The best time to sell your old smartphone? Within THREE months of a new launch: Prices on eBay drop by £10 each month after quarter of a year

It's widely believed that if you want to sell an old smartphone, its best to strike while the iron is hot immediately after the release of a new handset.
Yet, technology site Gizmodo has discovered that waiting for a couple of months makes little difference to the price people are willing to pay on sites such as eBay.
Its research found that across brands, the prices of second-hand phones don't start to drop until the third month after a new one is launched and then it drops by around £10 a month, on average.

Sales of Apple's iPhone 5 doubled on eBay, pictured, following the launch of the iPhone 5S and 5C on 10 September. Technology site Gizmodo found the prices of second-hand phones don't start to drop until the third month after a new one is launched and then it drops by around £10 a month, on average

APPLE'S IPHONE 5 STILL MOST POPULAR IN THE UK

According to uSwitch, the number one handset in the UK is still the iPhone 5 - for the seventh consecutive month.
Apple's CEO Tim Cook announced in September the firm is discontinuing the handset.
Apples iPhone 5S in gold and 5C in green are new entries at fifth and seventh place respectively, while the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is new in at number ten. 
This contradicts research by iPhoneStockChecker.co.uk that found the pink 5C was the most popular colour.
Apple's iPhone 4 dropped to fourth place in the uSwitch list.
The HTC One Silver and the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini both dropped two places to eight and ninth respectively.

Journalist Chris Mills studied online eBay sales reports, compiled by analytics firm Terapeak.
He found that sales of the iPhone 5 doubled following the launch of the iPhone 5S and 5C on 10 September.
The average price on 15 September was £348.43.
Mills also found that prices for the older model began increasing even before the launch event and peaked as early as 28 July with a price of £363.62.
Prices have remained around the same since the launch event.
Surprisingly, prices for the iPhone 4 also increased between April and August, rising 10.31 per cent.
Investment firm Piper Jaffray monitored online auctions for Apple and Samsung smartphones from mid-March.
It found that the iPhone 4 gained resale value on eBay, although the iPhone 4S dropped by 11.85 per cent and the iPhone 5 slid 3.75 per cent. During the same time, prices for Samsung's Galaxy S III fell 27.32 per cent.
Gizmodo also highlighted that paying for large picture galleries, for example, made little difference to the sales price or success of phone listings. It also found that selling phones at a weekend can as much as double the price.
However, the price for selling phones back to network operators, or as trade-ins, varies.
Place the cursor over the points in the graph below to see prices

 

Research by Tusla World took a black 64GB iPhone 5 to various shops. Prices ranged from £198 up to £222, or £248 when used as a trade-in.

Following the launch of the new Apple handsets, the tech giant announced it had smashed its own records by selling nine million iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C handsets during the first three days - working out as 125,000 an hour, on average, or around 2083 a minute.
The tech giant also announced that 200 million devices are now running the iOS 7 software, despite download problems and divided opinion.
Last year's iPhone 5 sales topped five million during its opening weekend in September 2012, yet only one handset was available - as opposed to this year's two - and it wasn't sold in China from launch.

According to uSwitch, the number one handset in the UK is still the iPhone 5, pictured, for the seventh consecutive month. Apple's CEO Tim Cook announced in September the firm is discontinuing the handset. Apple's iPhone 5S in gold and 5C in green are new entries at fifth and seventh place respectively