What the frig is happening with refurbished phone prices?

[TheWagesOfSin]

Seriously, what is going on? My old phone is hours away from death so I need a new one. Usually I get one that's a couple of years old and run it on a sim only plan, paid £50 outright for the phone last time I did this (admittedly 3.5 years ago) so was budgeting for maybe £60 or so but fucked if I can find anything near that. They're all after around £100. 100 notes for old fucking tech?! If I was wanting to spend as much as that (and I'm really really not) I'd pay an extra £20 and get a new budget moto, which is probably what I'll end up doing but what the fuck is going on? Even pissing Back Market is asking £80 for an old moto D - like, what the hell? They were £60 refurbed four bloody years ago and they probably barely run now anyway.

Are there any retailers left that actually sell refurbished phones at sensible prices?

Have you tried EBay?

Funnily enough I've found the opposite. I want to upgrade to a Samsung A12 (upgrade...hahaha!). In the shop they're £189. Online you can get them for £110 new.

Ah yeah you're usually cheaper buying online. And £110 is a decent price and tbh the new ones I'm finding are decent prices also really for what you get. But they're asking pretty much the same for refurbs, which used to be a lot less.

Ebay is the same as all the others - just taking the piss.

Do you have a CEX nearby. They sell reasonably priced second hand phones and I might be wrong but I'm 99% sure they also come with a garuntee.

There’s a global shortage of semiconductors, which is causing delays in factories making everything from cars to mobile phones, and consequently pushing up 2nd hand prices.

£310 for an iPhone 8 B grade the other day ! To be fair it was only a B because it had no box. It still had the film on the glass so was really brand new. This was CEX

Are you looking at very old phones? £50 seems extraordinarily cheap. I mean a new iPhone is almost £1k!

mobile.mi.com/uk/redmi-9?gid=4202600012&mi_campaign=Micom_UK_Shopping_GSC_2021H1&mi_source=google&mi_medium=shopping&mi_channel=search&gclid=Cj0KCQjw8vqGBhC_ARIsADMSd1DP1mkSeZUccp9Yyl4xx8R6cwoG8bvrj0RC0Vyvo1hVfc0kRkiBjooaArq2EALw_wcB

Get yourself a brand new Xiaomi for £69!!

I have bought Xiaomi for years - they are fantastic for the money

Or the 9A is special offer at £59 on Sundays only

Thanks for that @Pekkala. I was tempted but it's out of stock. I guess I could wait until Sunday but I couldn't find their delivery times, only that they're delayed due to covid and my phone is disintegrating before my eyes (port is fucked so I can't charge it, plus it's starting to go now anyway).

I do prefer the motos at that level because they have less shit on them and they're supported for longer, but I just couldn't find a decent refurbed moto this morning. Anyway, they put one up on cex since then so I'm going to pick it up from the store tomorrow - £80 for a g7 power which has twice the gbs of the redmi 9 and twice the ram too if anyone's interested.

@myfuckingfreezer obviously I'm not in the market for a new iphone! I tend to go basic android 18-20 months old - so they've dropped a bit but will still be supported and get upgrades for a few years - and then look for a refurb which is even cheaper. As a pp said the refurbs all have warranties anyway - CEX warranty is 24 months - so I figure I might as well given that tech doesn't age more than how old it is if you see what I mean - like, a 20 month refurb is only 20 months out of date. It's not like buying a second hand sofa or whatever where it could be fucked way more than just being 20 months old.

It's served me well previously (this one that's dying here on the desk was £50 and I got 3.5 years use out of it,; it was still getting software upgrades as recently as February at which point the phone itself was 5 years old) but refurbs aren't such good deals now as previously but I guess that it explains it @CinnabarRed. Annoying.