Ever Wonder Where Your Old Phone Goes?
You hand over your iPhone 12, get $450 cash, and walk away. But what happens next? Does your phone end up in a landfill? Refurbished and resold? Shipped overseas? Taken apart for parts?
After buying and reselling hundreds of phones in Salt Lake City, we’re pulling back the curtain on exactly where your device goes and why it matters for the environment and global tech access.
The Three Paths Your Phone Takes
Not all phones follow the same journey. Here’s where yours goes based on condition:
Path 1: Resale (65% of phones we buy)
Phones that qualify:
- Good to excellent condition
- Fully functional
- Recent models (2-3 years old)
- Minor cosmetic wear acceptable
What happens:
- Data Wipe (Day 1): Professional-grade data erasure (DOD 5220.22-M standard) that overwrites all sectors multiple times. Your data is 100% unrecoverable.
- Inspection & Testing (Day 1-2): 30-point inspection covering:
- Screen for touch responsiveness and dead pixels
- Cameras (front and back)
- Speakers and microphone
- Charging port
- Buttons (volume, power, home)
- Battery health
- Face ID/Touch ID/fingerprint sensor
- Network connectivity (WiFi, cellular)
- IMEI check (confirms not blacklisted/stolen)
- Cleaning (Day 2): Professional cleaning of ports, speakers, and exterior. Sanitized with medical-grade solution.
- Cosmetic Grading (Day 2): Re-graded from A (like new) to C (heavy wear)
- Listing (Day 3): Photographed and listed online (eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Swappa, or wholesaled to larger resellers)
- Resold (Week 2-4): Purchased by someone looking for affordable phone
Who buys refurbished phones?
- Budget-conscious buyers (students, families)
- International markets (phones shipped to Latin America, Africa, Asia)
- Businesses buying bulk phones for employees
- People who lost/broke their phone and need immediate replacement
Path 2: Parts Harvesting (25% of phones we buy)
Phones that qualify:
- Cracked screens but working internals
- Water damage with some functional components
- Broken back glass
- Older models (3+ years) with low resale value
What happens:
- Component Extraction: Phones disassembled carefully to preserve valuable parts:
- Screens (if intact): Reused for repair shops
- Cameras: Still valuable for repairs
- Logic boards: Contain gold, silver, palladium
- Batteries (if healthy): Reused or recycled separately
- Casings (metal): Recycled for raw materials
- Repair Shops: Working parts sold to independent repair shops who use them to fix other customers’ phones
- Refurbishment: Some parts used to build “Frankenstein phones” (mix of good parts from multiple devices)
- Precious Metal Recovery: Circuit boards sent to specialized recycling facilities that extract gold (average phone has $0.50-2 of gold)
Path 3: Responsible Recycling (10% of phones we buy)
Phones that qualify:
- Completely non-functional
- Severe water/physical damage
- Ancient models with zero resale/parts value
What happens:
- Certified E-Waste Facility: Phones sent to R2 (Responsible Recycling) or e-Stewards certified recyclers
- Shredding: Phones mechanically shredded into small pieces
- Material Separation:
- Magnets pull out ferrous metals (steel, iron)
- Eddy current separators recover aluminum, copper
- Plastic separated via density flotation
- Circuit boards separated for precious metal recovery
- Material Resale: Raw materials sold to manufacturers:
- Aluminum → new phone casings, car parts
- Copper → wiring, electronics
- Gold/silver → new electronics
- Plastics → new plastic products (not food-grade)
What Gets Recovered From One Million Phones
According to EPA data, recycling 1 million smartphones recovers:
| Material | Amount Recovered | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | 75 pounds | ~$1.5 million |
| Silver | 772 pounds | ~$300,000 |
| Copper | 35,000 pounds | ~$125,000 |
| Palladium | 33 pounds | ~$1 million |
Your phone contains about $1-3 worth of precious metals. Multiply that by billions of phones, and you see why recycling matters.
