How I Saved Money Buying My New Cellphone
Dec 27th, 2010 by Carlos
It’s no secret: I’ve been obsessing over buying a new cell phone for months. I counted down the days until my two-year contract with T-Mobile was up so I could get the latest and greatest phone.
It did not go as I expected.
I found out I was on a weird plan that was cheaper but didn’t offer discounts on phone upgrades. Which meant I would have to pay retail.
Which sucks because retail smart phones cost over $500.
But I did have two things in my favor:
- I wasn’t in a contract, which meant I was free to go anywhere I pleased and get a new phone on a discount elsewhere.
- My existing phone, the G1, was the first Android phone ever and so was selling pretty well on sites like Craigslist and Ebay. Selling that phone would help to pay for the new one.
Keeping all that in mind, I went out there to find the coolest phone I could get without spending too much money. I wound up getting a really nice phone I’m really happy with, but it took a bit of work.
To Leave T-Mobile or Not Leave T-Mobile
This was the first decision I had to make. Should I abandon T-Mobile to take advantage of some of the crazy deals on phones out there and sign a two-year contract?
I am a happy customer of theirs. No issues with them, their service, or their coverage.
And you can’t beat their prices—T-Mobile has the cheapest plans I’ve seen.
So this was a pretty easy call—I would be staying with T-Mobile for the time being.
If the iPhone was on Verizon I may have considered it, but no way I was going to go to AT&T after all the horror stories and the Consumer Reports slam they took.
Picking a Phone: The Research
This is my specialty: I am obsessed with reading about phones, so I did my due diligence with a few phones: the Samsung Vibrant, the G2 (which is the sequel to my G1), and the Nexus S, which just came out two weeks ago.
All had great features and all would be a HUGE upgrade over my now ancient G1. I just had to decide if I wanted a keyboard on my phone or not.
Where I Looked
I tried to find good deals on phones that I needed to pay retail for but guess what — they don’t exist.
Carriers will give you sweet deals if you sign up for another two years, but if you’re just looking for a new phone without any contract hogwash, you’re not going to find a deal anywhere.
Except for the Internet: sites like EBay and Craigslist are a great place to find deals.
I used Craigslist and found a guys selling a Nexus One phone in pretty good condition (so he said).
The Nexus One, by the way, is a phone that is no longer made and came out back in January of 2010.
Why I Bought an Older, Used Phone
You’d think I would want to but the newest, fanciest phone out there, but when you’re cheap like me you don’t drop $530 for a phone, no matter what it can do.
The Nexus One is a great phone that gets updates from Google before anyone else because it’s a “developer phone.” I could go into all the specs and details of the phone but I’m guessing you’re not interested in that.
Suffice to say, the phone is a huge step up from my old one, it’s in practically brand-new shape, and it’s rare. That will make it easier to sell when I want to upgrade.
How Much I Paid
I bought my “new” phone for $365. The guy I bought it from had a protector on the screen and the body of the phone since the day he bought it.
So when I say it’s brand new, I’m saying this is the best a phone can look after being used since January of 2010.
Then I turned around and sold my G1 on Craigslist for $150. Not bad for a phone that’s over two years old. I helped things out some by hacking the phone and upgrading the phone to a more advanced version of the software.
Which made my phone somewhat unique from the other listings for that phone.
So the net cost for my new phone was $215.
It took a lot of research, I had to overcome buyer’s guilt, and I didn’t get the latest and greatest phone, but I’m really happy with my “new” Nexus One.
Image by Johan Larsson
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