Orchard offers rosy way of chucking old phones

Startup says users get more bang for their buck than trading devices with carrier or Apple

There’s a good chance you’ve got an old phone sitting in your drawer that’s worth money. But unless you’re a techie, you probably don’t want to wade into the online selling morass that is eBay, Craigslist or Kijiji.

Orchard Labs, a Toronto-based startup that appraises the value of iPhones with a downloadable app, is aimed at such people.

Bruno Wong, a former social media consultant, co-founded the company last year after he saw how simple Airbnb has made accommodation rentals.

“Airbnb was just taking something that was happening on Craigslist and making it a better experience,” Wong says. “A lot of that stems from just building trust in the transaction.”

The Orchard app assesses the condition of an iPhone — as old as an iPhone4 — in about three minutes. The user is prompted to test the device’s various functions, from pressing the volume buttons and taking a photo to trying out the headphone jack and turning the Wi-Fi connection on and off.

Once completed, the app provides an estimate of how much the iPhone is worth. If the user opts to sell the smartphone, Orchard Labs ships a box for mailing, along with instructions on how to wipe the device clean of personal settings and data.

How much it costs depends partly on how quickly you want your used iPhone sold. If you want it sold in a day, Orchard will take as much as 35 per cent of the selling price. If you want it sold in three weeks, it takes 20 per cent.

Sellers then have two options — they can take cash upfront or have Orchard sell the device on consignment, which usually takes a few weeks but often results in a higher payout. The company says that either way, users get better returns than they would if they traded in with their carrier or Apple.

Among all the second-hand options available, Orchard’s ease of use and its innovative buy-and-sell options are quickly attracting fans.

“It’s the best combination of value and confidence in their ability to get you the best price,” says MobileSyrup’s Daniel Bader.

Orchard Labs announced $500,000 in new funding from angel investors MLA48 in June. The company is now up to 14 employees and is on pace to hit $1 million in revenue this year, co-founder Wong says.

The new funding will help the company grow in the United States, where the market is valued at up to $14 billion (U.S.). About 82 per cent of people have unused devices that can be sold, he adds.

The investment will also help the company expand into high-end Android phones such as Nexus, Galaxy and Note devices, as well as tablets. Android devices have proven more challenging to deal with so far because there are so many different types.

“The Android landscape changes so quickly, it’s a lot harder to keep up with than Apple,” Wong says. “It’s not clear who the leaders are this year and will they be the leaders next year?”