What Affects the Secondhand Value of Smartphones: Evidence from eBay

Abstract

Summary Reuse via secondhand markets can extend the use phase of products, thereby reducing environmental impacts. Analyzing 500,000 listings of used Apple and Samsung smartphones sold in 2015 and 2016 via eBay, we examine which product properties affect how long smartphones retain market value and facilitate market‐based reuse. Our results suggest that although repairability and large memory size are typically thought to be “life extending,” in practice they have limited impact on the current economic life span of smartphones and their market‐based reuse. In contrast, we show that brand, an intangible product property, can extend smartphones’ economic life span by 12.5 months. Because longer economic life spans imply extended use phases and longer life spans overall, these results illustrate the potential of harnessing the intangible properties of products to promote sustainable consumption.

Social and environmental analysis of food waste abatement via the peer-to-peer sharing economy

“…Since, however, non-new products seldom displace purchases of new products on a 1:1 basis, this might not be the case 46,47 . Therefore, while food sharing might have social or economic benefits, it is important to consider the minimal displacement rate needed to ensure that the environmental benefits of food sharing remain higher than the environmental burdens incurred by this activity.…”

Reducing the carbon footprint of ICT products through material efficiency strategies: A life cycle analysis of smartphones

“…(2014) (4.5 years in 2005, Dutch data) and Makov et al. (2018) (4.5 and 5.6 years for two brands in 2015–2016, US data), which cover the first use cycle and possible subsequent use cycles of the product before the EoL disposal by the final owner.…”

“…Makov et al. (2018) calculated residual values of smartphone models from two brands. Average residual values were about 50–60% of the original price after 1 year, and 40–30% after 2 years.…”

“…Economic considerations for EoL scenarios can also be found in the literature (Clift & Wright, 2000; Geyer & Doctori Blass, 2010; Gurita et al., 2018). Furthermore, recent studies go beyond attributional LCA approaches by discussing rebound effects that could happen at macro‐scale (Makov & Font Vivanco, 2018; Makov et al., 2018; Zink & Geyer, 2017; Zink et al., 2014).…”

Winners of the 2018 Graedel Prizes: The Journal of Industrial Ecology best paper prizes

“…Seven papers were nominated for the 2018 prizes. In the senior first author category, these were articles by: Alhola, Ryding, Salmenperä, and Busch () on government procurement in the circular economy; Harchaoui and Chatzimpiros () on historical transitions in French agriculture; and Makov, Fishman, Chertow, and Blass () on the second‐hand value of smartphones. The four nominated papers in the junior first author category were: an application of consequential LCA to Peruvian agriculture (Larrea‐Gallegos, Vázquez‐Rowe, Wiener, & Kahhat, ); an assessment of potential to bridge the UK's climate mitigation gap via economy‐wide material productivity (Scott, Giesekam, Barrett, & Owen, ); an analysis of the water‐energy nexus in China and the United States (Font Vivanco, Wang, Deetman, & Hertwich, ); and a review of the history of China's circular economy policies (Zhu, Fan, Shi, & Shi, ).…”