Why a Winter Buyback Is Best For You

Education technology has become a must-have in today's modern classrooms, with teachers and students expected to have access to the most up-to-date learning resources. What is astonishing is how much money school districts waste by deferring technological upgrades until the summer. 

Many school districts are unaware that now is an excellent moment to replace student devices. Most districts renew devices throughout the summer, and understandably so because teachers, staff, and students are not present. This gives tech directors time to focus on the task at hand and ensures that old devices are effectively replaced with new. Schools may also be concerned that a technology refresh during the school year will leave students and teachers without critical teaching tools.

However, there is a large issue with this kind of timing is that the buyback market is completely flooded with devices from other schools doing the exact same thing. When demand is high - which is right now - schools should seriously consider updating their devices since more demand implies higher buyback rates per device.

Best time to refresh education technology

Waiting until the summer months to complete technology trade-ins can be a problem for your budget, students, and staff. Schools that refresh in the fall, winter, or spring avoid the depreciation hit and market decline that occurs in the summer when the market is swamped with devices. Based on last year’s numbers, we saw a 75% decrease in device value from January to June, and while we don’t think it will be that large of a reduction, we still believe it will be a sizable drop by summer 2022. 

Along with that, the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program (ECF) deadline for new devices to be in the hands of students is June 30, 2022, meaning we’ll see a large influx of devices being sold to make room for new devices utilizing the ECF.

If you're thinking about hanging on to your devices past its peak lifespan for the sole purpose of keeping these devices as long as they’re still working, we wouldn’t recommend this approach. Students and teachers suffer when a "use them till they die'' strategy is taken since they are unable to take use of the latest features and applications that are only available on newer technology. This is especially true for Chromebooks that pass their Auto Update Expiration (AUE) - which makes them worth basically nothing when you go to resell. This is a snowball effect, it’s not easy to sink a lot of money and purchase the next generation of technology when you didn’t make as much money as you could have if you sold sooner.

Create an education technology plan

Post 2020, it is paramount for schools to develop a long-term sustainability plan and start considering technology as an operating expense rather than a large investment in order to have more predictable fixed expenses.

With an edtech plan in place, schools can make informed judgments about what is best for the budget and when it is appropriate to provide students and instructors with the most up-to-date technology to help them achieve their educational objectives.

Non-summer deployments are more controllable than ever before, thanks to our custom device Buyback Program. We offer custom buyback solutions to make the process as easy as possible. Schools can take advantage of Thanksgiving or Spring Break, or schools can sell and deploy devices in phases throughout the year. Starting with a single classroom or grade ensures that technology remains accessible during the refresh.

Connect with Tech Defenders to get a quote to see how much your devices are currently worth and how much they’ll be in June 2022 and you’ll be amazed at what the savings are. We will also help you set up a custom device buyback strategy in place to make the rest of your device management a smooth transition. After that, you can relax and watch as the budget, teachers, and students benefit. Remember, the holidays can be a stressful time of the year, but your device buyback doesn’t need to be with Tech Defenders.