International Journey: Where Phones Travel
A surprising number of used phones leave the United States:
Top Destination Countries:
- Mexico – Largest market for used US phones
- India – Growing middle class wants affordable smartphones
- Nigeria – Major hub for West Africa
- Pakistan – Large demand for iPhones
- Colombia – Strong market for refurbished devices
- Vietnam & Philippines – Fast-growing markets
Why International Buyers Want Used US Phones:
- ✅ New phones cost 2-3x more in developing countries due to import taxes
- ✅ US phones are well-maintained (compared to locally-sold devices)
- ✅ Brand names (iPhone, Samsung) carry status
- ✅ Unlocked US phones work on local networks
- ✅ Extends phone lifecycle 2-4 more years
Environmental Impact: Why Reselling Matters
The Problem with New Phones:
Manufacturing a new smartphone:
- Produces 85-95kg of CO2 emissions
- Requires 12,000+ liters of water
- Uses 70+ pounds of raw materials
- Involves mining rare earth metals (often unethically sourced)
The Benefit of Reselling:
When you sell your phone for reuse instead of trashing it:
- ✅ One less new phone needs to be manufactured
- ✅ Reduces electronic waste (e-waste is fastest-growing waste stream globally)
- ✅ Prevents toxic materials (lead, mercury) from entering landfills
- ✅ Reduces demand for conflict minerals
- ✅ Extends useful life of device by 2-5 years
Bottom line: The greenest phone is the one already made.
What Happens to Your Personal Data?
This is everyone’s #1 concern, and for good reason.
If You Factory Reset Properly:
Your data is safe. Modern phones (iPhone 5s+, Android 6.0+) use hardware encryption. When you factory reset with activation lock removed:
- Encryption keys are destroyed
- Data becomes unreadable gibberish
- Even forensic recovery tools can’t access it
If You DON’T Reset:
Your data is accessible. This includes:
- Photos & videos
- Contacts
- Saved passwords (in browsers, autofill)
- Banking apps (if still logged in)
- Social media accounts
- Text message history
Extra Protection for Paranoid (Smart) People:
- Factory reset via settings
- Set up phone as “new”
- Fill storage with junk files (download large videos)
- Factory reset AGAIN (overwrites deleted data)
This double-reset method makes data recovery virtually impossible.
How Long Until Your Phone is Resold?
Timeline from our purchase to next owner:
- Day 1: Data wipe and initial inspection
- Day 2-3: Testing, cleaning, grading, photography
- Day 4-7: Listed online
- Week 2-4: Sold to next owner (varies by model/condition)
- Month 2-6: If unsold, price reduced or wholesaled to larger reseller
iPhones sell fastest (7-14 days average). Android phones take longer (14-30 days average).
Common Myths About Phone Reselling
Myth 1: “My phone just gets thrown away”
Reality: Less than 10% of phones we buy end up recycled. The rest are resold or parted out. Phones have too much value to just throw away.
Myth 2: “Recycling is better than reselling”
Reality: Reuse is always greener than recycling. Recycling requires energy-intensive melting/processing. Reselling extends the phone’s life with zero manufacturing impact.
Myth 3: “My old phone has no value”
Reality: Even a cracked iPhone 7 has $40-80 value for parts. Even a completely dead phone has $2-5 in recyclable materials.
Myth 4: “Only poor people buy used phones”
Reality: Smart shoppers across all income levels buy refurbished phones. Why pay $1,000 for new iPhone when $600 refurbished works identically?
FAQ: What Happens to My Phone
Q: Can the buyer recover my deleted photos?
A: Not if you factory reset properly with Find My iPhone/Google FRP turned off. Encryption makes deleted data unrecoverable.
Q: Will my phone be sold locally or internationally?
A: Depends on model. iPhones often stay in US. Budget Android phones often go international where demand is higher.
Q: What if I find out my phone was sold to someone sketchy?
A: Once sold, the phone’s journey is beyond your control. This is why data wiping is critical before selling.
Q: Do you ever reject phones as “too broken”?
A: Rarely. Even completely dead phones have recyclable value. We’ve never turned away a phone.
Q: How can I verify my phone won’t be thrown in a landfill?
A: Ask the buyer their process. Reputable buyers (like us) are transparent about resale/recycling. Avoid buyers who won’t explain where phones go.
Q: What’s the average lifespan of a phone after resale?
A: 2-4 additional years. So your phone might serve 5-7 years total (original owner 2-3 years + second owner 2-4 years).
Give Your Phone a Second Life
Your old phone has value—to you as cash, to someone else as an affordable device, and to the planet as a reduction in e-waste.
Get your free quote in 60 seconds and we’ll turn your old phone into same-day cash while ensuring it gets reused responsibly.
📱 Call/Text: (385) 503-2882
Serving South Jordan, West Jordan, Sandy, Draper, Riverton, Herriman & the entire Salt Lake Valley