iPhone 5 is Coming, Should I Sell My iPhone 3GS?

When I first wound up with an unwanted iPhone, my first question was- should I sell my iPhone 3GS? I didn't know if it would be worth my while, what it would cost, or how much work it would entail. Here are some of the other questions I found myself asking during the selling process, and the answers I discovered:

-        How much could I get if I tried to sell my iPhone 3GS?

This was the next biggest question on my mind. After all, money was the whole reason I was considering selling my phone to begin with! For enough money, I didn't mind having to put forth some extra effort, but I definitely wasn't going to do a lot of work for just a couple of dollars. When I discovered used electronics websites, I was excited because they could give me price quotes in a couple of minutes. I found out that my iPhone was worth more than I originally thought- over $120. That definitely made it worth my while. Who couldn't use an extra $100 or two?

-        What was it going to cost to sell old cell phones?

When I originally wanted to try to sell cell phones for cash, I assumed that I was going to have to pay an auction site to put my phone up, or at least give some website a cut of my profits. I tried to factor that in to my phone's price, since I had to make sure that I'd be getting enough money to cover the cost of selling my phone, too. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the used electronics website that I went through paid for shipping for me. I didn't have to supply a thing other than my phone.

-        What if my phone wasn't in perfect condition?

One thing I assumed about trying to sell old cell phones was that you shouldn't bother if your phones weren't perfect. Boy, was I wrong! When I was going through the form to get a price quote for my phone, I was surprised to learn that I could sell phones that were damaged, unable to make calls, and that were even missing pieces like chargers and manuals.

-        How long would it take for me to get paid?

Part of the reason I was hesitant to go with an auction site was that they can take awhile. If nobody met my minimum price threshold before my auction was over, then I'd have to re-list, over, and over, and over. The same was true of a newspaper ad. If nobody responded, I'd have to pay to put it up again, and again, and again, until someone did. I wanted to sell my iPhone 3GS, but I didn't want to take forever to do it! With a used electronics website, I didn't have to worry about selling my phone taking months and months. It was over in a week or two, and I had my money.

-        What was going to happen to my phone?

I knew that my phone would be readied for resale, then sold to a new owner. What really had me curious was the fate of the data on my phone. Was it going to be deleted, or used for something else? I didn't have anything incriminating on there, but I still didn't like the idea of my phone numbers being sold right along with my phone. Luckily, that wasn't a concern for me for very long- I found out that my used electronics website would end up deleting the data on my phone, so its new owner wasn't going to get an iPhone 3GS full of all of my old contacts. If I had been selling a broken phone, not only would the data have been deleted, the phone itself would have been fixed up before being resold.

If you want to find a new home for your iPhone, do what I did. Sell it to a used electronics dealer. It was the quickest, simplest way that I found to get cash for my old iPhone, and I definitely wasn't disappointed. If you do what I did, you won't be, either.