Huawei Flagship Value Sinks As Second Hand Price Crashes-SmartPhoneSku

Posted on March 22,2022 March 22,2022 by Ricardo Doolittle

As Huawei’s crisis deepens, the price of its devices is fluctuating. Some retailers have stopped selling the Chinese company’s devices altogether, others are resolutely sticking to normal pricing and some are engaging in small to middling discounts.

The most dramatic price changes are taking place in the second hand market, which might be a precursor to price cuts for new devices at bigger retailers - some of which have been slow to react to the news.

Here is a roundup of how some of the biggest retailers have reacted to the Huawei news. If you already own a Huawei phone, don’t forget to read my breakdown of what the Android ban means for you.

Walmart, Best Buy, Target & B&H Photo

Best Buy won’t be selling any Huawei devices for the foreseeable future, nor will it be ordering any. Walmart doesn’t appear to be selling any Huawei phones either. A search for “Huawei” on returns results for Apple and Samsung devices. Although Huawei watches and wearables are still for sale - almost all are discounted. Target also doesn’t return any search results for Huawei devices. I’ve followed up both stores for confirmation and I'll update if they respond.

B&H Photo is selling three variations of the latest Huawei P30. They’re discounted between $50 and $60, which isn’t a huge price drop and may not be related to the Android ban. These types of discounts typically reflect competitive pricing rather than a fire sale.

Trade-in

Popular UK trade in shop CEX is buying Huawei P30s and P20s for incredibly low prices. If there’s a good way to judge the value of a product, it’s via the trade-in shops and websites. Trade-in prices vary, but for the latest P30 - which went on sale last month - CEX will give you anywhere between £185 ($230) and just shy of £200 ($252). The top-end model of the P30 Pro goes for between £250 ($315) and £300 ($378). Things get a little more drastic for last year’s P20 and P20 Pro, both of which trade in for under £100 ($126).

To compare, last year’s Samsung Galaxy S9 will trade in for around £200 - £280 ($252 - $352). Whereas the latest Galaxy S10 can go for as high as £510 ($652), depending on variant and storage size. For two fairly similar devices released at roughly the same time, there’s a stark difference that’s likely related to the news (I’ve asked CEX for comment).

Elsewhere places like WeBuyTek, FoneWizard and GiffGaff are offering sharply reduced numbers for trade in, as my colleague Zak Doffman reports.

“On one of the U.K.'s most popular smartphone trade-in sites, that same Samsung S10+, in good condition, can be traded in for £510 ($650). That's a steep reduction from the retail price, representing a loss of some 45%, but it's relatively healthy all the same. On the same site, the Huawei P30 Pro, also in good condition, will now return just £100 ($130) to an owner wanting to sell it on. It has lost almost 90% of its value.”

Meanwhile, Samsung Singapore is offering upwards of $500 for old Huawei devices in exchange for some of its latest tech, although this deal comes with a two year contract too.

Amazon

The situation is a little more complex on Amazon. The difficulty of buying Huawei phones in the US is reflected by the inconsistent listings and prices on the US Amazon shop for the P30 and P30 Pro. As far as I can see, aside from the occasional discount, there’s no universal price cut.

On the Amazon UK site, prices directly from seller are largely unchanged for the P30, P30 Pro and P20 ranges. But there are second hand P30 and P30 Pros up for sale, which is unusual for a device that went on sale last month. For comparison, there are no second hand Galaxy S10s available for sale on Amazon UK.

NewEgg

NewEgg has 24% off on the latest Huawei P30 Pro, which is a big discount for a device that’s less than a month old. The P20 models remain priced fairly normally.

Big UK retailers

Big UK phone and tech UK retailers - Argos and Carphone Warehouse - haven’t initially reacted to the Huawei news. Prices are largely as you’d expect them to be on their individual websites. But they also haven’t publically reacted with a statement about the Huawei news either, which a Carphone Warehouse rep was conscious of when I called. There will almost certainly be discussions taking place about what to do, but at this stage nothing appears to be official. Argos is yet to reply to my enquiry, and I’ll update this story when it does.

Huawei prices will likely continue to dip as more, large retailers react (I’ll update this post as new information comes in), especially if the US Government’s trade ban isn’t reversed. If you already own a Huawei phone, read my guide about what the Android ban means for you.

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