‘I’m a mobile phone expert and your old devices could be worth thousands’ - find out which

• Old mobile phones in your home could be worth thousands. 
• If you had a Vodafone device in the 1980s - it could fetch a small fortune. 
• But even if your phone isn’t worth money, you can donate it to charity. 

Mobile phones have been around long enough now that we all probably have at least one (or six) old handsets lying around somewhere in the house. They are probably in a draw or in a box gathering dust. 

But what you may not realise is that you could be sitting on a small fortune. New research from Vodafone suggests there are more than 200 million unused phones languishing in UK homes.

According to the study, the average Brit has at least two old phones at home with one-in-ten (13%) hoarding up to five unused devices that could be recycled, refurbished or rehomed. And some of the rarer devices could earn their unwitting owner as much as £2,500.

Ben Wood is a mobile phone fanatic and both the founder and curator of the Mobile Phone Museum, which is home to some 2,800 unique devices spanning four decades. Starting with the very phone that launched his collection, Ben has outlined some of the mobile phones that are likely to hold the highest value.

Which old mobile phones could be worth the most? 

Of the thousands of handsets that rightly have pride of place in Ben’s museum, some are rare while other devices were so ubiquitous, their role in history is equally as significant . And, while the museum holds the world’s most authoritative collection of mobile phones, there are still iconic devices on the ‘most wanted’ list.

An example of an older phone that could be worth a fortune is the Vodafone VT1 – the phone that started Ben’s collection. It is the original transportable phone, a true icon that started Ben’s collection.

In 1983, Vodafone ordered 5,000 VT1’s from Mobira and 5,000 Vodafone VM1 units from Panasonic, which were the phones used on the Vodafone network when it became the first network to go live, launched in 1985.

Ben said: “Vodafone only sold 12,000 of those in total, and if you think that was 1985, how many of those still exist? Not many. We’ve got three of them, so I’m quite proud of that.”

Other valuable old handsets include: Nokia 6108, Mobira Senator, Motorola Aura and more. . 

Donate your phone to improve someone’s life 

For the majority of Brits, their unused phones will be worth very little money - but if donated through the scheme could make a huge difference to the life of a digitally excluded person.

Ben started collecting handsets in the 1990s, and though he was mulling the idea of starting a museum it wasn’t until 2012 that he registered the URL for the virtual mobile phone museum – a decision that proved ‘pivotal’, he says. From there he set up a charity, gained some investment from a philanthropist in the phone industry and knocked on Vodafone’s door in 2021 with a view  to launching the museum online.

He explained: “We use the charity as a force for good, we take the phones into primary schools to inspire the next generation of engineers and designers. Kids under 11 have never seen anything that isn’t a black rectangle. 

“So, for them, these old devices just blow their minds. People take technology for granted. Children of the 80s could still see that analogue world. So much has been subsumed into the phone.

“The design diversity was just astonishing, flip phones, rotating phones, slider phones, bar phones, lipstick phones, pen phones – all these different things. Then in 2007, Steve Jobs walked on stage, pulled the iPhone out of his pocket and basically the dominant design was born.” 

He continued: “And now the mobile phone has subsumed everything, it’s your camcorder, your digital camera, your MP3 player, your alarm clock, your torch, your bank, your map, your - we could spend all day thinking about all the things your phone does now.

“But phones went from this incredible design diversity to a sea of smartphone sameness, - we’ve got loads of black rectangles in the museum. But the really interesting stuff is all the crazy hardware design that was done. It’s the nostalgia factor too.

“The mobile phone is the most prolific consumer electronics device on the planet, it’s a super, super personal device, you always have it with you, you can’t live without it.”

You can see if you have any of the phones on Mobile Phone Museum’s ‘most wanted’ list here.

Do you prefer the older design of handsets or the smartphones we have today? Share your thoughts by emailing me: [email protected]