You cannot buy a refurbished iPhone Duo or a refurbished iPhone 18 Pro yet. Apple announced both on September 9, 2026, the 18 Pro ships on September 18 and the Duo on October 23, and refurbishers only sell what customers have already returned or traded in. Based on RefurbMe's tracking, the first refurbished iPhone 18 Pro should appear between early November and mid-December 2026, and the first refurbished iPhone Duo around January 2027. Until then, the refurbished iPhone 17 Pro is the deal that just got better.
TL;DR
Refurbished stock for a new iPhone follows returns and trade-ins, not the launch date. RefurbMe's Time-to-Refurb for the iPhone family is 82 days in the US (as of September 2026), and last year's 17 Pro beat it at 55 days. Expect a refurbished iPhone 18 Pro from November 2026 and a refurbished iPhone Duo around January 2027. Set an alert on the product page and buy a refurbished iPhone 17 Pro if you need a phone now: it costs from about $1,014 unlocked against $1,199 for a new 18 Pro.
What Apple announced in September 2026
The September event added two new iPhone lines and finished a Mac and AirPods refresh that started in August. Prices below are Apple's US prices for the base configuration, checked on apple.com on September 11, 2026.
| Product | New price (from) | On sale | What it replaces in Apple's lineup |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 18 Pro | $1,199 | September 18 | iPhone 17 Pro, discontinued |
| iPhone 18 Pro Max | $1,299 | September 18 | iPhone 17 Pro Max, discontinued |
| iPhone Duo | $1,999 | October 23 | Nothing. A new line above the Pro Max |
| AirPods 5 | $129 ($149 with wireless charging case) | September 18 | AirPods 4 |
| Mac mini (M6, M5 Pro) | $899 | September 22 | Mac mini M4 and M4 Pro |
| Mac Studio (M5 Max, M5 Ultra) | $2,499 | September 22 | Mac Studio M4 Max and M3 Ultra |
The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max cost $100 more than the models they replace. They run the A20 Pro chip, come in Black, Silver, Glacier and Burgundy, and go up to 2TB of storage. The iPhone Duo is Apple's first foldable: a 5.4-inch outer display that opens into a 7.6-inch inner one, the same A20 Pro chip, Touch ID in the side button instead of Face ID, and two colors, Night Sky and Star White. Storage runs from 256GB at $1,999 to 2TB at $3,199.
There is no iPhone 18 and no iPhone 18e this year. The iPhone 17, iPhone 17e and iPhone Air stay on sale at their current prices, which matters for the refurbished market because a model Apple keeps selling new keeps its refurbished price high for longer.
When will a refurbished iPhone 18 Pro appear?
RefurbMe measures this with a figure we call Time-to-Refurb: the median number of days between an Apple release and the first day a model is in stock at any refurbisher we track. For the iPhone family in the US it stands at 82 days as of September 2026 (iPhone refurbished stats). Applied to the 18 Pro's September 18 ship date, that points to the second week of December 2026.
The Pro models have been faster than the family median lately. The iPhone 17 Pro reached the refurbished market 55 days after release, first at Back Market on November 2, 2025. The 17 Pro Max was quicker still at 41 days. Pro buyers upgrade every year in larger numbers, and their trade-ins flow straight into refurbishers' inventory. If the 18 Pro follows the 17 Pro, the first refurbished units land in the first half of November 2026.
Two things could slow that down. The $100 price increase may hold back some of the annual upgraders who feed the trade-in channel. And Apple's own Certified Refurbished store lags far behind the third parties: when we last checked it in July 2026 it still stopped at the iPhone 16 series, ten months after the 17 Pro launched, so an Apple-refurbished 18 Pro is a late 2027 story at the earliest.
Outside the US the picture varies. In the UK the 17 Pro appeared refurbished after 40 days, at Back Market. In Canada it took 99 days, at Orchard. Canadian buyers should plan on the new year rather than Black Friday.
When will a refurbished iPhone Duo appear?
Later than the 18 Pro, for three reasons. The Duo ships five weeks after the 18 Pro, on October 23. The 82-day median moves its expected first refurbished listing to mid-January 2027. The Duo is also a first-generation product at $1,999, so early buyers are enthusiasts who keep their phones, not annual upgraders who trade them in. Fewer trade-ins means a thinner refurbished supply for the first few months.
The third reason is the hinge. Refurbishers grade phones on cosmetics, battery and function, and a folding display adds a component they have never tested at scale. Expect the first refurbished iPhone Duo listings to be few, graded conservatively, and priced within a couple of hundred dollars of new. That is what the 17 Pro looked like in its first weeks, and the Duo has more reasons to be cautious.
