Selling a phone that was given to you
A gifted phone usually has one problem, and it is not the condition.
Hand-me-down phones are common — a parent upgrades, a sibling moves on, the old one lands with you. Selling one is the same as selling any phone, except for one thing that catches people out.
The account of whoever set it up
The phone may still be signed in to the Apple ID or Google account of the person who first owned it. If it is, it is locked to them: nobody else can set it up after a reset, so nobody can buy it.
Check before you book:
- iPhone: Settings → your name at the top. Whose name is it?
- Android: Settings → Passwords & accounts. Which Google account is listed?
If it is not yours, that person has to sign out. They can do it on the phone, or remove the device from their account from somewhere else — through iCloud on the web for an Apple ID, or their Google account's device list. It takes them two minutes and it cannot be done without them.
Then the usual sign-out
Once it is yours alone, do the normal list: remove the account, take out the SIM and memory card, back up anything you want to keep. The steps per platform. The factory reset itself is ours, done in front of you at the door.
Who should be at the door
Whoever is standing there is the person the rider checks the device with, and the person who decides if anything does not match the answers given. If you booked it, be the one who hands it over — or brief whoever is home properly.
What does not change
Everything else. The model, the storage, the panel, the body, the battery, the accessories — all priced exactly as they would be on a phone you bought yourself. A phone's history does not lower its value; its condition does.
Not sure exactly which phone it is? That is a thirty-second check and worth doing before you ask for a price.
Get a price for your device
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
- Can I sell a phone someone gave me?
- Yes, provided it can be signed out of the previous owner's account and factory reset. That is the test every used phone has to pass, and a hand-me-down is where it most often fails.
- The phone is signed in to my father's Apple ID. What do I do?
- He needs to sign out, or remove the device from his account — it can be done from another device or through iCloud on the web. Until then, nobody else can set the phone up.
- Do I need proof it is mine?
- Have the bill or box if they exist, as you would for any phone; both add a little to the price. What matters at the door is that the device can be reset and handed over.