MyMobileAuction.com: Don't bother if it's stolen...

It seems as though the Carphone Warehouse isn't content with just selling brand-new mobile phones. This year it launched its TalkTalk broadband service and last week it bought the UK division of AOL for £370m. Today Carphone Warehouse launched yet another service, a mobile phone auction site dedicated to selling and buying your mobile phones.

It's called mymobileauction.com, and it works in a similar way to eBay, but the clever bit is, unlike eBay, there are some security measures for rooting out stolen mobile phones. The system uses your phone's IMEI number, which you can find out by pressing *#06# on your keypad.

When you sign up to mymobileauction.com it asks you to put in the IMEI number of the phone you are going to sell. It then runs that number through checkMEND, which is a UK database of stolen mobile phones and other portable electronic devices. The database is made up of information submitted by the police, insurers, the mobile phone industry and the public on a daily basis.

Aside from selling your old dog and bone, you can also sell accessories and SIM cards. This is a great idea if you want to get some cash for your old phone. An alternative Web site offering a similar service is envirofone.com, but it'll buy your old mobile phone directly, rather than brokering an auction. -AL