-up answered in the device’s favour: the best case for a damaged device, not the worst. Below that, Apple stops offering credit and offers free recycling instead, which is what “Recycle only” means in our tables. Apple doesn’t publish any of these damaged figures; we have collected 1,973 of them.
How often this updates
Apple moves its trade-in values a few times a year, usually around new hardware. A script checks a sample of Apple’s prices every day and raises a flag the moment one moves; when that happens the whole catalogue is collected again and these pages are rebuilt. Previous values are kept, so a page can tell you when Apple cut what it pays rather than only what it pays today.
What these figures don’t tell you
Apple’s number is an estimate until Apple has the device in its hands — the final amount is confirmed after inspection, and a mark you’d overlook may not be overlooked. It is credit toward an Apple purchase or an Apple Gift Card, never cash. And Apple is rarely the highest bidder: a buyback service or a private sale usually pays more in exchange for more effort.