Where can I find an affordable phone without a plan?

December 13, 2006 9:18 AM

Where can one purchase discontinued or used cell phones?

The U.S. cellular industry is based on newness: get a new phone with your new plan. I, unfortunately, am in the middle of an existing plan, and am not eligible for a new phone. But I need one, and I'd rather not spend $400 on it.

So I decided to pick up a "last year's model" phone, much like one does with used cars, only the industry for that seems very thin.

Do resellers exist for discontinued cell phones that were produced but never sold with plans? If so, where are they? And if not, where can I find a reliable reseller of year-or-so-old phones? My online searches and eBay focus haven't turned up much to my liking. I know many people, including myself, donate old phones to charities, but there must also be a secondary market somewhere.

(Reality checks on how much a mid-grade cell phone should cost are welcome... I want a camera and messaging capabilities but not much else.)

posted by werty to shopping (10 comments total)

My online searches and eBay focus haven't turned up much to my liking.

Define "to your liking." You're talking about buying year-old phones, right? So they necessarily won't be the newest and most impressive. I've bought 3 phones on ebay, only one of them over about $60 (and that one came with a bluetooth headset). You should be able to find the options you want, camera plus texting, for like $100 or so on eBay, and there's little risk involved if you restrict your search to your provider, and go with a seller that has a ton of positive feedback.

How is this not matching up with your experience/goal?
posted by rkent at 9:23 AM on December 13, 2006

You can get that brand new from Virgin Mobile. They have a $99 phone with a 1.3 MP camera and texting capabilities. The service plan is pay as you go, and rides the Sprint network, so service is decent as long as you are in major metropolitan areas.

Not an ad for Virgin...was researching last week as I considered dropping a new phone in my wife's stocking.
posted by COD at 9:42 AM on December 13, 2006

The "electronics" section of craigslist is an excellent source for used phones.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:51 AM on December 13, 2006

Ebay's the place. Cingular has their GoPhone deal, too, which has newer phones.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 9:57 AM on December 13, 2006

Who is your service provider? I know that if you're with Cingular or T-Mobile, you can buy one of their pre-paid phones for a reasonable price and pop your post-paid SIM into it.
posted by SteveInMaine at 9:57 AM on December 13, 2006

My first thought was ebay, but I know a fair few people who weren't that careful and ended up being scammed, and every time it was a phone being sold. Having said that if your ebay-fu is up to scratch then obviously you should be fine.

In the UK we have CEX, who give you a warranty (3 months on phones and a year on laptops IIRC). Surely there's something similar where you are?
posted by chrissyboy at 10:18 AM on December 13, 2006

Before you buy a replacement phone, you better make sure you carrier will even activate it on their network. Some providers will only activate phones they have sold to you.
posted by JigSawMan at 10:40 AM on December 13, 2006

Does your current provider offer refurbished phones?

I picked up a nice, used Nokia for $40 this year through Cingular Go Phone. (I think camera phones start around $60.) It may be worth a call to your provider to see if they offer a similar service -- and the keyword to use with them is "refurbished," not "used."
posted by limeswirltart at 12:11 PM on December 13, 2006

JigSawMan wrote: "Before you buy a replacement phone, you better make sure you carrier will even activate it on their network. Some providers will only activate phones they have sold to you."

So long as your phone uses a SIM card, you can swap it out into another model and it will still work on your network. In that case it is more important to be sure the new phone is either locked into the same carrier or an unlocked phone. Some models (Nokia for example) can be unlocked using a code punched into the keypad; last time I looked such codes could be purchased for a small amount of money.
posted by caution live frogs at 1:03 PM on December 13, 2006

Update: I wound up finding a reliable seller on Craigslist (on the fourth or fifth try) and purchased a fairly priced used phone.
posted by werty at 3:54 AM on December 16, 2006