
Ask HN: What do you do with your old iPhone when you buy a new one? - arvindravi
I read a lot of HN comments&#x2F;posts where people mention they&#x27;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?
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patio11
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. ([http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/campaigns/list/tada-
kisyuhen/](http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/campaigns/list/tada-kisyuhen/))
Generally they're rather less generous (
[http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/campaigns/list/shitadori/](http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/campaigns/list/shitadori/)
)

I assume that Softbank processes 10,000 of these at a time and then sends them
to China for resale.

~~~
justinnoel
$240 is a good price for a used 4S! Now I'm thinking how can they afford to do
that so?

~~~
patio11
I assume that a portion of the calculation is "We got him to switch from a $60
plan to a $90 plan to support the iPhone 6, so rebating him $10 a month is not
a hard decision."

------
dangrossman
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.

~~~
jordanthoms
What apps are you using? It'd be great to have an android app that could do
the motion detection and IP camera

~~~
kamikazi
I hesitate to link to this because they're still one year away from shipping
but this could be one option:
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smartrico/rico-turn-
you...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smartrico/rico-turn-your-used-
smartphone-into-a-smarthome-de)

------
Marcus10110
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.

------
emiunet
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.

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justinnoel
I give it to someone in the family who uses an android phone.

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Aldo_MX
I give it to other family members (mom, cousins, aunts/uncles, etc.)

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mrsteveman1
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.

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.

[1] [https://www.gazelle.com](https://www.gazelle.com)

------
nixy
Pass it on to my wife. And my wife passes her old one on to either her or my
parents.

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apricot13
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!

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!

I also keep them all charged, so the batteries don't get all bloaty. (and I
still use the 4 as a camera!)

------
jgeorge
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.

------
cognibits
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.

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.

------
chrisBob
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.

If it wasn't for that I would recycle it.

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caw
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".

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ninjakeyboard
Give it to my wife.

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dfine
Placemeter* will turn your old phone into a smart sensor that helps to measure
pedestrian traffic and car speed in your neighborhood:
[http://placemeter.com](http://placemeter.com)

*I'm Product Manager there

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cpach
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).

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skilesare
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!

~~~
Aldo_MX
Strange, I'm from Mexico and I have ordered some phones without issues. But
they got shipped via USPS and UPS.

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corobo
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.

Suggestions welcome, I'm in the UK

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arisarnado
I sell my old iPhone and use the funds for the new iPhone.

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joezydeco
They turn into wifi-only devices for their kids to use.

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lazylizard
funnily enough at my old workplace, the wives get the newest phones and pass
them off to my colleagues when they're done..

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jkubicek
Sell it on Amazon. I sold my 32GB 5S for $450

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dennybritz
Travel back in time to replace IBMs datacenters of 1995.

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zengr
Sold it on eBay, made about $370 for 16gb iPhone 5s.

~~~
avalaunch
Did you take any precautions to limit the risk of getting scammed? I'm worried
that whoever places the winning bid will file a dispute claim stating that
they didn't receive it or some other nonsense and ebay seems to always side
with buyers.

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pulkitpulkit
Give it to my mum normally

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snyp
give it to me dude? or sell on kiraya... lol

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WorldWideWayne
Are you really asking just about iPhones or should the title be changed to
"old Smartphone"?

Anyway, yeah - I use my old phone as a stop-watch for short coding sprints.

