Refurbished Xbox, iPhone and MacBook sales are surging as tech companies announce hefty price increases

Sales of refurbished tech — including Xboxes, PlayStation 5s, iPhones, and MacBooks — have been surging as tech companies announce hefty price increases.

As Apple gears up to release its new iPhone 18 with a built-in AI system, more and more customers are kicking it old-school with the 2000s iPod Nanos and iPod Shuffles.

It’s more than just a craving for nostalgia; it’s a financial decision.

"Because new tech is becoming more expensive, now consumers are just looking for value," Angie Cardona-Nelson, who sells refurbished tech on eBay, told Business Insider.

Cardona-Nelson said that secondhand laptops that usually sit on eBay for weeks are now selling within hours of being posted— and at full asking price.

Lauren Benton, the U.S. general manager of the refurbished tech platform Back Market, told Business Insider that as soon as Apple announces a price hike, "we immediately see the impact.”

Last month, Apple raised the prices of its MacBooks by roughly 15 to 20 percent and iPads by 15 to 25 percent, according to The Wall Street Journal.

It came about a week after Apple CEO Tim Cook told the Journal that the company would have to raise prices to offset the costs of memory and storage chips, calling the current situation “unsustainable.”

The day after Apple announced its MacBook price hikes, sales of refurbished MacBooks on Back Market increased by 62 percent compared to the previous week, according to Benton.

As Apple gears up to release its new iPhone 18 with a built-in AI system, more and more customers are kicking it old-school with the 2000s iPod Nanos and iPod Shuffles (Getty Images)

Microsoft also announced last month that it would increase the price of its Xboxes by $100 for 512 GB models and $150 for 1 TB models starting in August.

“Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027,” Microsoft’s Xbox team said at the time to explain the price hikes.

In April, Sony Interactive Entertainment raised the prices of its PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 Pro and PlayStation Portal remote player, citing “continued pressures in the global economic landscape.”

Nearly 50 percent of Americans have considered buying secondhand tech as Apple, Microsoft and Sony announced price hikes (Getty Images)

A poll released by tech news site CNET in April found that 48 percent of Americans have considered buying secondhand tech within the past year.

Among those who have weighed buying refurbished devices, 31 percent cited cost-effectiveness, and 25 percent believed newer models were too expensive.

A growing number of people are realizing that with secondhand devices, they can “still be able to get great tech, access all the AI up in the web, and really not feel any difference,” Benton said.