I mean, what for? As an insurance against loss or damage to the new phone?
Well, I'm handling Tigerlily as if she were the Crown Jewels. She won't be casually placed on a street café table for a passing thief to take. Nor stupidly handed to to an inquisitive passing tramp. Nor thrown into the sea, to prove her water-resistance. I am being as possessive of her as the most jealous lover ever. She will come to no harm, unless the gods will otherwise.
I suppose that I could accidentally fumble when taking a photo with her from the top of the Eiffel Tower, or Niagara Falls, or the Empire State Building, or the grandest viewpoint along the Grand Canyon, or the summit of Mount Everest, so that she drops into the void. But I don't frequent those particular places. If I should fumble on my sofa at home, there will be no major consequences.
Frankly, short of her forced abduction by an armed terrorist gang, or my being caught in a tornado, so that she is yanked from my hands by a 250mph wind, we are not going to be parted nor suffer unnecessary trauma. So I don't think there is a pressing need for a back-up phone 'just in case'. I may live to eat those words, of course. But really, who in their right mind is going to be careless with such an expensive and important gadget, that makes so much easy and convenient, and has such a strong fun factor? I'm not that silly, surely.
In any case, the old phone was getting out of date. There will be no more software updates from Samsung, and poor Demelza will gradually slide into obsolescence. It seems best to sell her while she still has some value, when someone else in the world might yet get good use from her, purchased as an import and bought (I hope) at a price they - whoever they are - can easily afford.
I speak of her as 'Demelza' but she isn't Demelza any more. Today I factory-reset her - in effect a brainwash. She's lost all the personality she acquired when with me. She's now a blank book, to write in all over again. She's now an 'it'. Let her be renamed and reused, and make somebody else very pleased.
So I looked at a comparison site for recycling old phones, and turning them into cash. I chose Envirofone. They were offering £53 for an undamaged Samsung Galaxy S5 in working condition, sans SIM but complete with battery. It wasn't the top offer, but I liked the look of their website, and their ethos, and the nuts and bolts of their particular process, and decided that this was a company who would do the right thing. A few minutes later, after filling in an online form, the deal was done. They will send me a pack in which to post the phone to them for examination and immediate payment to me. They pay all the postage. I'm sure they will be impressed with my three-year-old phone's almost unblemished state.
So that's that. The old phone is simply waiting to go. And I'll get a useful return.
And if Tigerlily is struck by lightening, or falls under the tracks of a passing North Korean tank on my next caravan holiday, then I shall look at my savings account balance at the time, and see what can be done.
Next day
Envirofone's envelope, containing a flat-pack package for sending Demelza away to them in, arrived in the early-afternoon post. I acted promptly. I didn't want to experience remorse at selling poor Demelza for thirty pieces of silver. I packaged her up, carefully but without sentimentality. (Shots courtesy of Tigerlily)
Once Demelza was sealed in, cushioned by bubble-wrap, I set off for the local Post Office. As you can see, the package went into that blue plastic bag, and you peeled off a pre-paid postage label to stick onto it. The lady at the Post Office merely checked the weight, asked nothing more for the postage, and gave me a receipt.
And that was that.
Goodbye Demelza! Your exit from my life seems indecently rapid. But better this, than festering unused in a dark cupboard until binned. May you serve someone else equally well!
