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What to do with an old cell phone: Sell it!
A man swaps his data from his old iPhone onto his newly purchased iPhone 4S at an Apple store in London.
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This final note today, in which you get something for nothing. Dig around in your house, find out how many old mobile phones you have sitting around and sell 'em.
The website SellCell.com did a survey -- and yes, they have a vested interest here -- but they figure the average American has $171 worth of old cell phones stuffed in drawers someplace. Off the top of my head I've got 5, I think. (The FTC has a directory of ways to dispose of your old phones, too.)
"We estimate that each American with two unused devices has, on average, just under two hundred potential dollars," said Colin White, managing director of SellCell.
All told, that's $33 billion in old phones just sitting around.
Kai,
As a former sailor I would have thought you might be doing a story about Cell Phones for Soldiers instead of this story. http://www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com/index.php
Please take a couple of minutes and devote a story about these two remarkable teenagers who thought up this process. The men and women overseas who have called home for free because of them certainly appreciate them.
These phone cards even work from the carriers deployed to the Far East!
Jack
MSG, US Army Retired
When I get a new cell phone before the days of Smart phones, you would turn it in and get a $10 or $50 discount on the new phone. They would not take all the cables and add ons, but the phones they were happy to take.
These days when my old smart phone got replaced by a new one, I reset it and made it wi-fi only and gave it to my oldest kid to use. They can surf the web, send email, and play a few games but only when connected to wi-fi. Oh and they can make 911 calls. They can't talk to friends (using my minuets) or make calls. If they hurt it or lose it, well they just learned a great lesson about taking care of stuff with something I don't use anymore and would have only gotten $10 to $30 bucks for.
I don't know where they get this $171 in old cell phones average, Unless people are buying iPhone 5's and then upgrading to a newer iPhone 5 twice a year and not trading in their phones.
Wow, does anybody substantiate these claims before making them public? Just like all other sites that say they pay top dollar for old mobile phones, it appears the tactic of SellCell.com is bait and switch, to rock bottom prices!
For instance, I have 6 cell phones, one of which is a first generation iPhone. If I sold them all at this page, my return would be a whopping $28. No, I don't have an iPhone 5 or other latest generation smartphone just sitting around, but I really don't think $1.50-$2.00 for old working cell phones is any great offering by SellCell (which is the amount offered to me for my old cell phones. The first generation iPhone was worth a dismal $20 to them.) Thanks, but no thanks!
On average, $171 per American household? I seriously doubt the merit of this claim.
