Main Reason Old iPhones Fetch $200: Hoarding

Got any old phones kicking around? Probably, according to a new survey noted by MarketWatch. US consumers are sitting on about $34 billion worth of the old devices, based on current trade-in values. About half of US consumers have at least two. And of that $34 billion, iPhones account for $9 billion, with Apple customers being the most likely to upgrade to the newest model.

People don't sell or recycle them for a host of reasons: They're afraid of compromising their data, they don't know they can, or they're kind of lazy, says the study. MarketWatch points out that if more iPhone users turned in their old models, the current trade-in price of about $200 would start coming down. That just happens to be the discounted price charged by carriers for new iPhones, which means the days of upgrading essentially for free by savvy users would be over. (More iPhone stories.)