$13.4 billion in old iPhones are being hoarded by consumers

According to research group OnePoll’s “Mobile Mountain Study,” conducted for resale website SellCell.com, iPhone owners are leaving a collective pile of unused legacy hardware on the table estimated to be worth $13.4 billion on the resale market, reports MarketWatch. That number has grown from the year-ago period, which saw about $9 billion worth of iPhones stashed away.  Looking at the bigger picture, the percentage of owners who keep smartphones rather than selling them has decreased from last year, dropping to 50 percent from 55 percent one year earlier.

Almost 50% of people say they store old phones in a box, drawer or cupboard at home, according to a new survey carried out in January and released Wednesday, down from the 55% who were asked the same question a year earlier. The trade-in value of all those old gadgets: $47 billion based on the total number of smartphone owners in the country, up from $34 billion a year ago, according to the annual “Mobile Mountain Study” conducted by research group OnePoll for resale site SellCell.com , which obviously has a vested interest in tapping into this possible gold mine. “Americans are still unaware of the money they can make by trading in their old mobile,” says Keir McConomy, founder of SellCell.com.