The used mobile phone market seems to be booming as more and more companies refurbish handsets and reselling them, and Stephen Manning, the chief exec of one of the largest US cell phone refurbishers, ReCellular Inc, reckons that within a few years the used phone market could account for a fifth of all phone sales in the United States.

According to Businessonmain, last year ReCellular recycled or resold 5.2 million devices which is up from the 2.1 million of 5 years previous, selling approximately 60% of those in the States with the rest going to dealers in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.

ReCellular estimates their revenue will rise in excess of 50% in 2011, up from $66 million in 2010, and over the past 2 years has garnered some 20 million in capital via private equity companies.

Yankee Group analyst Andy Castonguay estimates worldwide sales of used phones total a “few hundred million” units per year compared with 1.6 billion new handsets sold globally last year.

ReCellular and other companies offer a few bucks for many basic handsets that have several years wear and for the most advanced smartphones such as the Apple iPhone they pay roughly $400, which are often resold in the US or overseas via websites and retailers.

Thus is seems the refurbishing and reselling of used phones is on the up, so we’d like to know if any of our readers have gone the refurbished handset route and if so did the used handset like up to your expectations?