What the condition grades actually mean

Grading your own phone is the single biggest variable in what you get paid, and most people get it wrong in the same direction: they undersell a perfectly good handset.

Every buyback site uses slightly different words for the same five buckets. Here's what ours mean, concretely, so you can hold your phone in daylight and place it accurately.

New

Sealed, or opened and genuinely never used. No marks of any kind because it has never been in a pocket. If you're not sure whether it counts as New, it isn't — that's what Flawless is for.

Flawless

Used, but you can't tell. No scratches visible when you tilt it under a light. Screen free of cracks, dead pixels, discolouration or burn-in. Original battery above 80% capacity. Everything works. This is a common grade for a phone that lived in a case with a screen protector, and people talk themselves out of it constantly.

Good

Light signs of use. A few fine scratches on the back or frame, nothing on the glass that catches a fingernail. Screen intact and clean. Battery above 80%. Fully functional. If your phone looks tidy but has clearly been owned, this is you.

Fair

Obvious wear — visible scratches, scuffs, worn corners, maybe a small ding. Screen still intact and working, no cracks. Everything functions. The phone looks its age but does its job.

Broken

Cracked screen or back glass, or something doesn't work — won't hold charge, camera failed, dead pixels, won't power on. Still worth money, often more than people expect. Don't repair it first; a third-party repair usually costs more than it adds.

The two things people forget to check

Battery health

iPhone: Settings → Battery → Battery Health & Charging. Below 80% moves you down a grade in effect, because the next owner needs a battery. Samsung shows it in Settings → Battery and device care.

Screen burn-in

OLED screens on older phones can retain a faint ghost of the status bar or keyboard. Open a plain white image full-screen at high brightness and look carefully. It's easy to stop noticing on your own phone and immediately obvious to an inspector.

What grading does to the price

The spread between Flawless and Broken on a recent flagship is substantial — frequently half the value. On an older mid-range phone the spread is much narrower, because the floor is already low. Either way the answer is the same: describe it accurately, and the number holds.

Brand new, top storage, unlocked. Run your own configuration for the exact figure.