# Broken phones are suddenly worth money

> AI is eating the world's memory chips, and your dead phone in a drawer just became a parts supply.
- Title: Broken phones are suddenly worth money · TechRadar | Shortify
- Summary: AI is eating the world's memory chips, and your dead phone in a drawer just became a parts supply. The scrap value of an old phone now sits in its parts, not…
- Keywords: memory shortage, refurbished phones, e-waste, ai demand, resale market, technology, Broken, phones, suddenly, worth, money, TechRadar
- Source: TechRadar — https://techradar.com/pro/good-for-mother-nature-ram-pocalyse-encourages-millions-to-recycle-their-old-devices-as-expert-says-economics-of-component-recovery-are-changing
- Published: 2026-09-13T20:45:00+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: memory shortage, refurbished phones, e-waste, ai demand, resale market, technology
## A chip shortage with a side effect
AI demand has drained the supply of memory chips, and the shortage is pushing millions of people to sell phones they had written off.
## Scrap is not scrap anymore
Buyers in the repair and refurbishment trade are now bidding for units that used to be treated as worthless. Even damaged handsets carry a price.

> Buyers across the refurbishment and repair industries are competing for parts that were previously considered worthless scrap.
## Prices climbed in Q2
On B-Stock, a large business-to-business used phone marketplace, Apple and Samsung pricing rose in the second quarter of 2026 against the two quarters before it.
## Mid-tier overtook the bottom
C-condition phones hit 37.8% of first-half 2026 sales, passing the lowest Grade D tier at 31.6%. The iPhone 17 Pro Max averaged $940 across all conditions.
## Old flagships got a bump
Samsung's best sellers were the S23 Ultra, S22 Ultra and S24 Ultra. After the Galaxy S26 landed, a clean S23 Ultra hit $425 in June, its best month of the year.
## One bad grade, many good parts
A phone traded in after four years can fail battery testing alone and drop to the bottom tier. Its display, cameras, ports, board and speakers may still be fine.

> A single low-grade device does not necessarily mean every part inside it shares that same poor rating.
## Economics, not conscience
Rising memory prices make salvage labor pay off, and retailers are fattening trade-in offers to keep parts flowing. Whether this cuts e-waste or just reroutes it is unsettled.

> The current trend feels less like a sudden environmental awakening and more like a market correction.
## Key takeaway

The scrap value of an old phone now sits in its parts, not its working condition, so trading it in beats leaving it in a drawer.