Are you one of those French people who keep their old cell phones, you never know? If this is your case, know that you are probably missing out on some money.
They are stored in a drawer, a box or a cardboard box for years, sometimes without ever seeing the light of day again. Many French people, perhaps you, keep their old cell phones on hand, should one day their current smartphone stop working. They thus become “emergency” or “troubleshooting” telephones. Then, there are some people who simply keep them because they don’t know what to do with them: “throw them away, but where?”, “resell them, but to whom?”.
A phenomenon which is far from being minimal when we look at the figures from the Ecosystem and Ecologic study, carried out by Harris Interactive and Crédoc and published in July 2023. In France, 64.3% of households keep at less a cell phone without using it at home or at work. Which represents in total, 46.4 million old cell phones, which are quietly waiting in a corner while 75% of them are still functional.
A habit that can be blamed for various reasons, notably because it causes its owners to lose money. In fact, more than one person stores their obsolete phones without knowing that they can earn them money. Although these devices are at the end of their life (cracked screen, defective battery, charger that connects poorly, connection problem, etc.), some can still be used and therefore have value. “Old phones have significant material value. They contain approximately 50% ferrous, non-ferrous and precious metals as well as an interesting proportion of rare earths and special metals. underlines Guillaume Duparay, director of development of the company Ecosystem, to the magazine What to choose.
Just look at the offers on sites specializing in the reconditioning of your phones, and recycling for some, such as Back Market, E-recycle, Magic recycle or even Rebuy. For example, the site e-recycle.fr offers you 101 euros to buy back your iPhone Pureview 128 GB in good condition, the trade-in estimate is 30 euros. Also consider Happy Cash and Easy Cash stores to estimate and sell phones you no longer use. Put end to end, this can quickly add up to a significant little nest egg.