5. Cell Phones

Repair: Irrelevant (9)
Replace: Free (10)

Cell phones take quite a beating, so it isn't surprising that they break often. Whether they can be fixed or not isn't the point. The wireless carriers make it so attractive to trade in an older phone that it doesn't make sense to even consider the hassle of a repair. T-Mobile, for example, offers customers a new phone every 11 months as long as they hold a one-year contract. Verizon will replace a phone every two years with a new two-year contract.

If your phone dies after your warranty has expired but before you're entitled to a new handset, check back to see if you paid for your phone by credit card. American Express Cards, Visa Signature, MasterCard Gold, Platinum and World cards all extend your warranty by one more year. Don't have one of these credit cards? Verizon offers an early upgrade program that lets consumers with service plans of $49.99 or more receive promotional pricing on all new phones although a fee may apply.

Even if you want, say, a MOTORAZR2 V9m, which retails for $350, the wireless carriers will subsidize it with a $100 online discount so that it doesn't set you back nearly as much as it could. Indeed, the average cell phone is subsidized by as much as $100, says Neil Strother, research director for mobile devices for NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based market research company. "The phones are a loss leader for the carriers," he says. "The contracts are worth much more to them."

The good news is that if the phone is old enough to be off warranty you'll get a lot of new features when you upgrade, says CNET's Merritt. LG's Chocolate phone, which came out last year, for example, can play MP3 files and retails for just $130.

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9. Wireless carriers prefer to give customers a new phone
10. Free Samsung u340 VGA camera phone with a new two year contract from Verizon

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