Depending on the next plan you are on you may have only paid off half the msrp of the phone. Come resell time you stand to make something like $50-100 when all is said and done. Not many people feel that max $100 savings is worth the time/effort/risk involved of selling.
Not about being stupid or not understanding or whatever you want to say about the general public. It's a msttter of convenience and some people choose that. I used to sell my phones when the return was much higher. With the scamming that goes on with online sales (yes I know there are safe ways to deal with this but just having to deal with frozen funds when someone tries to claim you sent them a dud or what have you is just not something in wishing to deal with) I am left with in person being the only comfortable option, and I feel like phones are a fine a dozen now that every carrier has them and is more than willing to unlock.
For those that want an example, a 16gb 6s plus is $31.25 per month for 24 months (trade in eligible at 12 payments). At $375 paid I can get a new phone from ATT or I can pay the remainder (another $375 lump sum) and sell it locally for around $450 (once the next device has launched and everyone is dumping their phones). In this scenario I "threw away" $75 for the convenience of walking into an ATT store and replacing my phone on the spot with virtually no additional effort. I'm willing to bet there are folks that spend far more than $75 a year on things I deem a complete waste. Some even pay $100 a year to companies like amazon to deliver items to their homes, a service I feel isn't worth the price of admission. To each their own, right?
