[wacheena]

For most Internet/technology savvy folks this won't be appealing.

A few years back I realized that most of my technology purchases were actually "rentals." I purchase them at full price, use them for a year or two and then unload them on eBay or Amazon marketplace. This goes for cameras, cellphones, laptops, etc.

The rental price is basically the delta between what I purchase it for and what I sell it for. I've found that savvy decisions about when to sell a piece of technology can minimize the depreciation.

A popular example is selling an old iPhone in May in anticipation of the latest and greatest coming out in June. By selling in May I minimize depreciation.

The mistake I see many of my friends make is holding onto a piece of technology for too long under the false belief that they'll "find a use for it someday." Over the long haul the monetary value falls to zero (or near zero in the case of an old 2nd gen iPod shuffle I discovered yesterday) as does its usefulness.

[khafra]

I make exactly the mistake your friends do--I still have the first smartphone I ever bought, from, I believe, 2000. I also have a 3g I should've sold shortly after getting the iPhone 4.