The truth about buying old phones

dhruvtalksstech
Mar 4, 2023
5 min read

The market for old phones is flourishing at a rapid pace and there has been a lot of debate on whether people should buy old phones or not. I want to give my opinion on it and would be hugely relevant to people in India and the US as offline and online marketplaces for used phones are hugely popular in these countries. They are also representative of the two largest smartphone markets in the world. Let's get right into it. In a country like India, like everyone else around the world, people are very much wary of their societal impression. Having a second hand phone is not considered a very good sign even though having a second hand car in the US is considered pretty normal. In fact, second hand car sales are equal to new car sales in the US.

The used smartphone market is growing at a rate of 16% per annum and will reach over $ 11 billion or about 9000 crores. This shows the growing interest in the market. Most of the used smartphone buying and selling in India takes place in offline stores which are spread throughout the country with Delhi being the hub for them. Most of this sector is unorganized in India with small shop owners at every corner. There is only 1 major player in the Indian market known as Cashify. A lot of times smartphone shops have a specific section of used phones for those whose buying power does not allow them to stretch their budgets too far.

Like anything and everything on this planet, it has its pros and cons. But for me, the cons outweigh the pros in most cases. I'll try to walk you through them. The used smartphone market is based on trust and trust only. You have to trust the seller not to sell you a fake device. You have to trust him not to replace the original phone parts with fake ones. It becomes hard to be the judge of all this because you can't really be sure and authenticate things yourself. You've just go to trust the words of a man you met barely 34 seconds ago. On Reddit, you can see thousands of people talking about how they were lured into buying a used phone only to find out later that they had been scammed and had instead bought a fake iPhone. It is these used phone sellers who often claim to sell "almost new" phones for 50% of the price. But you have to use your common sense to understand that no person on this planet can sell an iPhone 14 Pro Max for 50,000 Rs. It is not even remotely possible and this in itself should be a red flag for you.

It is in human nature to be suspicious when prices are incredibly low. You don't really know if they are genuinely genuine (if that's a thing) or if they have just set the price so low to lure you in and convince you to buy a rip-off device. The devices are not kept in boxes and are not handled well. They are often sold without the original accessories such as charging bricks and earphones. The whole concept of buying used phones is very decentralized and is sort of like the informal labor market that is unregulated and bound to fall one day. A lot of people also have the mindset of rocking an expensive phone just for the looks of it. You don't need to have a flashy new phone if you don't require one and should not be ashamed if you have a budget phone. Even I, as I have told earlier in my blogs, had a Samsung A50 (250$) phone for over 3.5 years before buying an expensive iPhone. Most of the old phones sold are iPhones because people associate Apple with brand prestige. Most of these people crave an iPhone but can't afford one.

Used phones, as the name suggests, are used. They are often not in the best physical condition and are either scratched, cracked, broken or have dysfunctional parts. The components on a used phone are also much more susceptible to breaking down or stopping working after a few months. The batteries are worn out and are in dire need of replacement.

Quality problems plague and ripple throughout the whole industry. Although, there has been some improvement ever since the launch of online phone trading platforms such as OLX, Cashify, and several more. I have seen countless cases where people bought old phones, used them for a while, and started noticing some serious problems with the device such as an unresponsive display, hazy camera, and bloated battery. This is in general true for everything that's secondhand or as Walmart puts it "renewed". I implore you not to fall for these fancy marketing terms and really scrutinize the device.

It is often easy to find very recent phones for cheap on these sites because smartphones are highly depreciating assets, even more so than luxury cars. Software and hardware support are a major cause of concern as well. The older a phone is, the less likely it is to receive security and OS updates. The hardware can't handle the latest apps and tasks that you throw at them. It is no shocker that people who buy old phones are mainly the ones who want an expensive phone for cheap. They are lost in the realm of showing off even if it means buying an inferior-quality device. Cashify has over 170 stores in India and there's one in my city as well. Whenever I walk by the store, I can always see people inside. The second hand smartphone market is certainly booming in India. But I don't necessarily see it as a good thing.

I can only think of one possible case where buying a used smartphone makes sense. If a person is particularly disadvantaged and his/her financial constraints don't allow him/her to spend even about 8000 Rs on a smartphone. A smartphone is a necessity nowadays and a slow, sluggish 6-year-old smartphone is still better than a feature phone. In this particular case, it is still prudent and makes sense because the person has virtually no other choice. Having even the cheapest kind of smartphone opens up a huge world of opportunities and digitization. I would still urge people who fall in this category to think long and hard about making the purchase. Maybe they could be better off waiting for 6 months, saving enough money, and then buying a brand new smartphone that will actually add value as it would last much longer.