Does storage change what your phone is worth?
Yes — and it is the single most common reason a quote comes out lower than someone expected.
Yes, and by more than most people expect. It is also the single most common reason someone tells us the quote came out lower than they thought it would.
Why the gap survives
Storage in a phone is soldered in. It cannot be upgraded later, on any current phone, at any price — so the difference between a 128 GB phone and a 256 GB one is permanent in a way that almost nothing else about the device is. Second-hand buyers know that, and the market prices it.
The premium does shrink over time in absolute terms, along with everything else about the phone. It does not disappear.
Which one do you actually have?
Not the one on the box you remember buying. Phones are given as gifts, exchanged, and bought in a hurry, and people are wrong about this often enough that it is worth thirty seconds:
- Android: Settings → About phone → Storage.
- iPhone: Settings → General → About → Capacity.
Note that the reported figure is always a little under the advertised one — a 128 GB phone shows about 119 GB usable. Match it to the nearest advertised size.
Why the flow asks first
Because a quote that guessed would be wrong for half the people who saw it. The variant is chosen before any number appears, so what you see applies to the phone you actually own — and so the rider is not correcting it at your door.
What does not count
A microSD card is an accessory. It is not part of the phone's storage for pricing, it is yours, and you should take it out before the pickup along with the SIM.
The same rule elsewhere
Tablets are priced by storage the same way, and a cellular model is a separate line again. MacBooks are configured at purchase and cannot be changed afterwards, which is exactly why the storage is part of the machine's identity there too.
Pick your variant and see the number — it takes about a minute and commits you to nothing.
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
- Is a 256GB phone worth more second-hand than a 128GB one?
- Yes, and it is listed as a separate model with a separate price. The premium is smaller in money terms than it was new, but it does not disappear.
- Where do I find my phone's storage size?
- Settings → About phone on Android, or Settings → General → About on an iPhone. Use the figure the phone reports, not the one on the box you remember.
- Does a memory card count?
- No. A microSD card is a removable accessory, not the phone's own storage, and it is yours to take out and keep.