What a cracked screen actually costs you
The glass and the panel underneath are separate questions, and only one of them is expensive.
"How much will the crack cost me?" is the most common question we get, and it has a more useful answer than a number: it depends which of two different faults you actually have.
Two faults, not one
The glass. The outer layer you touch. Cracks, chips and deep scratches live here. Annoying, visible, and comparatively cheap.
The panel. The display underneath. Spots, patches, coloured lines, dead pixels, a permanently dark area, or a touch layer that has stopped responding in one region. This is the expensive one, because the panel is the expensive part.
A phone can have either without the other. Glass can shatter over a display that still works perfectly. A panel can fail with no visible crack at all.
How to tell which you have
Open a plain white image full screen at full brightness and look across the whole thing in daylight: spots, patches, faint lines, a permanent ghost of the keyboard. Then a plain black image, which is what shows dead pixels. Then run a finger over the whole surface in a drawing app to find dead spots in the touch layer.
Now look at the glass itself, turning the phone in the light.
Answer both questions separately, because the quote asks them separately.
Should you repair it first?
Usually not, for two reasons.
The first is arithmetic: an out-of-warranty screen replacement generally costs more than the deduction it removes, so you pay to make the phone worth less than what you paid.
The second is subtler. A screen fitted outside the manufacturer's network is a non-original part, and that is its own question in the quote — on an iPhone it appears in Settings → General → About → Parts & Service History whether or not you mention it. Repairing at a local shop to improve the price can move the phone from one deduction into two. More on that here.
What to do instead
Declare it exactly as it is. A crack in the quote is priced once, before you book, and it is in the number you accept. A crack you did not mention is a conversation on your doorstep — the rider checks the phone against your answers, and shows you what any difference changes before anything is agreed.
See the number for your phone; the damage questions come a screen after the model.
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 cracked screen a big deduction?
- It depends which fault you have. Cracked glass over a display that still works normally is the smaller one. A panel with spots, lines or dead pixels is the larger one, because the panel is the expensive part to replace.
- Should I repair the screen before selling?
- Usually not. An out-of-warranty screen repair generally costs more than the deduction it removes, and a third-party repair introduces a non-original part, which is priced as one.
- Will you still buy a phone with a shattered screen?
- Yes. It is a condition question, not a refusal, and your exact price is shown before you book.