Used mobile phones can be deposited in clean points for recycling or even sold, but many owners still are unaware of how to dispose of their old mobile phones. If I want to value my phone, there are a few second-hand markets that cater to this service.
The smartphone market has been self-imposing at a frenetic pace for years. The main terminals of each catalogue are renewed every year, sometimes in a few months and without reaching a dozen. If we also count the mid-range and entry-level ranges, we obtain an endless number of models that practically every week in stores.
We are not talking about a precisely small market since more than 1,500 million smartphones are sold each year worldwide, but it is time to face a new problem that collides head-on with the pace of launches. The average life of smartphones is stretching more and more. And if it takes us longer and longer to change phones, the market must reflect and lift its foot off the accelerator.
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How Much are Old Phones Worth?
Technology advances at cruising speed. What today is a novelty has already passed into the background tomorrow. The latest and most innovative smartphone that has hit the market has a concise expiration date. After a few days of buying it, there will probably be another one with better features or a more disruptive specification.
Given this situation, the second-hand market has become one of the busiest spaces for buying and selling a mobile phone. Many of the devices for sale are practically new and usually cheaper. However, not all makes and models depreciate at the same rate.
The declutter company has published a ranking of the ten mobile phones devalued the least in the last twelve months. We advance one of the report’s conclusions: iPhones are still the smartphones that lose the most negligible value over time.
Apple is always a guarantee of quality. Not only because of Apple devices’ durability and reliability but also due to their high demand on the second-hand market. Declutrr’s report shows that the value of an Apple phone lasts longer than any Android smartphone: Eight of the ten phones that have devalued the least in the last year are Apple devices. Instead, as BankMyCell showed in a study, an Android device can lose up to 50% of its value in just six months.
What’s Happening?
According to the declutter report, iPhone 11 depreciates the least over time and maintains 63% of its value after a year. In next place is the iPhone SX Max and the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which retain 57% of their value after 12 months.
The ranking continues with the iPhone XS, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone XR and iPhone 8, which retain 54% to 48% of their value. Not until position number nine did we finally find the first Android device that loses less value over time. This phone is the Google Pixel 3a, one of the best Android phones of 2019. It retains 48% of its value. In the last position is another Google phone, the Pixel XL, which maintains 47% of its price 12 months after going on the market.
Which Phones are Worth the Most Money?
If I want to value my phone, I should look to MusicMagpie, which operates in the UK and sells refurbished electronics. It recently published a report with some eye-opening statistics which gives us data about the depreciation of mobile phones over 12 and 24 months.
To the surprise of a few, Apple is the one that rules in this regard, followed by Samsung, with their phones being the ones that hold their market value the longest. According to the report, the average UK customer changes their mobile every 16 months, which costs them 50% of the original price they paid for it.
Apple devices only lose 41% of their initial value after 12 months of purchase, and that figure rises to 60% at 24 months. On the other hand, Samsung phones lose 64% of their value the first year, which rises to 77% the second.
In third place, we have OnePlus depreciation of 69% and 78% for the first and second years, respectively. Closing the top five positions are Huawei and Google, which are not holding up too well after two years. A quick look at mobiles on the market shows us that the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and the P20 lost 87% and 84% of their value during the first year.
iPhones from the last two years seem to retain more than half of their value in the first 12 months on sale, proving that the Apple brand is a safe bet when it comes to getting a smartphone.
MusicMagpie has collected other interesting data about how consumers change their mobile phones. About 33% of users do not trade in their old terminal for a new one, and the older the user, the more that figure decreases.
Expert Opinion
The company CEO recommends that exchanging the old phone for the new one is the best way to mitigate losses. Still, surprisingly, 10% of users delay the sale of their old mobile, thinking that the value will increase over time. We can see that this is not true at all.
The most expensive devices retain their cost the best, with phones costing less than £600 depreciating by 62% on average in the first six months. It is not surprising that Huawei has had the most significant loss of value in its products in a while now. Few people want to buy a phone without Google services outside China as time goes by.
Is My Phone Losing Value Month-To-Month?
Can damage affect your old mobile phone’s value?
For some, losing their mobile phone can become a real tragedy.
However, we do not always treat it with much affection. Instead, we treat it like a children’s toy: resistant to shocks, water, heat, children themselves and tireless use.
But they are not. And these are some of the most common mistakes that can end up killing it and devaluing it.
Not Cleaning It Inside and Out
If you follow this advice, you and the phone win.
Carrying your phone in your pocket is not a good idea for more than one reason.
