How much could you make by selling your unwanted electricals?
Most of us have a pile of unwanted gadgets and accessories gathering dust at home – chargers, headphones, kitchen gizmos we no longer use (perhaps never did).
In fact we reckon that across UK homes there’s a whopping 880 million such bits and pieces. And there is huge value locked up in this hoard – in the materials they contain, the economic costs of producing them, and the social and environmental impacts of mining and manufacturing.
This is why we’re urging everyone to sort their electricals, donate or sell them. Only as a last resort do we need to send them for recycling.
In other words, getting our lazy electricals back in the game is a win for the economy and the planet.
For you there could be a more tangible financial win. Our research shows that households in the UK could make at least £1,300 – and as much as £6,330 – from selling their unused electronics.
Let’s talk price
If you’re ready to give it a go, you’ll want to know what prices you can expect for your used gadgets.
So we investigated how much electricals are selling for, second hand. To be precise, we checked the second-hand sale prices for 14 products you’re most likely to have lying around at home.
The findings really surprised us. Whether it’s a smartphone fetching over £500, an electric toothbrush going for £105 or an electric kettle for £15 (that’s four or five coffees) you could be looking at quite a windfall.
Price guide
How did we come up with these prices?
We looked at the 31 products most likely to be found twiddling their electronic thumbs in UK households. Of course, many households will have more than one example of an item – two phones, three cables and so on – and our final list of 14 products reflects this. We then looked at the high and low selling prices on eBay and Gumtree for these 14 items.
So treat these prices as indicative – they’re based on a snapshot at a particular time. Lots of factors will affect how much you actually get for your product: its condition and age, where you go to find a buyer for your second hand electricals, when you publish your listing, how long you’re willing to wait, whether you go for an auction or are prepared to negotiate – and more. For advice on selling electricals online, see [link].
Now, let’s make some money.
First published 31 January 2024. We’ll update this page periodically to reflect changing prices.
“If I open drawers and there’s stuff that hasn’t been used for ages, I might just get rid of it. ”
Karen’s battle with the clutter that a growing family accumulates will be familiar to many of us.
Sometimes her secret thrower methods don’t go down too well.
“There was an incident when we thought I’d thrown away my husband’s family videos of his childhood,” admits the marketeer and mother of two. “There was a very awkward two weeks.”
“I also took all the teddy bears out of my daughter’s bedroom. The bears went in a bin liner and into the attic.”
Everything needs sorting all the time
“I hadn’t thrown them away. Move it, hide it – if they don’t miss it then it gets thrown. All part of a process of clearing things out.”
But Karen admits: “It’s hard. Everything needs sorting the whole time. Every bottom drawer of every cupboard has items which go back years.”
“I like things to be tidy and uncluttered. And the easiest thing is to bin it quickly without anyone looking.”
Karen is not alone. More than 50% of Brits confess to binning partners’ belongings without their permission, according to research by Recycle Your Electricals.
“My husband is the complete opposite. He is a hoarder and thinks they will be useful one day,” she says.
“We’re a weird mix – me throwing stuff away, and my husband, being environmentally friendly, just keeps things. He can’t stand waste.”
“He’s got all sorts of electrical items stored – old walkie-talkies, 10 old phones including the original iPhone model – just in case!”
Breakthrough
For Karen and Jim, the breakthrough came when money changed hands.
“I eventually persuaded my husband to get rid of the phones. He sent them back and got money in return.”
“Now we work together. I want things gone, he wants to recycle, so now we do it together, and do something for the environment. We’ve met in the middle.”
“And we all have a giggle at each other’s habits.”
“He’s had a massive influence on me. It’s very good to have someone challenge you. If someone doesn’t say you can’t put batteries in the bin, you don’t learn.”
Now we recycle
“But just throwing stuff away is a lazy, easy solution, and it’s not the right solution. Recycling just requires more thought and more time. We now make sure things get taken to be recycled.”
