How We Grade and Price a Used Phone
Every used phone in our case has been through the same process, and the labels on them mean something specific. Here's what, so you can read a listing the way we do.
What the grades mean
Grade A is excellent — no marks you'd notice holding it, everything working. Grade B is good, with the light wear a phone picks up from normal use in a pocket. Grade C has visible scratches or dents and still works properly. Below that we're into phones with cracked glass or a fault, and we say so plainly rather than finding a gentler word for it.
The grade describes appearance. It is not a statement about how well the phone works — a Grade C phone functions exactly as well as a Grade A one, it just looks like it has had a life.
Why battery health is on every listing
It's the first thing anyone asks and the easiest thing to leave out. We print the percentage on the label and in the listing, including when the number isn't flattering.
Below 80%, Apple considers a battery due for service. We say that in the listing rather than hoping you don't check, because you will check, and you'd rather find out now than after you've paid.
When the label and the phone disagree
Occasionally a device comes in described one way and tests another — a phone listed as Grade A that has a mark under the right light, or a battery figure that doesn't match what the diagnostic reports. The label gets changed, not the phone.
The same applies to parts. If a screen has been replaced with an aftermarket panel, we say "not an original screen" in the listing. Plenty of people are happy with an aftermarket screen at the right price. Nobody is happy discovering it themselves.
Carrier locks, stated plainly
A phone locked to AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile or a prepaid brand only works on that network until it's unlocked. That's on the label and in the title of the listing, never buried in the description, because it is the difference between a phone that works for you and one that doesn't.
What we don't buy or sell
Devices still signed into an iCloud or Google account, and anything reported lost or stolen. We check every device against the blacklist before it goes in the case. This occasionally means turning away a phone someone brought in good faith, which is an awkward conversation, and we have it anyway.
The warranty
Every device we sell is tested before it leaves and carries a 90-day warranty. If something we missed shows up in that window, bring it back.
Come and look at anything in the case at 7712 Montgomery Rd Unit I, Cincinnati, OH 45236, or browse what's in stock before you drive over.