If you had a stockpile of Merc bits that just didn't work, would you keep them or chuck them?
I've now got to the point with clutter that I tend to chuck more now than I ever did. Especially with the history of mobiles around the Ancient household. The last time I dug out an old mobile was for the brother, who wanted the battery. "Here", said I in triumph....... "As dead as a do-do", said he a couple of days later..
On your specific point, I've never wanted to copy contacts on to the SD/micro card. I just keep the contacts that I want on the sim, and move them between phones using the sim card, with a backup on the pc from a simple sync every now and then. (Not a sync to Outlook - that would be a sledgehammer!)