Obsolete Galaxy S2

[Android Question]

With phones updating and manufacturers coming out with new units on a monthly basis (so it seems) what are the hobbyists that repair the broken, water soaked, screen cracked units supposed to do with the already repaired, rooted, and ready for a new owner units we are now stuck with?? It seems to me that the 4 T-Mobile Galaxy S2 s that I now have are pretty much obsolete and recyclers offer less than half of what it cost me to replace the screens.
My questions are these.....what am I supposed to do with the phones I have over $200 each into when next month the S5 is already being released?? How can my S2s lose their value so fast??? How does Samsung justify the depreciation?? Why won't the carriers give us what is fair for trading in?? Why won't carriers accept more than one device as trade in??? How can a phone be released and cost $600 plus and 6 months later be worth $40!!!!?????
How do manufacturers charge consumers almost a grand for a device they have no intention of supporting?? I understand they want our money but making what was supposed to be the best device obsolete when you are still offering them for sale New makes no sense to me. Why buy anything if it will just be obsolete next month??

 

[Rukbat]

I don't have an answer to the phones you've already repaired, but I wouldn't put $200 into a 3 year old phone. Maybe into a 1 year old phone, or a flagship that's older than that. On Swappa, S2s in perfect condition are fetching $140 and less. I'd use that for a guide. If a phone selling for $140 needed more than about $50 put into it, I'd pull it apart and put the good parts in drawers. (Maybe $100, if you can live with a $40 profit for the work you put into the phone.)

I still have old (I don't mean Gingerbread, I mean Motorola bricks) phones that I keep around. (And, yes, if we had analog towers, they'd be working phones.) I keep a V551 as my "while the daily driver is in for repair, have a phone in my pocket" phone. (At almost 71, neither my eyes nor my hands are up to working inside a phone any more.) But the old Nokia 5110s and 6110s? They're for the 2 and 3 year olds to play cellphone with. I'd feel dishonest taking $10 for one, even if the battery worked and I could find a charger. Maybe 50 cents to use as a stocking stuffer for a child.

I also keep old laptops, but theone that maxes out at 5MB (that's MB, not GB) RAM, with a 384MB drive, isn't worth fixing, it's nostalgia. Like my Godbout Z-80 board.

Eat the bad decision, scrap the phones or give them away (there are women out there, terrified for when "the man" decides to come home and beat her half to death again - and an S2 can still dial 911 without an account) and change the way you do business from now on. (I had a great pocket pager business. I couldn't keep anything on the shelves - as fast as I got a delivery, the pagers were programmed and sold. Then cellphones came out. Ever eat a business?)