Please school me on buying a used or open box iPhone

[AllGold]

I'm looking to get an iPhone 11 or XR and I haven't seen anything appealing from the major carriers, despite all their ads touting how cheap their new iPhones are and how fabulous their plans are.

Also, I'm currently with Tello which uses the Sprint network and I am perfectly happy with the price (much happier than when I was with Sprint directly).

So I have been looking at ebay and the like. If I'm going to continue with Tello, it looks like I need a "Sprint" version of the phone.

I see a ton of iPhones being sold "for parts" that are in perfect condition. Apparently, this is because they can't be activated on the Sprint network but I don't quite understand all the details. The prices are so high that I'm guessing there is a way around this somehow to get them activated. Otherwise, why would someone pay $350 for iPhone parts that are worth $50?

What am I supposed to look for in the used market?

[Ombligo]

I tend to stick with Swappa, filter the listings to the carrier I need or unlocked, and in good condition. Then when looking at individual listing look for battery health of 90% or better (the battery health is sometimes listed in the description or shown in the photos.

[bazookaman]

Ombligo wrote:
I tend to stick with Swappa, filter the listings to the carrier I need or unlocked, and in good condition. Then when looking at individual listing look for battery health of 90% or better (the battery health is sometimes listed in the description or shown in the photos.

This.

[Fritz]

Ombligo wrote:
I tend to stick with Swappa, filter the listings to the carrier I need or unlocked, and in good condition. Then when looking at individual listing look for battery health of 90% or better (the battery health is sometimes listed in the description or shown in the photos.

that

[mspace]

Ombligo wrote:
I tend to stick with Swappa, filter the listings to the carrier I need or unlocked, and in good condition. Then when looking at individual listing look for battery health of 90% or better (the battery health is sometimes listed in the description or shown in the photos.

Yep

[lost in space]

Ombligo wrote:
I tend to stick with Swappa, filter the listings to the carrier I need or unlocked, and in good condition. Then when looking at individual listing look for battery health of 90% or better (the battery health is sometimes listed in the description or shown in the photos.

the other thing

Swappa has been good for me too, following what Ombligo does. I’ve also done well on fleabay, not buying from liquidators, but someone who is upgrading, has 99.7% or better feedback, not too many feedbacks, like 100-500, preferably a long time eb user.

[NewtonMP2100]

.....purloin.....???

[pinkoos]

Either Swappa or local, always not only ask for the battery health but a screenshot of that screen - the percentage alone can be misleading

I just had my 2+ year old iPhone X battery replaced by Apple b/c although the battery health screen showed 91%, there was also a message on that same screen:

"Important Battery Message" - battery's health is significantly degraded; an Apple Authorized Service Provider can replace the battery"

Unless you know what you're doing, buying local can be dangerous - there are just too many ways an iPhone can look and work fine during a brief meeting, but then you find out later that either this or that doesn't work or the phone still has payments left, has been blacklisted, etc. I believe Swappa has a free service that you can enter any phone's IMEI and it will spit out some basic info, though I don't think it can tell you if the phone is paid off, etc.

So, Swappa is definitely the safest bet but b/c it *is* the safest bet, you're not going to get as good a deal on Swappa that you could probably get locally (either Craigslist, fb marketplace, Offerup, 5 miles, etc.)

Having said all this, if you know what to look for and if you ask for all pertinent information up front, you can get a great deal locally from someone who has upgraded and wants to sell their old phone, etc. You just have to be careful

[hal]

I went the ebay route and it was scary. NOTHING scares me on ebay. But those iphone listings were brutal. It seemed like most of them listed as new when they clearly weren't. I ended up with a good deal, but I had that return button on a hair trigger. I probably won't do it again.

[Carm]

On Swappa $395 for beat up screen XR. $490 after that.
The thing with Swappa is that they encourage multiple pictures, unlike eBay.

Edit: I had only one return from a new seller, he listed as good and it was more fair/poor side with a deep scratch on the screen. You couldn’t tell from the pictures how deep the scratch was. Had to pay return shipping.