Our working estimate: the first refurbished iPhone Duo appears in January or February 2027, and a real choice of grades and colors arrives in the spring. You can set a stock alert on the refurbished iPhone Duo page and RefurbMe will email you the day the first unit is listed.
What will a refurbished iPhone Duo or 18 Pro cost?
Nobody knows the exact number yet, but RefurbMe's history of the last Pro launch gives a realistic range. The first unlocked 256GB iPhone 17 Pro listings in the US, in November and December 2025, were priced between $1,014 and $1,084, only 1% to 8% under Apple's $1,099 list price depending on color and cosmetic grade, and a year later the unlocked floor is still $1,014.
Applied to the 18 Pro, that suggests early refurbished prices between about $1,100 and $1,190 for a 256GB model against $1,199 new. For the Duo, the same 1% to 8% early discount would put the first refurbished 256GB units somewhere between $1,840 and $1,980 against $1,999 new. Treat those as ranges, not quotes: the first listings of any new iPhone are a handful of units, and their prices swing from week to week.
Across every iPhone RefurbMe has tracked, the median refurbished discount is far larger, but that family figure is dominated by models that are five to ten years old. It describes where prices end up, not where a three-month-old phone starts.
The smarter buy right now: a refurbished iPhone 17 Pro
Apple stopped selling the iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max on September 18, 2026. That does two things to the refurbished market at once: it cuts off new supply, and it turns the 17 Pro into the natural trade-in for everyone buying an 18 Pro. In every previous cycle, the outgoing Pro's refurbished price softened in the two to three months after the new model shipped as those trade-ins arrived.
Here is where the refurbished iPhone 17 Pro stands today, per merchant, from RefurbMe's live US listings on September 11, 2026 (256GB unless noted):
| Seller | Variant | Refurbished price |
|---|---|---|
| Back Market | T-Mobile, Cosmic Orange | $993 |
| Gazelle | Unlocked, Cosmic Orange | $1,014 |
| Back Market | Unlocked, Cosmic Orange | $1,019 |
| Gazelle | Unlocked, Deep Blue | $1,034 |
An unlocked refurbished 17 Pro at $1,014 is $185 less than a new 18 Pro, and you keep the same 6.3-inch 120Hz display class, a triple 48MP camera and a phone Apple will support with iOS updates for years. What you give up is the A20 Pro chip, the variable-aperture main camera and the new colors. For most people that is a fair trade for a phone with a warranty, and the price is more likely to fall than rise between now and December.
256GB storage
Cosmic Orange
256GB storage
Cosmic Orange
256GB storage
Deep Blue
If the Pro camera is not the point, the refurbished iPhone 17 is cheaper again: unlocked 256GB units start at $740 from Amazon Renewed, with Back Market at $829 in several colors. Our refurbished iPhone 17 guide covers what to check before buying one, and the iPhone 17 Pro refurbished guide breaks the Pro down by storage tier. In the UK, refurbished iPhone 17 Pro prices start at £929 at MusicMagpie and the iPhone 17 at £649 at Amazon Renewed.
AirPods 5, Mac mini M6 and Mac Studio: even longer waits
The three other new products will take longer to reach the refurbished market than either iPhone, because their buyers replace them far less often.
AirPods have one of the slowest Time-to-Refurb figures of any Apple family RefurbMe tracks: a median of 391 days in the US. A refurbished pair of AirPods 5 before autumn 2027 would be unusual. The AirPods 4, which Apple just discontinued, are the pair to buy refurbished today, and the refurbished AirPods page lists every generation with live prices.
The Mac mini family's median is 118 days, but the last generation was much slower: the M4 Mac mini took 299 days to show up refurbished in the US. The M6 Mac mini at $899 is unlikely to have refurbished stock before the middle of 2027, and the refurbished Mac mini page is where the outgoing M4 and M4 Pro will get cheaper this winter. The Mac Studio behaves the same way, at a 115-day median with a small buyer base; watch the refurbished Mac Studio page for M4 Max units from professionals upgrading to the M5 Ultra.
How to be first in line for a refurbished iPhone Duo
RefurbMe indexes every listing from the refurbishers it tracks, so the day the first refurbished iPhone Duo goes on sale it appears on the product page. Rather than checking by hand, open the refurbished iPhone Duo page or the refurbished iPhone 18 Pro page, enter your email in the alert form and pick the storage, color or carrier you want. You will get one email when a matching unit is listed, with the seller and price.
Two rules make that alert pay off. Buy from a vetted refurbisher with a return window and a warranty of at least a year, which every seller on RefurbMe provides: our ranking of the best places to buy refurbished iPhones explains the differences between them. And know the seasonal pattern, laid out in our guide to the best time to buy an iPhone: the outgoing model's refurbished price is at its lowest in the weeks after the new one ships, which is exactly the window the 17 Pro is entering now.
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First published: Sep 11, 2026
