Each round of new devices — the latest expected
in September with the debut of the next Galaxy Note and iPhone — leaves
upgraders with a still useful old phone that has resale value. And instead of a
forgotten spot in a sock drawer, they’re finding new homes in an increasingly
popular second-hand market.
Wireless phone companies are more actively promoting trade-ins when customers upgrade to new phones.
“All this speaks to an enormous market for these phones,” said Ben Edwards, who started Swappa in late 2010 as smartphone sales climbed. “These became computers in your pocket. That’s what really made this happen.”
It’s also a bit of a Wild West out there. Buyers need to find out whether a phone has a clean history, which can be revealed through its ESN, or electronic serial number. Think of a bad ESN as akin to the vehicle identification number, or VIN, on a stolen car.
“Sometimes you don’t know what’s under the hood,” said Marci VerBrugge-Rhind, a Sprint Corp. spokeswoman.
T-Mobile, for example, has introduced an upgrade plan called JUMP. It allows customers to upgrade to a new device as often as twice a year. Other carriers’ upgrade plans may be less frequent, but they all idle old phones while they’re still useful.
It means roughly 135 million phones are discarded each year, according to a federal estimate. Sprint highlighted its efforts to reuse phones with a recent video.
Phone companies certainly will take your old device, offering to credit your account and find a new home for the device or recycle it.
Sprint says four out of 10 customers upgrading at its stores trade in an old phone.
Some of those phones end up at eRecyclingCorps., a Texas company that works with a dozen carriers globally. The company took in 1.1 million trade-ins from carriers in May,The best cases for HTC one to keep your aluminium clad device free of scratches. and 16 million since it started in 2009.
About 95 percent can be resold, said Kelly Carnago, chief carrier opertions officer at eRecycling.
They are first “wiped clean” of the original owners’ information and refurbished at a plant in Bloomington, Ind.Our handcrafted Cases for iPad 4 is inspired by the journals of our favorite artists. Unusable phones are recycled for the precious metals and other components.
Good ones find their way back to consumers, here or abroad. Carriers, for example, use them as replacements under warranty plans or sell them as “certified” pre-owned phones; eRecycling also sells refurbished phones to retailers and wholesalers.
Some go to the federal government’s Lifeline phone program that provides phones and service to qualified families.
Lots of cellphones, however, are sold online by their owners in search of a bit more than they’ll get as a trade-in from a wireless company.
And that gives other consumers a chance to already have a phone when they sign up for wireless service. Bring your own device, so to speak.
It allows a consumer to buy service month to month rather than under a two-year contract. It means lower monthly bills and the freedom to change phones and carriers when you want to.
This summer, he decided to upgrade in the second-hand market. New phones cost too much.
Ntiono, 27, landed a used Samsung Galaxy S III, pebble blue, for $350 at KayJay Solutions near the Crossroads Shopping Center in Olathe. He even got $80 for his old HTC phone.
Lower prices were available online, but Ntiono worried about getting a bad phone.
“Maybe somebody steals that phone and sells it on Craigslist,” he said. “You’re stuck with it, and it’s never going to work.”
Wireless companies work to prevent stolen phones from being used as cellphones. They do this by keeping track of each phone’s unique electronic serial number.
Report your phone as lost or stolen, and its ESN ends up on a blacklist, meaning phone companies won’t activate it for phone service.
So, phone shoppers need to verify a phone’s ESN and its status before buying.
It’s a little tricky to find a phone’s ESN, some of which are a mix of letters and numbers and some just numbers.
The cases for iphone 5 remains the most popular smartphone phone on the market.Read the full story at www.wantbuyletbuy.com/Supply-bumper-cases-for-iphone-4s_c151!
Wireless phone companies are more actively promoting trade-ins when customers upgrade to new phones.
“All this speaks to an enormous market for these phones,” said Ben Edwards, who started Swappa in late 2010 as smartphone sales climbed. “These became computers in your pocket. That’s what really made this happen.”
It’s also a bit of a Wild West out there. Buyers need to find out whether a phone has a clean history, which can be revealed through its ESN, or electronic serial number. Think of a bad ESN as akin to the vehicle identification number, or VIN, on a stolen car.
“Sometimes you don’t know what’s under the hood,” said Marci VerBrugge-Rhind, a Sprint Corp. spokeswoman.
T-Mobile, for example, has introduced an upgrade plan called JUMP. It allows customers to upgrade to a new device as often as twice a year. Other carriers’ upgrade plans may be less frequent, but they all idle old phones while they’re still useful.
It means roughly 135 million phones are discarded each year, according to a federal estimate. Sprint highlighted its efforts to reuse phones with a recent video.
Phone companies certainly will take your old device, offering to credit your account and find a new home for the device or recycle it.
Sprint says four out of 10 customers upgrading at its stores trade in an old phone.
Some of those phones end up at eRecyclingCorps., a Texas company that works with a dozen carriers globally. The company took in 1.1 million trade-ins from carriers in May,The best cases for HTC one to keep your aluminium clad device free of scratches. and 16 million since it started in 2009.
About 95 percent can be resold, said Kelly Carnago, chief carrier opertions officer at eRecycling.
They are first “wiped clean” of the original owners’ information and refurbished at a plant in Bloomington, Ind.Our handcrafted Cases for iPad 4 is inspired by the journals of our favorite artists. Unusable phones are recycled for the precious metals and other components.
Good ones find their way back to consumers, here or abroad. Carriers, for example, use them as replacements under warranty plans or sell them as “certified” pre-owned phones; eRecycling also sells refurbished phones to retailers and wholesalers.
Some go to the federal government’s Lifeline phone program that provides phones and service to qualified families.
Lots of cellphones, however, are sold online by their owners in search of a bit more than they’ll get as a trade-in from a wireless company.
And that gives other consumers a chance to already have a phone when they sign up for wireless service. Bring your own device, so to speak.
It allows a consumer to buy service month to month rather than under a two-year contract. It means lower monthly bills and the freedom to change phones and carriers when you want to.
This summer, he decided to upgrade in the second-hand market. New phones cost too much.
Ntiono, 27, landed a used Samsung Galaxy S III, pebble blue, for $350 at KayJay Solutions near the Crossroads Shopping Center in Olathe. He even got $80 for his old HTC phone.
Lower prices were available online, but Ntiono worried about getting a bad phone.
“Maybe somebody steals that phone and sells it on Craigslist,” he said. “You’re stuck with it, and it’s never going to work.”
Wireless companies work to prevent stolen phones from being used as cellphones. They do this by keeping track of each phone’s unique electronic serial number.
Report your phone as lost or stolen, and its ESN ends up on a blacklist, meaning phone companies won’t activate it for phone service.
So, phone shoppers need to verify a phone’s ESN and its status before buying.
It’s a little tricky to find a phone’s ESN, some of which are a mix of letters and numbers and some just numbers.
The cases for iphone 5 remains the most popular smartphone phone on the market.Read the full story at www.wantbuyletbuy.com/Supply-bumper-cases-for-iphone-4s_c151!
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