Do cases and screen protectors actually help resale?
Nobody pays extra for a phone that was in a case. They pay more for a phone that has not been damaged, which is the same thing.
The question is usually asked the wrong way round. A case is not something a buyer pays extra for. It is the reason there is nothing to deduct.
What the quote actually looks at
Body condition — scratches, dents, a cracked back panel — and the screen: the glass, and the panel underneath. Every one of those is a deduction when it is present. A case and a protector are simply the cheapest way of making sure they are not.
Two years of daily use with a case usually produces a phone that answers "no visible damage" to most of the body questions. The same two years without one usually does not.
What a protector is worth
More than most people think, for one reason: glass scratches are permanent and a protector is not. A protector that has taken two years of keys and sand costs little to replace, and it has taken the damage in place of the surface you cannot replace at all.
Where they cannot help
- A hard drop. A case improves the odds; it does not repeal physics. A corner impact can still crack a panel.
- The battery. Nothing about a case slows the ageing of a cell. Charging habits are what matter there.
- Water. A case is not a seal.
- Time. The market moves whatever your phone is wrapped in.
One thing to do before you sell
Take the case off — properly, for the first time in a year — and look at the phone in daylight. People with well-cased phones are often surprised in both directions: some find scuffs the case had been hiding, others find a phone that genuinely looks new. Either way, answer from the phone rather than from the assumption that a case means no damage.
And when you sell
Keep the case if you like it. Throw the protector away. Neither changes what you are paid, and neither has to go into the bag.
See what your phone is worth
A price in about a minute, free doorstep pickup in a two-hour slot, and paid — cash or bank transfer — before our agent leaves.
Questions people ask
- Will you pay more for a phone that has a case on it?
- The case itself is not part of the price. What matters is the condition it produced — a phone kept in a case usually has less body damage, and body damage is a deduction.
- Should I include the case and protector with the phone?
- You can, and they change nothing in the quote. Most people keep them or throw them away.
- Does a screen protector prevent panel damage?
- It protects the glass from scratches and takes some impact. It cannot protect the panel underneath from a hard drop, and it does nothing for the battery.