Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The end of 2010 is upon us, and it’s time to look back on all of the items that have come in this year. We are still tallying all of the numbers, but by any account 2010 was a record year at YouRenew. Our gadget technicians have processed tens of thousands of orders and devices, and have seen an incredible range of used electronics come through the door.

2010 was the year of the smartphone – the research firm Gartner estimates that globally, smart phone unit sales surged 53% in 2010 – and based on our experience at YouRenew, smartphone reselling and recycling is picking up too. Almost unbelievably, eight of the top ten consumer mobile device trade-ins via YouRenew.com were smart phones. The will likely only increase in 2011, and we look forward to it!

Without further ado, we introduce the Top 5 Most Traded Mobile Devices via YouRenew.com in 2010:

#5: LG ENV2 VX9100

The LG ENV2 was first introduced in 2008, and in 2010 they certainly were traded a great deal! In the first half of the year, the ENV2 was an especially popular trade-in, as many Verizon customers upgraded from this sturdy device to the LG ENV Touch and Android enabled smartphones, including the ever-popular Droid and Droid X. While ENV2 Trade-ins have slowed a bit in the last couple of months, we still see quite a few every week.

#4: Apple iPhone 3G 8GB

If any phone was expected to make our list in 2010, it was the Apple iPhone 3G 8GB. In June and July, this smartphone represented our most-traded device, and with goodreason. With the debut of the iPhone 4, many Apple devotees upgraded to the latest and greatest device, trading in their old 3G for a shiny new work of genius out of Cupertino, CA. We paid out well over $100 for most of these iPhone 3G 8GB, offsetting a good chunk of the cost of a new iPhone, making many Apple fanboys quite happy.

#3: Blackberry Storm 9530

The Storm was never the hit that many Blackberry fans had hoped for, and many a user could not seem to wait to do away with this touchscreen device. YouRenew was pounded with Storm trade-ins this fall, as the two year anniversary of the phone’s debut passed and many Verizon Blackberry users upgraded – many moving to the Tour or Bold 9650, solid devices with real keyboards – a treat after a year or two using the Storm.

#2: Blackberry Curve 8310

The Curves were the real trade-in leaders this year. Day in and day out, without fail YouRenew’s receiving shelves were guaranteed to be filled with Blackberry Curves. These hot devices from ’08 turned over in force during 2010, as AT&T Blackberry customers switched to the Bold 9700, Torch 9800, and the ever popular iPhone.

#1: Blackberry Curve 8330

Pink and Silver Blackberry Curve 8330 Verizon phones have provided constant companionship for the gadget techs at YouRenew in 2010. The team members charged with checking in, data clearing, testing, and processing YouRenew orders have become intimately familiar with the Curve 8330 over the course of the last twelve months, and the rate of trade-ins for this ever popular device shows no sign of slowing down as 2011 begins. With the much anticipated Verizon iPhone likely debuting in the next few months, we would not be surprised to see even more 8330s in the door this winter than we have in the last few months!>

Today was our end of the year all-hands lunch and the last day of work for many members of the team before a well deserved break for Christmas. From all of us at YouRenew, have a wonderful Christmas and great start to 2011!

** We have not been great about updating this blog (in fact, we’ve been downright terrible) – but that is going to change. We want to share more of our experiences, offer information on electronics reuse and recycling, reveal a bit more about YouRenew’s company history and culture, and post other items that we find cool and wacky. Let us know if you want to hear about anything in particular! **

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Bob and Rich, YouRenew's Founders, at the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute

YouRenew is rapidly approaching its second birthday (the site launched on March 3rd, 2009) but I’ve been working on the company closer to three years at this point. It was two years ago this week that we came up with the name YouRenew – a name that we loved from the outset and has come to mean a great deal to many of us.

In looking back on the last twenty-four months, I am blown away by how much progress we have made. The idea that grew into YouRenew started in a college dorm room at Yale in early 2008. In prior years, Rich Littlehale and I tried to start a number of other ventures together. We worked for months to develop an internship directory for college students, attempted to build a fundraising platform for non-profits, and later moved on to a health beverage concept. We jumped from idea to idea, and although we spent many months on each project, were never quite satisfied or passionate about the ideas that we were pursuing.

Eventually, we saw the opportunity to address a problem that we could easily understand and relate to – the buildup of old iPods, laptops, and cell phones in drawers and closets. Intent on pursuing this idea, I applied to the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (YEI) in January of 2008, and was accepted as a 2008 Fellow. YEI is an awesome program deserving of its own post, but basically it is a Yale University program dedicated to helping students start scalable ventures.

At YEI during the summer of 2008, YouRenew began to take shape. At first, we focused on building a large network of brick-and-mortar collection locations. We soon realized that in order to scale, we should focus on leveraging the power of the web. A customer-facing website that offered trade-in value for used items made a great deal of sense, but neither Rich nor I had any software development experience. However, through friends and introductions, we were able to assemble a young, lean team to build out our first version of the site.

In time, we built and launched YouRenew, and customers began to trickle in. As we began receiving some attention in the press, the trickle became a steady flow, and within a couple of months of launching, we were deluged with devices. To be perfectly honest, we were underprepared for the onslaught of boxes that the mailman began to arrive with daily. While our efforts had been focused on building the website and on procuring devices, we had not fully considered the importance of receiving, processing, data clearing, testing, and reselling all of the gadgets that we were offering trade-ins for. Nor had we considered many of the other functions that need attention in a rapidly growing business – customer service, finance and accounting, and more.

Slowly (and somewhat painfully) we built out a team, delegated tasks, and began to look more like a real company (thankfully a small, agile, fast paced startup, not a boring behemoth corporation). YouRenew was growing quickly, and things started looking up. In the summer of 2009, we raised a round of venture capital and angel financing to allow us to continue scaling the business and to build out our operations and expand into new markets. Just over a year ago, we hired Guy Minetti to lead the company as CEO, one of the best decisions that we ever made.

Over the course of the last year, the company has grown by leaps and bounds. We have grown from a small, at times chaotic startup into a substantial organization. Our operations are more efficient than ever, and we’re rapidly moving towards having the best-in-industry processing and refurbishing capabilities. Today, we serve both individual customers and large organizations, and we have built out a great team to support our mission of extending the life of used electronics.

I do not use the word team lightly – each and every day, we are working to achieve goals together, and I have great respect for everyone at YouRenew. I am unbelievably lucky to work with such a great group and to serve our awesome customers as we work to solve a real problem. We have really just begun to build the company, and I couldn’t be more excited for what lies ahead.