# Where do obsolete phone models go?



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Over the years, I accumulated a few old/outdated mobile phones. These turned out to actually be very useful for me. For example I have an 8-year old Samsung SII, and I enjoyed taking this on vacations to the beach, or by the pool, because I could use it for web browsing with Wi-Fi. On a trip outside Canada, I could also pop a temporary SIM card into it. I've also been using it when hiking, or in the rain (so I can protect my regular phone).

Unfortunately the USB port broke and I can no longer load music onto this. I'm now trying to find a replacement MP3 player and don't know where to look.

There are dedicated music/MP3 players sold online, but they look pretty crummy and they aren't particularly cheap either!

So now I'm thinking of buying an old smartphone. Where do all these obsolete, old phone models go? Even though it's terribly outdated, I would love to buy a Samsung SIII, or Moto E. Can one buy brand new / unused old models like this, and are they cheap? The old Moto E phones were very small and would make a great MP3 player + web browser for Wi-Fi.

I can't imagine the manufacturer is able to sell 100% of the units they produced, given how fast these things become obsolete. Can I buy an old one for $20 or $30 maybe?


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## smihaila (Apr 6, 2009)

Maybe TextNow (US division, but fulfilled through Waterloo, Canada) is still selling those Samsung Galaxy S4 phones (brand new), packaged with their service? (service which you can then cancel, with only the 1-month worth of service cost being wasted.)

That's what I have. And re-flashed it with Lineage OS, which gets you Android 10, works perfectly.


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

If you're looking for a really old phone it would probably be a good idea to find one with a replaceable battery, not a built in in. 

You mentioned you old phone had USB problems but does it still charge up? If so, transfer music via Wifi to the phone.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Good idea @smihaila , I'll take a look at that.



cainvest said:


> If you're looking for a really old phone it would probably be a good idea to find one with a replaceable battery, not a built in in.
> 
> You mentioned you old phone had USB problems but does it still charge up? If so, transfer music via Wifi to the phone.


I bought a newer battery for this some years ago, and it still charges like a champ. Great battery life. Is there a standard protocol or method to do such a Wifi music transfer? I have a bunch of MP3 files on my desktop computer. Maybe "Wi-Fi Direct" is the way to do this?


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## cainvest (May 1, 2013)

Many options for wifi file transfers, even via cloud storage. Do a google search or check the Play Store for direct PC to android wifi transfers.


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

Using Google Drive is one easy way.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Spudd said:


> Using Google Drive is one easy way.


Anything with a cloud isn't practical in my situation. I have hundreds of MB of music on my desktop computer. I would have to upload all of those to a cloud service (and my upstream bandwidth is low so this would be extremely slow) just to download them again locally.

And in my use case, I don't have just a single / static collection of music. I will stumble into a new file at times, perhaps another podcast or download that comes in at 100 MB or 200 MB. I want to then get that onto my MP3 player (the phone). It takes way too long to sit and wait for this to upload to the cloud.

What I need to do is somehow link the phone to the desktop computer using the local network or another protocol, but not using any external internet.


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## Ponderling (Mar 1, 2013)

In response to the question originally asked, when I go to the scrap yard, ewaste phones go in metal drums, that the lids go on every night. The lithium batteries occasionally catch fire _I_ understand, once they some times get mashed like they do in a scrap stream situation.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Those are ones that are used and disposed, but what about phones that are manufactured (brand new), say some new model in 2016. Are the manufacturers really able to sell 100% of the units they produce?

I assumed there would be a bunch of unsold, outdated, obsolete phones sitting around somewhere. Maybe that's not the case.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Not concerned about hopelessly outdated software and security vulnerabilities? Fine it used to play music etc. disconnected from the internet.


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## nathan79 (Feb 21, 2011)

I would assume they're scrapped, or maybe shipped off to developing countries.

No regular store would stock such a thing, as demand would be too limited (the vast majority of people want the latest tech).

Amazon has many cheap phones already. You can buy a new, up-to-date smartphone for about $100.


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## Money172375 (Jun 29, 2018)

james4beach said:


> Those are ones that are used and disposed, but what about phones that are manufactured (brand new), say some new model in 2016. Are the manufacturers really able to sell 100% of the units they produce?
> 
> I assumed there would be a bunch of unsold, outdated, obsolete phones sitting around somewhere. Maybe that's not the case.


Don’t know, but I recall a story from when I was a child. My cousin worked at a factory that made or Distributed a really popular Christmas toy. Once the demand settled down a bit, the unsold toys were destroyed. You weren’t even allowed to take one home.

I would hope all things, especially valuable tech, would end up in the hands of those less fortunate. To help understand the need for things, our community just donated 200 used eyeglasses to a charity who ships them overseas for the needy.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

andrewf said:


> Not concerned about hopelessly outdated software and security vulnerabilities? Fine it used to play music etc. disconnected from the internet.


Nope, not worried. It's an MP3 player, who cares? And if I'm sitting by the pool at a resort and on wifi, and my phone gets hacked, I don't care about that either.

99% of the time, this thing won't be connected to any network.

I also find these old devices really useful to take onto the beach. I like that they are disposable. When I'm surfing, I leave my backpack on the beach and try to keep an eye on it.... can easily be stolen. Thankfully I haven't yet had a single backpack stolen (even though I surf in California) but I just want a cheap phone that I can also use as a music player, but which is totally disposable. Sand & salt water is really bad for these things.

I just discovered a funny old Samsung in my collection though. I'll try this one.


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