It turns out your old brick phone you’ve had since you were ten that’s still knocking around in your junk draw might actually be worth something these days.
That’s right, some of the now seemingly ancient phones from the late nineties and early noughties are now deemed as ‘classics’ or ‘antiques’ and are selling for a substantial amount of money, reports The Mirror.
According to findings from Talkmobile, 56.8 per cent of people are harbouring an old phone with experts saying that some ‘retro’ handsets, are worth a ‘small fortune’.
So if you’ve got any old mobiles from the last 15 years or so, it might be a good idea to see how much they’re selling for.
According to this guide, your Nokia 3310 could sell for between £10-£55, the Motorola Razr V3 for £15-£60 and the Sony Ericsson W88i £30-50.
Other Nokia phones like the N95, could be worth between £60-£90 and the 9000 could make you up to £500. The best one of all the Nokia phones though – if you happen to have one lying around – is the 1981 Nokia Mobira Talkman which is apparently worth an incredible £900.
Remember the gold Dolce and Gabbana Motorola flip phone? Well one of those is now worth £150.
But the king of all vintage phones is the Motorola DynaTAC. One of these could make you a cool £1000-3000 – not too shabby at all. A HTC One could bag you £40-£50 to boost your Christmas fund while old Apple iPhones are now selling for between £150-£1000.
Mobile phone collector and expert Ben Wood from CCS Insight describes what our old mobile phones meant to us when we first got them.
He said:
We all remember our first mobile phones, whether it was the iconic brick-sized Motorola DynaTAC used by Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, a Samsung that flipped open, or the noughties manufacturer of choice, Nokia.
It’s now over 30 years since the first mobile phone became commercially available and a whole generation of people have owned a host of different handsets over the years.
Finding an old handset in the back of a drawer can be an evocative experience. People tend to remember the phone they had during significant periods in their lives, such as a certain job or a particularly memorable holiday. It’s interesting that a piece of technology can induce sentimental feelings in many people.
According to Ben we harbour ‘affectionate’ memories for our old or first phones, with the most memories attached to the Nokia 3310 and 3390. Hard to believe they came out around 15 years ago and were apparently the most popular phones of that era.
Their legendary features included an aerial that you didn’t have to pull out, highly innovative (of their time) text messaging systems, colourful, changeable cases and of course, everyone’s favourite, iconic game, Snake.
Ben added:
It’s no surprise people are nostalgic about their Nokias
The brand was a real game changer back in the nineties and Nokia worked extremely hard to make the mobile phone accessible to everyone.
Nokia phones were affordable, robust and reliable, and unlike most smartphones of today, sometimes only needed charging once a week. Thanks to Nokia the mobile phone became the most prolific consumer electronics device on the planet.
If you do have an old phone that sadly isn’t worth anything, you can recycle them with various charities who will put the money to good use.
Best get ‘mobile phone hunting’ then guys, you don’t know what hidden treasures you might unearth…