Some carriers have been offering iPhone owners a $100 discount on a new iPhone. A lot of independent companies selling mobiles are offering to buy used iPhones outright. There’s always an active iPhone market on eBay, and now Apple had entered the trade-in game. But should you sell or trade in your old iPhone? Or are there legitimate reasons to hold on to it?

Apple is poised to introduce two new iPhone models on September 10, an improved version of the iPhone 5 and a less costly one (quite possibly in multiple colors) that may completely replace the iPhone 4S. (Why? Because the 4S doesn’t support 4G LTE, which every single Android and every carrier now offers. This move also makes the 4″ screen standard across the line.)

When we upgraded to the iPhone 4S in June, my wife and I held on to our old iPhones, the “ancient” 3GS, and I can think of a dozen reasons you might want to keep your old iPhone rather than getting rid of it.

1. Keep it as a backup phone and avoid paying monthly insurance fees on your new iPhone. If the new one gets lost, broken, or destroyed, your old iPhone can take over until your contract lets you buy a discounted iPhone again.
2. Sometimes you just want to use your iPhone as an iPod for listening to music. Why use up your new phone’s battery when your old iPhone will do the job with aplomb?
3. An old iPhone makes a great platform for kids games – and less stress for mom or dad, grandma or grandpa worrying about the phone getting damaged.
4. iOS doesn’t support multiple users, so if you have more than one Facebook account or user, you can set up the old iPhone for the other Facebook account. And email. And Google+. And so on.
5. It’s a decent camera for situations where you don’t want to risk your newer iPhone.
6. Sync your iPhones with Dropbox or iCloud or Google+, and you can make it grandma’s brag book to pass around while holding on to your new phone.
7. Use it to listen to podcasts (with Apple’s Podcast app, Stitcher, or whatever else you might like).
8. Use it to listen to iHeartRadio or Pandora.
9. Let the kids watch videos on it, whether stored on the iPhone or over the Internet. (Stick with WiFi to avoid data overages.)
10. Experiment with new apps you aren’t sure you want to put on your main iPhone.
11. Use it as a portable payment terminal with PayPal Here or a similar service. Take credit cards at your garage/yard/tag sale.
12. Or you could just keep using it as one more phone on your mobile plan. Maybe get Mom or Dad into their first smartphone. Or one the kids can use when away from the house before they get their own cell phone.

Hold on to your old iPhone. Who knows what other uses you might find for it!

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