One of my dislikes about the Apple iPhone has to do with battery
replacement/upgrades. There really are no upgrades, and replacing the
battery is a real pain in the ass and requires "fine motor skills" I'm
sure I never had. So, you end up going to Apple ($75 plus tax) or one of
the third party kiosk guys at the mall ($55 plus tax) for a new battery.
Bummer.

That's really not been a problem for me, because I am not a heavy
battery user on my cell. I really *hate* long phone conversations. But
my wife talks for a living, literally, and has frequent and lengthy
phone conversations with people she is seeing and helping.

She's had an iPhone 4S for a few years and the battery was dying. Our
carrier had a "special" on phone upgrades (a new iPhone supposedly is
coming out this week), so I bought her a new phone (an iPhone 5S with a
new battery) for $99.

The good news is, I just sold her old iPhone 4S for $143 to a reputable
on-line buyer of Apple gear. That's $44 more than we paid for it about
2-1/2 years ago. They're sending me a prepaid padded envelope for
shipment to their facility.

I suppose the buyer can flip the phone for a few hundred bucks, since it
is off contract, but I really am not sure of these details.