Selling your old mobile phone to a buyback company is a great way to make extra cash — but to ensure you get the best price, you need to check every single one of them. This worksheet makes that process easy.
Phones picture from Shutterstock
Buyback sites all work on the same principle: you enter details on the buyback company’s site to generate a quote, send in your device (along with accessories and packaging if you have them) using a freepost envelope, and they pay you for it once the phone is received (usually via a direct deposit or cheque). The phones themselves are then either resold by the buyback company or cannibalised for parts.
As we’ve pointed out before, using a buyback site won’t usually get you the best deal. For recent model iPhones in particular, selling them on eBay or Gumtree can produce a better outcome, especially if you still have all the original packaging and accessories. The same is also often true of more recent Android and Windows Phone models.
For older phones, or if you just don’t have the time or energy to sell the phone yourself, using a buyback site makes sense. However, it pays to check the pricing for your model at every site, since prices vary hugely. I’ve seen variations of $100 or more for the same phone on local sites. It’s definitely worth spending a few minutes checking, and this worksheet makes it easy to do it.
You can take your pick between an Excel worksheet or a Google Sheets worksheet (both will work online as long as you have a Microsoft or Google account, or you can save it locally to your machine). Whichever you prefer, the approach is the same:
- Click on the relevant link above to open the worksheet
- Save a copy of the worksheet to your own SkyDrive/Google Drive account or to your local machine.
- Enter the model of your phone for reference.
- On the worksheet, click on the link for the first buyback site. Research the price for your phone and enter it in the ‘Quote’ column for that site. Be accurate about its condition — you don’t get the money until after the phone has been received.
- Repeat for each site on the list, then choose the one with the best offer.
If you prefer working on paper, here’s a PDF version you can download and print.
Finally, remember that if you can’t find anyone who’ll give you money for your ancient phone, you can still make sure that it’s reycled through MobileMuster.
Comments
3 responses to “Use This Worksheet To Get The Best Buyback Price For Your Old Phone”
Monster Mobile is by far the best and is not included in your list!
http://www.mobilemonster.com.au/
Sorry guys but mobile buy-back websites are crap, eBay will get you a much higher payback as well as still selling for more even if it is damaged while many of the websites listed will only buy your phone if it’s in perfect condition. With my Samsung Galaxy S2 the buy-back websites were offering $50-$70 while people are selling their S2s for anywhere between $150 and $180 which is up to $100 more than the buy-back websites were offering.
Just something to consider. 🙂
I agree that buyback sites don’t generate as much profit as face to face sales or personally listing the phone on amazon or eBay. However, a lot of sites that you personally list your own phone charge a fee when you sell. I would use GadgetScouter.com to search for more than one buyback site at once. That way you aren’t just seeing one price. You will see a few prices to compare.