Cleaning it from the outside, with a microfiber cloth and without using liquids allows you to eliminate bacteria that accumulate in the worn device and reduce the risk of contracting diseases. It’s always recommended to use a screen glass protector to reduce the risk of scratches on the screen.
Cleaning it from the inside means removing those hidden files that do nothing but take up space.
Again, there are two conflicting pieces of advice: some recommend using a cleaning app, such as CleanMaster or TapCleaner. Others believe that the best route is to manually manage or delete anything you don’t use or use.
Expose It To The Elements
The key is to know the degree of IP protection (Ingress Protection) of your phone, which indicates the device’s resistance not only to water but also to dust.
The higher the IP, the more resistant the phone. The technology for those underwater selfies in the sea has not yet arrived.
And while rain-proof phones are much more ordinary today than they were until recently, for most models, the idea of using them to take photos underwater in the pool doesn’t seem like much sense.
Two of the current models that were supposed to withstand the test – the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the iPhone 6 – were damaged in an independent assessment carried out earlier this year by SquareTrade, a UK electronics equipment warranty provider.
When it comes to heat, there’s a consensus that it’s not a good idea to leave your phone baking in the sun, whether it’s on the beach, in the desert, or inside your parked car.
Carry It in Your Pocket
This method is something that discourages simple common sense, and yet it seems inevitable.
Not only do you expose it to a high probability of falling on the floor, the toilet or other inappropriate surfaces, but according to some research, it can pose health risks from the radiation they emit.
For this reason, the manual for several iPhone models, including the 6, recommends not placing it in your pants pocket.
How Should I Sell My Phone?
SellMyMobile has developed an easy and swift sales process according to the opinion of the press and our clients. You can select the state in which you have it by answering a brief questionnaire to calculate the price you can sell your mobiles. Then you won’t have to move from home to send it to them since their collection service travels to wherever you are and of course, it’s free, and you won’t have to wait long to receive your money. In the drawer of your house, you must have mobiles that you didn’t even know could have value. On the other hand, it is an excellent way to give your device a second life since other people can reuse it.
Do not forget to take several photographs of the accessories and the terminal if you put it up for sale in online media. Suppose we keep the original packaging (as is recommended). In that case, we only have to keep the mobile, the charger, the accessories that came with it and those that we have purchased separately, such as cases, covers, or screen protectors. It is also convenient to add the purchase invoice if the terminal is still under warranty. If we have used them, you should not include headphones for health reasons. If the battery is removable, it is advisable to include it other than the mobile.
And a little more. If the phone is in optimum condition and the price is reasonable (remember that second-hand –refurbished– retail is very cheap), we will have the opportunity to sell a smartphone on web pages (for example, eBay), chats or forums specialized in buying and selling. If you cannot sell it, you will also have the opportunity to exchange it for a superior model by making an extra payment.
What Should I Do Before I Sell My Phone?
If you have bought a new mobile phone and want to sell it before, you should know that you have to carry out a procedure to offer it.
The latter means that you should leave the mobile just like when you took it out of its box because if not, there will not be many people interested in it; so here are some tips to avoid this and have many potential customers.
The central idea is that both the user and the people who want to buy it have the certainty that there will be no type of file or content on the mobile phone, that is, that it is free of evidence that you were using it.
Interesting Read: A Complete Guide to Unlocking Your Smartphone on Any Network in the UK
What To Do Before Selling Your Mobile Phone
Make a Backup
The first thing you must do is make a backup copy of what you have on your mobile phone because, in this way, you will be backing up every one of the elements found on it, such as photos, videos, and even documents.
To do this, you can use the cloud service you have, such as Dropbox, Google Drive or iCloud, or do it the “old” way by passing them through the USB cable to empty them on the computer.
Delete All Your Data
Once you have made a backup of what you had on your mobile phone, it is time to erase all traces of you. It would be best to eliminate the folders, notes, and apps to achieve this.
Although there is also the option to format the phone so that it is not being deleted thing by thing, you can go to the mobile phone Settings and look for the Factory Restore title.
Delete All Your Accounts
This directive may be self-evident, but some people do not do it or do it halfway because they do not entirely unlink their accounts, which leaves many loose ends on the smartphone. That is why you must log out of the accounts, unlink them and then delete all the apps you could have registered.
Remove Your SIM And Micro SD Cards
The last aspect, but not the least important, is to remove the SIM and micro SD cards because these can be used in the new mobile that you will have, and leaving them in the phone can imply a risk.
This point is said because even if you have already formatted them, there are some methods that you can perform to access everything that you were supposed to delete.
