You know why we trumpet loudly whenever Samsung or Google is hosting a trade-in program for its new devices? Because without those, and the exceptionally good money those companies offer to buyback its phones, you lose an insane amount of money when attempting to resell your device through 3rd-party options like eBay, Swappa, and God forbid, Craigslist.

Much like a car that loses value as soon as you leave the dealership’s lot, as soon as you open the box of your new phone, it loses value. In a new report from bankmycell, all phones, but especially Samsung Galaxy phones, lose an insane amount of value during the first month after release.

According to its own resale data, the Galaxy S9 base model launched with a price of $720. Within the first month, it lost 41.66% of its initial value. Within nine months, the value was down to $290 (-59.72%). Keep in mind, this number will indeed be different should you have a Plus model or larger storage variant, but from looking over the data, it’s always going to be a steep drop as the months go on.

This is not breaking news or shocking by any means, but it is important to note when it comes to dropping $1,000+ on a new phone. The way I see it, without the trade-in programs like the one Samsung offers (this year it offered a max of $550 on select devices), we’d all be deeply underwater on all of our smartphone purchases.

bankmycell also provided a Top 10 Phones That Have Lost Value (2018) list. You’ll notice some of these phones are older, so it makes sense that they’re losing almost all of their value in 2018, but one phone, the LG G6, is not all that old (March, 2017) and lost half of its already low resale value in one year. At the start of 2018, it sat at $220. By the end of the year, it was at $110.

There is a lot of interesting data in the report, especially with concern to how iPhone resale value differs from Android phones, so check out the full report below. In the meantime, take care of your phone and ensure you’ll have a device worthy of top trade-in dollar by the next time you’re looking to buy a new phone.

// bankmycell