Tips on Selling Your Old Phone System

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By John Benincasa Jr.
President
JHB Telephone

Every month my company get calls or inquiries off of our website  from business owners or managers with out of service phones systems and equipment they would like to sell. In just about all cases they have huge expectations on how much they will be able to get for their phone equipment. Below  are some things that are useful to know if you are ever one of them.

  • All phones and systems are not made equal:  VOIP phones tend to have the most value but even  with VOIP phones there are many models and makes that just don’t have that much resale value.
  • Forget about how much you originally paid for your phone system: For the most part the day you put that system in it’s value dropped by two thirds. Plus the price you originally  paid included installation which can take up to 50% of the system price as well as  your warranty.What  value is left after that will drop by about 30% or more per year.
  • The market is flooded  with older non VOIP systems: That means that the only real market for  these older phones  are businesses that can’t afford to upgrade to a newer business phone systems and those users are looking to spend as close to nothing as they possibly can.
  • Used phone equipment dealers have to put a lot of time into your equipment to resell it: We spend an average of 45 minutes  per phone to get phones in good shape ready for resale. Phones in poorer shape can take up to 2 hours. Control units (KSU”s) can take 5 hours or more. That too factors into the value of your equipment.
  • The reseller also has to warranty  your equipment: You wouldn’t purchase equipment without a warranty. The same thing holds true for businesses buying from a reseller. The cost of  that warranty including the factoring of a fail rate gets factored into the price offered for your equipment 
  • It can take many months for a reseller to sell your phones: 12 to 14 months is not unusual.
  •  Listing  equipment for “BIg Dollars” on EBay only sounds like a good idea: The few times I have seen business owners try it they had a rude awakening! First of  all it takes time to place an ad on E Bay. We can spend an hour just putting together  and staging high quality pictures for a listing. They then run into all of the challenges listed above that resellers face.   They quickly found the “big dollars” weren’t there at all and it took a  long time to finally sell them!  I have yet to find one that would go through the process again.
  • Craigslist  we have found is a better option but still far from perfect one:  It will still take sometime  if at all to sell your equipment. Plus Craigslist customers are “super bargain hunters” and they want  and expect to pay ” rock dust bottom” prices. Craigslist customers we have found however will often accept a “working at the time of purchase” warranty and  we have found that to be a plus.

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The best approach we can suggest when you are looking to sell your  used business phone system, phones or other equipment is to  approach the process with a “found money” frame of mind.  Think of it like the coffee money you found when you vaccummed the seats of  your car or that “Fiver”  you found when you took your best clothes to the dry cleaners!  If  you do you’ll find your expectations to be realistic and you might even enjoy the whole experience!