RETRO smartphones left and forgotten at the back of your cupboard could be worth thousands on resale sites.
According to experts, an original iPhone is today worth £542.55 on eBay, while the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X nets you £1,776.01.
Even the extremely popular Nokia 3310 – which sold 126 million units worldwide – can fetch between £10 and £55.
It follows the sale this week of an unopened first-generation iPhone for $39,000 (£34,700) – more than 50 times its original price.
It’s highly unlikely your old gadgets will fetch that much, but research from Protect Your Bubble suggests you could still make a profit.
Around 527million unwanted electrical items are thought to be lying around in UK households – around 20 per home.
Most valuable retro phones on eBay
- Motorola DynaTAC 8000X – £1,776.01
- HTC Touch Diamond2 – £542.90
- iPhone – £542.55
- iPhone 3G – £301.68
- Motorola RAZR2 – £239.25
- Motorola Microtac 9800X – £230.36
- Motorola International 3200 – £215.50
- Nokia 7280 – £180.44
- Nokia N79 – £171.62
- Ericsson T39 – £146.85
- Nokia E90 Communicator – £134.25
- Nokia N-Gage – £112.90
- Nokia 9000 Communicator – £112.52
- HTC Universal – £104.25
- Nokia 9110I – £100.75
- Motorola RAZR2 V9 – £93.44
- Nokia 7600 – £86.69
- Nokia 2100 – £66.74
- Sidekick LX 2009 – £57.09
- Nokia 8110 – £56.70
Smartphones make up the vast majority of hoarded tech, with 30million Brits owning two or more, according to GiffGaff.
Protect Your Bubble’s research found that the retro DynaTAC – the world’s first portable mobile phone – is the most valuable handset sold on eBay.
However, there’s a small market for it, with only 12 sold in the last year.
In second place is the HTC Touch Diamond2, with one model fetching £542.90 this year.
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Windows released the gadget in 2009, a year after the second-generation iPhone 3G came out, and was considered by many to be the first credible alternative to Apple’s popular mobiles.
The HTC Touch Diamond2 is worth coniderably more than its predecessor. The HTC Touch Diamond goes for just £13.42.
Coming third is the original iPhone model, which came out in 2007 and goes for £542.55 on average.
Rounding the top six are the iPhone 3G, Motorola RAZR2 and Motorola Microtac 9800X, which sell for an average of £308.68, £239.25 and £239.36 respectively.
James Brown, Director at Protect Your Bubble, said: “After 40 years of mobile phones, it’s interesting to see which old handsets Brits are willing to pay good money for.
“If you have any old phones lying about, while the UK cost of living continues to rise – now could be the time to abandon nostalgia and get selling.
“But remember, the better condition, the more profitable it will be. Take good care of it with a protective case or cover, clean it regularly and keep software up to date.”
Earlier this year, a survey revealed that Brits are sitting on an estimated £16BILLION worth of unused technology in their homes.
Old smartphones, DVD players, and even Tamagotchis are among the most common items cluttering our cupboards.
In fact, some have even clung on to retro items dating back to the 90s, including Walkmans and Game Boys.
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But while 28 per cent want to keep hold of gadgets so their kids can use them one day, 24 per cent admit to not knowing how to get rid of tech properly.
And of the 28 per cent who have an old smartphone lying around the house, 51 per cent keep it “just in case” something happens to their upgraded model.
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