“just throwing stuff away is a lazy, easy solution”
Reformed secret thrower she may be, but we all have our moments. Karen’s seems to be old cameras. “Cameras that are 15 years old sit there taking up space. I think we hold onto all this stuff because we love the items – they have memories, especially the cameras. And they were quite pricey once. I would throw them away but I know I shouldn’t.”
Whatever she chooses to part with next, Karen is certain of one thing. “It’s time we moved on from that throw-away feeling,” she says. “Being too busy isn’t a good enough excuse.”
Recycling electricals is quicker and easier than ever. Start by finding yourself a bag to store unwanted gadgets – the Zandra Rhodes Elecrical Tote is a great choice. Then use our postcode locator to find your nearest reuse and recycling point – there are thousands up and down the country.
Jewellery giant Pandora says it will stop using mined silver and gold in its jewellery by 2025 and buy only from recycled sources, according to Professional Jeweller.
Many old unwanted electricals contain precious metals, including gold, that can be recycled and made into new products. Use of recycled metals has a lower environmental impact than mining virgin materials.
To find your nearest recycling point check out our postcode finder, and use the details to call or check their website for opening times.
With money tight for many of us, now is a good time to sell electronics and electrical gear that you no longer need, says personal finance expert Paul Lewis.
Had a tough coronavirus? Millions have. Need extra cash? You could be hoarding £620 worth of electricals and electronics in drawers and boxes. So why not sell those gadgets? Phones, laptops, tablets, curling tongs, power tools, that you once saw as cutting-edge tech – they were – now condemned to the dusty drawer at the bottom of your bed.
Why you should sell your unwanted electronics
You can get cash for those electricals! That smartphone, laptop, or tablet may have been superseded but you can still sell them. It doesn’t need to be a hassle.
Briefly, here’s how to sell old electronics:
- Check it works and that you have a charger.
- Destroy your data – back it up, do a factory reset, remove cards sims etc. See more on deleting your data.
- Check out eBay or Gumtree (there are others, but these seem to be the most popular and trusted) and put your electronics up for sale. Avoid websites that offer you cash if you send your item in a padded envelope. You may not get what was promised. But it is easier to do it this way if you are happy taking the risk. Or, if you’re replacing a product, some retailers buy back your old one.
Whatever cash you get for this old tech will not be taxed, and it will not affect any welfare benefits you get. It is literally free money (apart from a bit of work).
Donate your old electricals
You might not want or need cash for your old electronics. If so, why not donate unwanted gadgets to someone who needs them? A laptop to a local school perhaps? Other electricals like your old vacuum cleaner or hairdryer can go to a local charity shop that takes electricals. Or alternatively you can recycle them.
Before getting on to recycling here are some other tips to boost your finances in a time of coronavirus.
“The average home has five cables and the copper in them could save kilograms of rock being mined with all the damage to the Earth and the diesel that is used to dig it out, extract it, and ship it across the world.”
Finance boost
Get what’s yours
If you have lost your job make sure you claim back overpaid tax. And check your redundancy rights – if you’ve worked there at least two years you will get redundancy pay. If the firm has gone bust the Government will pay it. Also make sure you get the benefits and other help you are entitled to like Universal Credit or a council tax reduction. Remember, you have paid for these as a taxpayer in the past. There may even be charities that will help you. Check it out using the free, anonymous, calculator at www.turn2us.org.uk.
Cut spending
Start budgeting now. Get out your statements or log in to online banking and go through each line ruthlessly. Make sure you know what every payment is. Chances are there will be some you have forgotten about. You can stop any regular payment by telling your bank or credit card provider to stop it. They must obey your instruction. Look at the rest. Mark them necessary or nice.
Boost income
Perhaps turn a hobby into income. If you have them, look at your savings. This could be the emergency you have put them aside for.
Anyone born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011 has got a little pot of money with their name on it from the government. If you are 18 you can get hold of it – the average worth £1000. Do it for free, through sharefound.org.
Deal with debts
If you are going to miss a payment talk to the lender – they have all been told to be sympathetic and helpful. There are schemes to freeze payments worth checking out. If your total debt is really bad seek help from one of the debt charities www.nationaldebtline.org or www.stepchange.org. Don’t search online for help – at best you will find firms that charge you; at worst you will find people trying to cheat you.
