Sample Phones

Anyone know if these have all of the guts in them? I had a guy come buy today with 34 pounds of cell phones. I dug through th box a little bit and everything looked cool. I paid him 2 dollars a pound (no batteries in them) and he left. After he left I went to transfer them into a more appropriate sized box to make a quick shipment of them in the next day or two and there ended up being about 30% sample phones. The ones that have a display on the screen no matter what, but they feel the same weight. I am guessing they have no guts? I may have been had on those sample phones, but at the bottom there were about 2 pounds of phone boards that will make up for it.

Anyone know about these sample phones? I was just too tired, but will surely smash a couple of them open tomorrow to find out for myself. Not lazy, just now remembered about them amd thought I would toss the question out there.

I think they are empty sorry to say

Take a few apart and let us know what you find, sould be just a few screws to take the back off.

I will. Still realing from the big load this weekend. Will let you know, but I am sure they are a bust. Thanks goodness for the boards buried at the bottom of the box to make up for it.

Most display phones are empty with a steel weight in them. However I got some display models from my wifes work that are complete. It may be a difference in place to place. Most do have a small amount of stuff in them tho. I broke some home phone displays down that had the plated pins where the phone cords connect. Hope yours are goodie filled.

I find a lot of phones at garage sales. I know they are all different in size and weight, but wanted to get a general rule of what it may be worth to pay for them. About how many do you need to make a pound? I paid 50 cents each for 2 today.

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Originally Posted by shendog

I find a lot of phones at garage sales. I know they are all different in size and weight, but wanted to get a general rule of what it may be worth to pay for them. About how many do you need to make a pound? I paid 50 cents each for 2 today.

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I'm fairly new to scrapping but am learning alot from reading posts here at SMF and through personal experience. I usually don't pay more than $.25-$.50 a piece for the phones unless they work. Working phones, I'll post on CL or a local Yard Sale group on Facebook for $20-30. I'll ask the person selling the phone for the phone chargers if they have them (small copper or transformer bonus), and hope the phones all have batteries, (Lithium Ion batteries are running around $1.10 ATM). Getting phones with the SD cards is a good bonus also (gold plating). Cell phones are smaller and easier to manage than Computers and Laptops. I like going to the local Flea Markets (we have 5 Flea Markets within 20 miles of my house) because someone always has cell phones. Today, I picked up 10 phones at one local Flea Market all came with batteries, 2 had cell phone household chargers and 2 had SD cards for $5. I invested $6.99 on Amazon (free shipping) a couple of weeks ago for one of those kits that has all the bits to take different types of cell phones apart. The boards inside of the phones are usually heavily gold plated and the phones all have keyboard mylars with Silver. It takes about 5-7 phones with batteries to make a pound. It depends on the phone. Motorola I680's, for example, are heavier because they're made more rugged for construction workers while Nokia, Samsung, Kyocera, LG phones are lighter. The older non flip-phones ( the ones that look like your household cordless telephone) are, of course, heavier than your newer smartphones, etc. Alot of variables but 5-7 phones with batteries to make a pound seems to be the average, I've found.