It’s that time of the year when the phone companies want us to dig deep into our pockets to buy a new phone. Apple is about to announce their new iPhone 16 phones, and Samsung and Google have just announced their new models with many of them costing $1000 to almost $2000.
But there’s an alternative to spending big bucks to get a phone with new features. Consider the refurbished phone market. That’s what I did recently when I needed to purchase a high-end Android phone for testing purposes. I paid just $650 for what was recently an $1800 phone.
Refurbished phones are available from Apple, Amazon and scores of companies. It’s a huge worldwide industry of more affordable phones that the carriers and the phone companies don’t want to talk about. Many of the phones are like new and barely used. Others are trade-ins that have gone through a refurbishing process.
Over the last decade phones have changed. No longer is the industry encumbered by locked phones or carrier-specific models. All phones are required to be unlocked by the carriers after 6 months of use and there’s a government requirement that all phones that enter the recycling market be unlocked, because a locked phone cannot be easily recycled and contributes to electronic waste. Most phones now work with all carriers, so that makes it easier to resell.
But the primary reason the market is so large is that 20% to 30% of new phone purchases are returned for various reasons: buyer’s remorse, a change of mind, or those that take advantage of free returns and just like to try out new products.
By law these returned phones cannot be sold as new and the original sellers. Apple, Samsung or the various carriers, are not equipped to resell all of them as used products, so they sell most of them to wholesalers that then sell and auction them in bulk to various refurbishing companies.
The best of the refurbishers are government certified that insures they recycle the products in compliance with recycling laws. One example is OEM Source in New Jersey. I purchased my refurbished phone from their retail site, www.rakerock.com. After making my purchase, I contacted them to ask them about their business. They explained how they often will buy more than a million dollars of one phone model, use their technicians to check each phone for cosmetics, and use special test software to test their functionality. Phones are graded from Excellent to Fair, based on their condition. Like most reputable refurbishers, they offer a 30-day return policy.
When I needed a folding Samsung phone for testing purposes, I looked at some of Samsung’s older models and checked their reviews. Samsung had just released the Z Fold 6 for $1900, but the reviews indicated its improvements were incremental over their previous two generations, the Z Fold 5 and Z Fold 4. . The Z Fold 5 can be bought as refurbished for about $950, and the Z Fold 4 for $650, which is what I bought.
OEM Source told me that iPhones are the most difficult phones for them to get, because there’s a huge demand in China for used iPhones, fueled by customers wanted to avoid locally bought phones that need to come with government-required software. Samsung are the second most popular, followed by Motorola, and others.
Amazon is also a good source of refurbished phones. They are essentially a middleman and sell refurbished phones from other refurbishers. When you look at a listing on Amazon, it will identify the refurbisher or may indicate it as Amazon, which are phones in its warehouse supplied by refurbishers. Most of the refurbishers guarantee the phones for 30 days.
Refurbished phones are also worth looking at for finding a low cost phone, especially for those that may subject their phones to abuse and harsh use. For example, renewed Motorola Moto Edge 5G UW with 256 GB of storage is available for $114.
So what are the disadvantages? The battery may be partially used. For examples, phones graded at excellent have their batteries at 80% or more of capacity. Phones graded lower might have batteries at lower capacity.
One advantage is that cases and some model-specific accessories for older phones can be less expensive. An $80 leather Samsung case for my phone was available for $9. An important benefit of refurbished phones is that it’s better for the environment than a new phone.