Intentionally Buying a Cheap Phone to Use for Higher Trade In Credit.
Salesman for a big cell phone carrier showed me this because I wanted to keep my S24 to give to someone, while still using my upgrade to get a new phone for free or near free.
Simply pull the list of phones you carrier will give you credit for. In my instance it was the Samsung S20 FE. My carrier will give me $900 credit for this phone(T Mobile). I can buy this phone refurbished for $130 ar Walmart. So I did.
I completed the trade. Spent $130 for an S26. I kept my S24 which will be going out of country to someone in need.