The secondary market for mobile devices has matured significantly in the last 5 to 7 years.

Every time a hardware upgrade cycle comes full-circle, a closet somewhere in the office gets more packed with retired phones and mobile devices. For many tech managers, trading those devices in can seem like more trouble than it’s worth.

In 2017, we watched over $2.1 billion transfer to U.S. customer hands through mobile device buyback and trade-in programs. And while your first reaction may be to think it’s all from consumer trade-ins, it’s important to recognize that businesses are part of this equation, too.

When you think of a used smartphone, you probably picture a mobile collecting dust in the back of a drawer. Something that is only brought back to life to tide you over when your current device is broken or lost, or as a hand-me-down to a friend or relative in need. But used smartphones shouldn’t just be destined for the drawer.

April is Earth Month, but a concerted effort on recycling mobile devices would make every month Earth Month.

In the coming years, the vast majority of your employees will go mobile (if they haven’t already). IDC research found that the mobile workforce will grow to over 105 million people by 2020—over 70% of U.S. employees.

Every quarter we compile data about the mobile device trade-in market. We look at the most-traded devices, the phones with the highest trade-in value, the money returned to consumers over the quarter, and more.

There’s a certain degree of consistency each quarter, but it’s good to have the baseline data to examine as industry trends come and go.

It seems like we’re just now starting to see the impact Apple’s iPhone 7 release has had on the secondary smartphone market. And yet, the latest-and-greatest iPhone is coming quickly.

Details about the iPhone 8 are still unclear, but it’s never too early to predict how the secondary market will react to the Q4 influx of used devices and trade-ins.

On April 22nd, we celebrated the 47^th annual Earth Day with the rest of the world. The modern environmental movement that started in 1970 has never been more relevant than it is today—especially as the volume of electronics in the world increases exponentially.

With consumers trading-in their mobile devices more frequently when they purchase new ones, wireless carriers, retailers and OEMs have taken notice and started to include the sale of pre-owned devices in their promotional efforts.

For customers to qualify for some of the best deals for new devices, they must know how to trade-in their old devices.