Condition gets all the attention when people think about resale value — the cracked screen, the dented corner. But age quietly does more damage to your final price than most cosmetic issues ever will.
The steepest drop happens early
A phone typically loses the largest chunk of its value in the first six to twelve months after launch — sometimes as much as a quarter of its original price. That's simply how consumer electronics work: today's flagship becomes last year's model the moment a newer one launches, regardless of how well it's been looked after.
Why we price it this way
Our pricing engine applies an age-based depreciation percentage before anything else — 5% for phones bought in the last six months, rising to 40% for anything over two years old. This isn't arbitrary: it mirrors how quickly resale demand actually shifts in the market, so the price you're quoted reflects reality rather than a flat, one-size-fits-all number.
What this means for you
If you're holding onto a two-year-old phone "just in case," it's worth checking today's price against what it might fetch in another six months. Depreciation doesn't pause for indecision — and a device that's still in great condition today may not stay that way forever either.