Recycle your electricals
For all the other electronics and electricals that you can’t sell or that don’t work and cannot be repaired – they can be recycled – disassembled into their precious components. Shavers, remotes, blenders, toothbrushes, irons, power tools. Anything with a plug, battery, or cable can be recycled.
And talking of cables there is copper in them. It takes 142 tons of rock to get one kilogram of copper. The average home has five cables and the copper in them could save kilograms of rock being mined with all the damage to the Earth and the diesel that is used to dig it out, extract it, and ship it across the world. Recycle those cables!
If your smartphone doesn’t work and can’t be repaired then recycle it. There is as much gold in two or three iPhones as in a tonne of gold ore. There is also silver, palladium, and platinum – not to mention yttrium, lanthanum, terbium, neodymium, gadolinium and praseodymium! No, I’d never heard of most of those either, but they are all very costly and damaging to mine. Recycling helps the environment and the economy.
From now on put all your electricals to recycle in a bag. When it is full, see if your local council does a doorstep collection on bin day. Some do. Many supermarkets will also take batteries (always recycle those separately) and may take lightbulbs. From January, when you buy a new electrical item, retailers must take back the old one it replaces at no cost. Otherwise make a date with your local council’s recycling and reuse centre. More information on where to find your recycling point can be found by using the recycling locator.
“I’m going to be looking at my waste electricals at home in a different way”
As an award-winning environmental campaigner and author, Natalie Fee has always been passionate about living a more sustainable life and encouraging others to do the same.
She was photographed by another award-winner, Gregg Segal, as part of his project with Recycle Your Electricals to illustrate the huge potential for recycling old electricals we have tucked away in our homes.
In Gregg’s studio, surrounded by old electricals – including hair straighteners, hair dryers, cables and remote controls – Natalie thought about all the old electrical items she hoards, and the vast array of electrical materials typically found in people’s homes.
Keeping hoarded electricals to a minimum
Natalie has two drawers at home that contain a load of broken, old cables. Like many, she hasn’t recycled them because she thought she might use them again. Now she’s pledged to start investing in better quality cables, so she only has to buy them once – helping keep hoarding to a minimum.
Shock electrical discovery
What shocked Natalie most was the amount of precious metals in electricals, including gold, aluminum and steel.
“I was really surprised to learn that people are hoarding around 20 old electrical items that they’re not using any more,” says Natalie. “I can relate to that but I was quite shocked to hear that we’re all holding on to that.”
She’s passionate about encouraging others to recycle their small old electricals and help give them a second life.
“In my own home it’s mostly e-waste and things like cables and wired connections for my internet and I know that they contain precious metals. I’m going to be looking at my waste electricals at home in a different way and seeing them now as holders of these precious metals and that these need to be recycled – and knowing that’s going to prevent more extraction and more mining.”
Find your nearest recycling point.
“I’ve always got lots of old devices lying around”
Rupert, a married dad of three children, is a Lead Software Developer. His work and personal passion for the latest and greatest tech means he always has the newest smartphone, tablet or laptop in the house.
But he confesses that in his excitement to upgrade, old devices swiftly become a distant memory, hoarded away, collecting dust in a corner of the house.
“I’ve always got lots of old devices lying around. I think it’s not really knowing where I could recycle them or what would be the best thing to do with them.”
He agreed to be photographed, with his children, as part of award-winning photographer Gregg Segal’s project to illustrate the potential for recycling old electricals hidden away in our homes.
“It felt like toast being buttered,” said Rupert’s daughter as she was covered and surrounded by old electricals.
“Drawers full of phones”
During the photo shoot Rupert’s son admitted that they have a lot of small old electricals in the house. These include drawers full of phones, cupboards stacked with laptops, and piles of tablets. Probably far more than the average of 20 hoarded in each UK home.
The shoot made Rupert realise he could make a big difference by recycling – since each item stored in his home contains valuable materials that could be turned into bikes, life-saving equipment and playgrounds.
