I read a lot of HN comments/posts where people mention they've upgraded their phones to the new one that had recently come out and such, and I keep wondering what they do with their old ones.<p>Where do these used iPhones go?
Softbank (Japan) will buy it back from you. Yesterday they gave me $240 (structured as $10 a month for 24 months as a statement credit) for my iPhone 4S. (<a href="http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/campaigns/list/tada-kisyuhen/" rel="nofollow">http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/campaigns/list/tada-kisyuhen/</a>) Generally they're rather less generous ( <a href="http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/campaigns/list/shitadori/" rel="nofollow">http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/campaigns/list/shitadori/</a> )<p>I assume that Softbank processes 10,000 of these at a time and then sends them to China for resale.
I have five old Android phones serving as IP cameras in my house. Some WeMo motion sensors can alert me to a possible break-in, then I can check the cameras from my phone. Also lets us check in on the pets while we're out.
keep it, with the intention of using it as a development platform for a robot or something, but then never end up doing anything because who wants to learn another toolchain, right? Instead, lets just drop that in the box next to the palm pre and the old windows mobile phone.
I don't buy new iPhones if I already have one. I don't see myself in need of doing that.
I am trying to keep all expense as minimal as possible, especially in tech hardware because it gets improved so fast.
Gazelle [1], because I upgrade every 2 years, and they pay me enough for a 2 year old iPhone to cover almost 90% of the cost to upgrade.<p>Sure Gazelle likely turns around and sells it for 1.5-2.0x what they pay me, but they're very fast, reliable, they send real bank checks for the full amount rather than AT&T or Amazon store cards or prepaid debit cards, I don't have to deal with anyone else (individual buyers on Amazon marketplace or eBay, or worse: locally), and most importantly I don't have to spend more than a few minutes on the whole thing, which is more valuable to me than the minor additional money I could get selling it myself.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.gazelle.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.gazelle.com</a>
I keep them in a drawer with the intention of putting them in a frame in an office when I have one. It will be nice to see the evolution of them over time...and that way I dont have to part with them!<p>I dont upgrade every single time so i only have a 3G and a 4, will probably get the 6S but am quite enjoying my moto e atm!<p>I also keep them all charged, so the batteries don't get all bloaty. (and I still use the 4 as a camera!)
Unlock 'em and put them on Ebay. If you assume some risk of shipping them overseas to countries that don't have easy access to them, you'll get bidders who are willing to pay a premium for previous-generation devices. I sold an unlocked iPhone 4 to someone in a remote South Pacific island for nearly the price I paid for the new iPhone 5 that replaced it.
I'm residing outside the US, where iPhones cost a lot more and the new models are available 2-3 months after the release day.<p>I use that 2-3 months gap to buy my new phone abroad and sell my old phone to somebody while there's a demand. I recently upgraded to iPhone6 and sold my iPhone 5 for ~$400 (USD), so essentially I paid $300 for the new phone.
I just got my first iPhone (5s) and I still use my android phone every day: as my alarm clock. There isn't a good way to turn off the vibrate part of the alarm on the iPhone, and my wife can sleep through the alarm sound, but not the vibration noise, so it doesn't work for us.<p>If it wasn't for that I would recycle it.
My 3GS exclusively sits in my car and plays music connected via Bluetooth. I also used it traveling to another country, since AT&T would unlock my old iPhone but not my new one. They said the reason was that I was "currently on contract and it's not their policy to unlock contracted phones".
Placemeter* will turn your old phone into a smart sensor that helps to measure pedestrian traffic and car speed in your neighborhood: <a href="http://placemeter.com" rel="nofollow">http://placemeter.com</a><p>*I'm Product Manager there
It would be cool to install Linux on a bunch of iPhones and use them as servers at home. They wouldn’t take up much space :) But of course it wouldn’t be practical when considering the lack of drivers and ports (e.g. Ethernet).
I have a personal assistant in Mexico. I tried to ship him my old iPhone 5 so he could do some iOS app debugging for me. FedEx wouldn't ship it and told me that Mexico customs would confiscate it. Way to go Mexico!
Honestly my 4s is still sitting on the desk in the exact spot I put it when I last used it after replacing it, I have no idea what to do with it.<p>Suggestions welcome, I'm in the UK
Are you really asking just about iPhones or should the title be changed to "old Smartphone"?<p>Anyway, yeah - I use my old phone as a stop-watch for short coding sprints.