# How many dead cell phones do you have?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 7, 2018, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621 "2018-10-07T19:33:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2018, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/1 "2018-10-07T19:33:07Z")
Not necessarily broken, but at least in some way outdated or inferior to your current model, and tossed in a drawer or something rather than sold or thrown away. I’m in the 10+ camp myself.
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2018, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/2 "2018-10-07T19:41:35Z")
I have 3 at the moment. I just got rid of another 2 a couple of weeks ago.
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### Author:  [@buckgully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buckgully)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2018, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/3 "2018-10-07T20:34:35Z")
If you would have asked me on Friday I would’ve thought I only had my previous iPhone, which isn’t exactly dead, just permanently wired to the stereo to stream Pandora & Spotify. But last night I was looking through some art supplies I hadn’t touched in years and found a bag containing almost all of my previous phones, going back to an analog-only Ericsson and my favorite phone ever, the Nokia 8260.
I could have sworn I took that bag to e-waste years ago. Probably about the same time I needed my oil painting supplies.
Just checked ebay- none of them are worth anything now. Darn. Back to e-waste they go.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/4 "2018-10-07T20:42:13Z")
I have two. One used to run duty on one of those “Install this app for 5,000 points” type gift/rebate things since I would just factory wipe it now and then and didn’t care if it got cooties in between. But I haven’t messed with that in ages so both just sit, turned off, in a desk drawer for not real reason.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2018, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/5 "2018-10-07T20:47:23Z")
I have five. One from the pre-smart phone era (Motorola Razr, too cool to part with), the rest early Android devices. Including a venerable G1 that I can’t get to turn on anymore. The most recently retired one, as mentioned above, is a streaming device for my dining room stereo.
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### Author:  [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2018, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/6 "2018-10-07T20:57:30Z")
Just one. It’s not dead, though, just doesn’t have a SIM card in it. There’s a machine at the local mall where you can stick your old phone in and get a few bucks for it.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2018, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/7 "2018-10-07T21:01:04Z")
10+ I had teens all with several phones. Mr.Wrekker had several when he was still working. He does a bit of consulting now so he has a burner phone, an Android smart phone, walkie-talkies, CB radio, game cameras, dash camera all in his truck right now. Oh, and an old GPS thingy.
He tells me all the time he can be found somehow. Just keep trying.
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### Author:  [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2018, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/8 "2018-10-07T21:15:56Z")
Closest thing we have here to an old dead phone is my younger daughter’s castoff-of-a-castoff.
If I’m convinced she’s out of her “keeps dropping it” phase, I might get her a new one for Christmas. In which case our dead phone count will go up to a whopping value of 1.
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2018, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/9 "2018-10-07T22:17:18Z")
We have…
Two that are very old, and no longer used for anything. They’re just sitting in the junk drawer.
Two that are no longer connected to Verizon, but are still regularly used for games and music.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/10 "2018-10-07T22:25:29Z")
Good questions.
First phone was a nokia 1100. The AK-47 of cell phones.
Then a prepaid slider phone.
Then a smartphone
Then another smartphone.
Now my current smartphone. I kept replacing smartphones because there wasn’t enough internal memory. First one only had 1gb. That wasn’t enough, second had 8gb. That wasn’t enough. Current one has 16gb. That isn’t enough. I’m going to soon buy one with 32 or 64gb internal memory. It seems that as time passes, more and more apps and programs show up that require you to use internal memory and cannot be moved to the external SD card.
So I have 4 used phones and 1 current phone. I got my first phone in 2005 I believe so I was very late to the game. I would consider me having 4 used phones to be on the lower side of number of used phoens.
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### Author:  [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2018, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/11 "2018-10-07T22:43:55Z")
I have zero because I’ve never seen any point in holding on to a dead one.
Now, if you want a starter for a 1989 F150… 🙂
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2018, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/12 "2018-10-08T00:33:14Z")
My clunkiest one (that I can’t find at the moment to give a model number) is a Nokia that is close to the same height and depth of a Gordon Gekko phone, but much thinner. To accomplish that, the number pad was only two buttons wide, so the layout was like:
12
34
56
78
90
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2018, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/13 "2018-10-08T10:29:14Z")
IN my “junk drawer” I have two old flip phones, a Samsung Galaxy with a cracked screen that I should sell, and two _pagers_ that I should donate to a museum.
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2018, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/14 "2018-10-08T12:45:30Z")
We did a phone purge not too long ago, so all we’ve got left are my last flip phone and my spousal unit’s old Blackberry. Come to think of it, we might have his last smart phone - I think he was planning to use it for music in my car, tho that has yet to happen.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2018, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/15 "2018-10-08T13:52:23Z")
My first model was fully retired some years ago. That’s the only “dead” one, as I still use a Nokia Lumia frequently for garden photography (but not as a phone).
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### Author:  [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2018, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/16 "2018-10-08T15:16:10Z")
No dead phones but still have my last 2, they were retired to upgrade to a newer model. Can’t even give them away. Tried one of the machines at Walmart that buys old phones. Both were rejected, even one that was only a few years old.
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### Author:  [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2018, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/17 "2018-10-08T15:42:09Z")
At least 10.
Model numbers on some I would have no idea…
Nokia brick phone circa 2003
Ericson flip phone circa 2004
LG flip phone circa 2006
Motorola Razor flip phone circa 2008
First Android phone, Samsung galaxy circa 2010
LG F3 circa 2013
Motorola G (first gen) circa 2013
LG G3 circa 2014
LG G5 circa 2016
LG V30 circa 2018 = current phone
All told, The current V30 and the G3 were the best phones out of the bunch.
Out of the 10, I think the only ones that are truly dead are the first two and the F3.
The rest will turn on, some need to be plugged in first.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2018, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/18 "2018-10-08T15:53:04Z")
None. I’m pretty diligent about recycling and donating stuff, so I encouraged my family and friends to give me theirs and I turn them in at various places around town. Our flip phones are long gone, and old smart phones were either traded in, sold or given to my nieces to play with.
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### Author:  [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2018, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/19 "2018-10-08T18:13:24Z")
I still have my old RAZR flip phone, my Droid X and my Droid Maxx (which died last month from a crash. The hardware is okay but the phone is unusable and I lost all my data on it).
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### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2018, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dead-cell-phones-do-you-have/822621/20 "2018-10-08T18:22:22Z")
I have one, a Samsung Galaxy III. Verizon lets you recycle. Should I take the time delete all my contact info/apps/pictures off it?
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