Ok, so I have bought myself a new phone and now have my iphone 3GS (16GB) lying dormant.

I've had a quick butchers on the tinterweb and it seems it could* be worth around £100 if I was to send it to envirophone etc..

Has anyone actually used them? * On their website it says we guarantee we will sell it for £100 or they will return the phone to me. Or should I just ebay it?

Cheers
Chris

I would suggest ebay will get you substantially more.

Don't use one that offers to sell it for you.

Use one as Verde says who just give you cash for it regardless.

Factor in hassle, ebay costs and potential customer complaint on ebay, and you should be able to get a good deal from one of these companies.

I have my Iphone 3gs 8gb which will be available soon, and I will probably do the same.

Ross

Do these companies actually care about the condition of the phone? I always assumed that they just stripped them down to raw materials (I seem to recall QI mentioning that 1Kg of used mobile phones contains more gold than 1Kg of gold ore)

I have done a mortgage for the owner of one of these companies.

The majority of the phones bought from the uk are sold to the Asian market. The phones are inspected, covers and screens changed so they are ready to be sold on. They don't have subsidised contracts and need to pay full price for Iphones and HTC's etc, so second hand phone market is very profitable over there.

The other ones that come in broken or in need of serious repair are broken down to provide parts for the other phones being sold or are sold for their raw materials.

Ross

I've used mobile phone Xchange before and got a good deal on an old samsung galaxy portal. They paid £45 for it, which was what they were selling for on ebay. Once you subtract the fees etc from ebay it was a no brainer.

All they cared about was that the screen wasn't broken and the phone turned on and off. The case and screen had light scratches on them but that was acceptable to them. They didn't want the box or even the charger. It really was hassle free.

There are comparison sites for this too. Generally the ones which pay more cash seem to have bad reviews where they pay less than originally stated (think webuyanycar).

Same here, i went with Envirophone and got £50 for an old Nokia that i probably wouldnt have got £10 for on ebay.

Definitely worth it.

I shifted my iPhone 4 through Carphone Warehouse - it was just too easy and £250 was as much as I was expecting

As above, look to recent Ebay completed listings and check this against a Mazuma price. I've had quotes from Mazuma for my last couple of old phones and in each case checking listings on Ebay showed I should get more even after fees. In both cases I did indeed net more from Ebay although if you're concerned about the condition of your phone then Mazuma et al are certainly worth checking out for the hassle factor. The phones I have sold on Ebay were in good condition, unlocked to all networks with all manuals and packaging so I was pretty confident that they would sell easily in each case.

Used mazuma a few times, no hassle and never a problem.