How much do you think about the resale value of your smartphone? I know that for some people, this is something they are a little obsessed about. After all, you just paid hundreds or even thousands for a new phone, and you want it to stay in perfect condition until the day you’re done with it.
To that end, people pack their phones with screen protectors and thick ugly cases. Hiding all the goodness they spent that money to get in the first place. But, if you look at the whole concept of resale value in a phone, I think whatever logic there might have been behind this obsession just doesn’t hold water anymore. If it ever did.
Resale value is a myth most people will never cash in on
It’s a promise that’s rarely fulfilled
How much resale value matters is often a function of how quickly you get rid of your phone for a new one. If you’re on a two-year phone replacement cycle, then you can probably still get a decent amount of money back on the used market.
However, phones are becoming useful for much longer. There’s less incentive to upgrade them that quickly. So the value of your phone is shifted to the actual use that you get out of it. If a modern smartphone will do the job up to the point where it’s resale value is zero, then its resale value is irrelevant.
If you only plan on replacing your phone when you need to rather than want to, then don’t worry about resale value. Just use it and enjoy it.
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Depreciation is brutal no matter what you buy
A phone is not an investment
If you thought the depreciation on a new car was bad, wait until you try to sell a flagship phone two years after you bought it! Things are only worth what people are willing to pay for them, and in my experience, even putting up a flagship phone in pristine condition for 50% of its launch price will only get you dozens of extreme lowball offers.
This is why so many of my phones over the years have simply been passed on to family members, or I just kept them as a backup in case my current phone dies, is stolen or breaks.
You certainly feel depreciation the most for more expensive phones, but it affects any phone at every price bracket. For mid-range or entry-level phones, what you’d get reselling it might not even be worth the time you need to spend facilitating that sale. It might make more sense to trade it in, if there’s a trade-in program for your handset. Sure, trade-in offers for store credit are still a ripoff, but at least it’s time-efficient, and you don’t have to do the deal from your trunk in an empty parking lot.
Optimizing for resale makes your experience worse
Who are you doing this for?
Just look at how nice these phones look naked.
Unless you have a real functional reason to do it, babying your phone and slathering it in safety equipment only makes your experience worse. So you have a phone with the very latest glass technology, tougher than anything ever before, no glare, no fingerprints, amazing popping color from the screen—and then you stick a $15 piece of tempered glass over it?
A thin titanium and glass body, or textured polycarb, slaved over by engineers to feel amazing in your hands? Nope. $10 silicone rubber is what you want. Because what if the next person to own this phone wants to pay you less because of slight wear and tear? Who will think of their needs?
Use your phone like you’ll never sell it (because you probably won’t)
Take the wrapping off your Ferrari seats
I think it’s healthier to think of your phone not in terms of what it will be worth if you decide to sell it one day, but in terms of how much value it can provide you while you are the one using it. You paid for that screen, you paid for that design and body, that’s your battery taking the hits. Why subsidize the needs of a stranger?
Now, if you are worried about accidents that result in repairs you can’t afford, that’s a perfectly legitimate reason to baby your phone or put a case on it. Personally, my smartphone is insured against theft or breakage, so if I accidentally drop it and smash the screen, I’m covered.
By the way, just because your phone is in a case doesn’t mean it won’t break when it drops, but my insurance covers the phone whether it’s in a case or not. Just saying.
Either way, I’m not advocating for anyone to be reckless, I just don’t want you to end up paying for the enjoyment of something and then never actually getting the enjoyment you paid for. That’s way worse than getting a little less money for your phone one day.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
