Hello? The '90s are calling and your flip phone is ready

If a flip phone's good enough for Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs of "NCIS," it's good enough for Randy Martin of Melbourne.

Yes. You heard that right. A flip phone. That kind you used in the mid- to late '90s — or use now if you're among staunch supporters of phones that don't do much of anything except ring or text.

Don't think, though, that these technological throwbacks are just for the bucks-challenged millennial who can't afford a smartphone, or the penny-pinching guy you call Gramps. Smartphone sales, according to Digitaltrends.com, didn't outpace flip phones until 2013.

Just over the past year, everyone from Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York to Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour and singer Rihanna has been photographed flipping out — OK, opening their phones. As of late 2013, Warren Buffett was making and taking what were probably fairly important calls on an old Nokia flip. And let's face it: It's not because the man can't swing a two-year contract or isn't eligible for an upgrade.

Some have opined that trendiness — being so hip you're bold enough to risk looking unhip, creating hip in the process — is the reason for the resurgence of something truly cool back when "Friends" was hot on NBC. And there's also the question of whether using a flip phone is safer than a smartphone, because you're not using vulnerable apps — surely an appealing feature for celebrities not happy about ever-present phone-hacking.

But many people say they still use the phones simply because they are compact, low-cost, reliable and don't break easily. And a big part of the appeal, too, is that without all the contracts, bells, whistles and apps, a monthly phone bill isn't higher than a cell tower.

The only gadgets some folks need do what phones, one day long ago, were intended for: taking calls and making calls. Depending on what kind of flip phone they have, they can send a text or access the Internet (though in the time it takes to get on the Internet via some older versions, you could probably drive to see someone to whom you have to make long-distance calls).

"I'm one of those dinosaurs," said Martin, 51, who brandishes a Samsung flip like a seasoned pro after having it eight years or so.

"I've considered switching a few times but I just haven't made the break. For one, it's the price point — the amount of time I'd actually put into it. I'm not big on social media and I do very little on my home computer and iPad. So there's justifying the cost. If they drop the price, maybe, or I really had the need ... I'd love to play with it, as little as I would, but I just can't justify the cost."

And neither can Martin's 21-year-old daughter, Stephanie. She puts it bluntly: A smartphone is expensive. If she's somewhere where she needs access to the Internet, but can't get on it on her laptop, all she has to do is look around, she said.

"Someone, just about everywhere, has a phone you could use," she said, pulling out her old LG.

"Plus, my flip phone just doesn't break down. If I want to play games, I can do that on my laptop. A camera, text message system and to be able to make a phone call: That's what I need."

Even the old-style phones — got a 2004 Motorola RAZR V3 in your junk drawer? — can command decent prices on Craigslist and on eBay, where a recent search for "flip phone" pulled up almost 285,000 listings.

Using a flip phone is "so wrong that it's right," New York Times columnist Michael Musto told CBS News in December.

"People are going back to the flip phone because it works, it is functional, you just flip it open. Also, you don't have to get Internet on it," Musto said.

"You can actually go out and enjoy whatever you're experiencing instead of taking pictures for Instagram and looking at it later."

For some, the move to a smartphone makes work, as well as play, faster and more efficient.

There's no going back for Cocoa Mayor Henry Parrish, 51, an iPhone 6 user who says that he has "a drawer full of old flip phones."

"I was probably the last one in my circle of friends who used one — they'd make fun of me like crazy," he said. "A flip phone is just a phone. A smartphone is your life, your brain ... look at the iPhone and what it's done for Facebook and social media. If we had limited access to them, there wouldn't be nearly the explosion of information out there. If I have a few minutes of downtime, I'll check Facebook and the news quickly. It keeps you thinking."

But Bill Mentz, 76, won't cave, even as he watches his children and grandchildren who "are all into their smartphones."

The Titusville resident, who's in the process of moving back there after a stint in South Carolina, clings to his several-years-old flip phone.

"The only thing I use this for is for this — talking. That's what it's for," said Mentz.

"Really, the only thing I got it for in the beginning was for emergencies. And right now it's my only phone number, but when I move back to Florida, I think I'm going to get a landline."

Hello? Hello? A what?

Flippin' flashback

A little flip phone trivia:

• Think flip phones are the out-of-touch cousin of the smartphone? Nope. Smartphone sales, according to Digitaltrends.com, didn't outpace flip phones until 2013, and globally, flip phones are still popular. And even the oldest flip phone might bring a few bucks on eBay, where thousands of them await new owners.

• The Motorola StarTAC, which came out in 1996, is widely considered the first clamshell/flip mobile phone. It followed a 1989 model called the MicroTAC, a "semi-clamshell."

• Famous actor/flip-phone users include actress Kate Beckinsale and Scarlett Johansson. Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, a Stanford grad born in 1989, uses a flip phone rumored to be a 2001 model. Another sports figure with flip phone cred: Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys.