It may surprise you, but I’m an avid watcher of YouTube videos. I often spend several hours a day watching tutorials on how to write better articles or how to be a better content marketer.
However, for some reason, many unboxing videos are stuffed within my recommended YouTube videos list.
I get unboxing videos about Playstations, iPhones, IKEA furniture, and even things as mundane as cleaning supplies. My partner must be watching them!
However, I’ve always found these videos intriguing. After all, how do YouTubers, especially new YouTubers, get their hands on expensive mobile phones for unboxing videos?
With my curiosity getting the better of me, I decided to start an investigation.
So, I put on the old Sherlock hat and scarf, threw on my wool trench coat, and set out to discover how YouTubers get their phones to unbox.
After much research on the cobbled streets of the internet, here’s what I found:
How do Youtubers get phones to unbox? There are several ways a YouTuber can get phones to unbox. They include:
- Unboxing products they already intend to buy.
- Borrowing new phones from their friends and family
- Purchasing a product and sending it back
- Buying and then selling the phone
- Contacting companies and asking for a product to unbox
Ok, now you know the main ways new Youtube unboxing channels can get phones to unbox.
In the following sections, I’ll describe each method in more detail. Let us get started…
How to get phones to unbox for your YouTube channel
There are many ways to get phones to unbox for a new unboxing YouTube channel. For example, if you have a sponsor, you can ask them for a phone for you to unbox.
However, I did not include this in the list.
You are probably wondering why. I did not include methods like this because if you are a big YouTube channel with a sponsor, you likely already get mobile phones for free. Sponsors usually just give you phones to unbox and play around with. After all, It’s great marketing for them.
All of the methods I mention are better suited for small YouTube channels or even channels just starting out. In general, the methods fall into two categories. These are:
- Paid methods
- Free methods
As a new YouTube channel, you’ll usually have to pay for most of the phones you’ll unbox. It’s an inevitable part of the unboxing game you are sitting down to play.
After all, like any business, you have to invest a little cash in your channel to get a lot back.
However, as you can see in the methods I listed, there are ways to make most of your money back with the phones you buy.
There are also several free methods to get phones for unboxing. But most of them are pretty limited and only good for a brand new channel to get the ball rolling.
So there are 2 main methods of getting mobile phones to unbox: Free methods and paid methods. let’s start off with the free methods.
Unboxing phones that you intend to buy.
The easiest way to get a phone to unbox on your YouTube channel is to unbox a phone you would have bought anyway. I have done this with previous iPhones I have purchased, MacBooks, my iMac, mice, and many other products.
If you are serious about creating an unboxing YouTube channel, wait until you buy your next phone, take it home, resist the temptation to open it, and then unbox it on camera.
In theory, you could do this with any new product you buy. After all, you do not have to limit yourself to just unboxing phones. You could unbox a variety of technologies or other products.
Borrow phones from friends and relatives
The next method is to wait until either your friends or family buy a new phone. Then, if you have terrific friends and family, they will loan you the cell phone, so you can unwrap it live on camera.
This is a great way to get extra mobile phones that you can unbox for free. After all, phones are not cheap.
If you are running an unboxing channel, it’s essential to keep finding products to unbox. If you are serious about growing a YouTube channel, you’ll need to upload one to two videos every week.
Buy phones, unbox them, then sell them
Your YouTube channel is growing, you are posting two videos a week, and you want to grow even faster.
Unfortunately, you are out of phones to unbox. What do you do?
You have to start investing in your youtube channel: you have to start buying phones.
Wait a minute. Many phones cost over $1,000. How can a new YouTube channel afford to pay $1000 per cell phone? After all, you could be unboxing 2, 3, or even more phones per week.
The answer is surprisingly simple. Buy the phone, unbox it, and then sell it on eBay or Facebook Marketplace.
Yes, this means you have to buy an expensive phone. So you need the cash in your bank account.
But you don’t need to start with the most expensive phones. You could fuel your channel early growth with low-end Android phones, and only every so often buy the more expensive phones.
Regardless of what phone you buy, you should work out how much it’ll cost you while considering how much money you get back for selling the phone.
Let’s take a look at an example.
Let us say you bought an iPhone 13 pro for $1000 new. Before purchasing it, we jumped on eBay and checked the sale price of almost new iPhones.
We found that almost new iPhones sell for around $950. Only $50 less than the brand new unopened phone.
When you factor in seller fees and postage, there’s a good chance you’ll get $925 back from your initial $1000 investment. So the video to unbox the iPhone 13 pro costs you only $75 in real terms. Not bad considering some YouTube videos can cost tens of thousands of dollars to make.
However, it’s worth remembering that we live in a time when chip shortages are driving up the price of electronics. So if you manage to snag a brand new iPhone or a sought-after Android phone, chances are you’ll sell that phone for more than the purchase price.
Buying new phones and then selling them immediately after creating your unboxing video is a valid strategy to get you the phones you need to grow a phone unboxing YouTube channel.
But you can also supplement your phone unboxing videos with accessory unboxing videos. For example, you could buy mobile game controllers and make an unboxing video.
Buy phones and send them back
Another way to get the phones you need to build a YouTube cell phone unboxing channel is to buy the phones new, unbox them, and then send them back to the retailer you purchased them from for a full refund.
Yes, this could probably be considered a dirty tactic. But it’s a good tactic. Because even though you are taking advantage of stores’ return policies, the phone should still be in saleable condition. So a store does not really lose money.
Just make sure you keep on using different stores.
Also, when you buy and unbox the phone, you are marketing the cell phone and the cell phone manufacturer for free. So you are providing a service.
Contact companies and ask for a phone to unbox.
Once your channel has grown a bit, say to 5000 subscribers, you can contact small cell phone companies and ask them for a phone to unbox. A good negotiating tactic is to tell them that you’ll send the phone back, unused, after unboxing it. That way, they lose little by giving you the phone.
Summary
Now you know how most cell phone unboxing YouTubers get the phones they need for their channel. As your channel grows, you’ll obviously have to pay for the phones you unbox. However, there are easily accessible ways to recoup the cost of buying these new phones.
Here are the best ways for a small YouTube channel to get new phones to unbox:
- Unboxing phones you already intend to buy.
- Borrow phones from friends and family
- Buy phones and send them back
- Buy phones and immediately sell them as almost new or unused.
- Contact businesses and ask them for a phone to unbox
And remember, you can always add to your unboxing videos by buying phone accessories and making unboxing videos of them on your channel.