Samsung is holding an event in San Francisco on Feb. 20, where the company is expected to announce a bunch of new Galaxy smartphone models.
If the torrent of rumors have gotten you excited about getting a new Galaxy as soon as possible, or perhaps you’re just ready to upgrade, you can soften the blow of the increasingly costly ordeal of buying a new phone (more on that in a minute) by selling your old one. Samsung itself is offering up to $550 off of its next phone for customers looking to trade in their old devices. Then there are sites like Gazelle and Flipsy that exist solely to buy and sell old gadgets, and there’s always eBay.
But how much is that old Samsung Galaxy you have lying around worth? Flipsy shared its current prices for every model Galaxy phone Samsung has released over the last 10 years:
These prices will vary by the carrier model of device you have, and the condition of your device, but even that decade-old original Galaxy S would bring in enough to buy a couple coffees. Then again, if you have one, do you want to part with a piece of tech gadget history?
Samsung’s trade-in prices are generally higher than Flipsy’s (Samsung offers you $150 for a Galaxy S7, whereas Flipsy only offers $110), but the company’s buy-back program only extends back to the Galaxy S6, so you’re out of luck if you want to trade in something older.
Why trade in?
One reason is that high-end phones have generally been getting more expensive in recent years, so if you want one, you’ll probably want all the cash you can get. At the absolute top-end of the market, phones have become more expensive than many laptops: Samsung’s latest phone, the Galaxy Note 9, started at $1,000 when it was launched, and Apple’s new iPhone XS Max starts at $1,099—and the XS Max’s most decked-out model costs a whopping $1,449.
Even when adjusted for inflation, the base model of Samsung’s newest phones has risen quite steadily over the decade. (Apple’s phones are also generally getting costlier.)
The other reason to trade in is, theoretically, to cut down on e-waste. Your old device can either find a new home with another user, or hopefully get recycled or scrapped for parts. Unfortunately, though, the latter is usually a pipe dream for most of smartphones that have reached their end.