Most people price a used phone one of two ways. They look up what they paid and knock some off, or they find the highest listing they can and match it. Both end the same way: the phone sits for three weeks, they get annoyed, and they dump it for less than they could have gotten on day one.
Here's how I'd do it instead.
Step 1: Match your phone exactly
A used phone's price depends on four things, and you need all four to compare:
- Model (iPhone 15 Pro, not "iPhone 15")
- Storage (128GB, 256GB and so on)
- Condition (Mint, Good, Fair)
- Carrier lock (unlocked, or locked to a carrier)
Get any of these wrong and your comparison is off by a lot. Storage is the one people skip most, and it moves the price more than they expect. It also moves it less than Apple charged for it.
Source: Andover Analytics daily marketplace prices, fall 2026. Apple's launch prices were $999, $1,099, $1,299 and $1,499.
On an iPhone 15 Pro, going from 128GB to 1TB adds about $170 on the used market. Apple charged $500 more for that upgrade. So don't price your 1TB phone off what you paid for the extra storage. Used buyers won't cover it.
Step 2: Look at what's listed, then go a little under
On Swappa, look at the active listings that match your phone exactly. On eBay, filter to sold listings so you see what actually sold, not what people are hoping for.
Then find where most of the listings cluster. Not the cheapest one, which might have a problem, and not the most expensive, which is probably going to sit. The cluster is your market price.
If you want it to sell fast, price at the bottom of that cluster or a few dollars under. Buyers sort by price. Being the cheapest clean listing for your exact phone is the single biggest thing you can do to sell quickly.
Step 3: Work the fees backward
Decide what you want to end up with, then figure out what you need to ask.
Asking price = what you want to keep / (1 - fee rate) + any flat fee
On Swappa with PayPal, the fees are about 6.49% plus $0.49. If you want to keep $400:
$400 / 0.9351 + $0.49 = about $428
On eBay without a store, it's 13.6% of the total including sales tax, so you need to ask quite a bit more to keep the same amount. I broke the fee math down platform by platform in Swappa vs eBay vs Back Market.
If the number you need is above the cluster from step 2, you have a decision to make. Either take less, or accept that it's going to take longer to sell.
Step 4: Know what waiting costs you
This is the part people don't think about. Every week your phone sits unsold, it's losing value.
Over the last six months, phones less than two years old dropped about 7% in price, a bit over 1% a month. On a $600 phone, that's around $7 a month just from waiting.
Phones older than two years were basically flat over the same stretch. So:
- Newer phone? Price it to move. Holding out for an extra $15 doesn't make sense if it takes an extra month.
- Older phone? You can afford to be a little patient.
Also watch the calendar. Phones that are a year or two old tend to slide after a new model comes out. The iPhone 16 went from about $574 in late June to about $535 by November.
Step 5: Set a rule for cutting the price
Pick your rule before you list so you're not making it up as you go. Mine is simple: if there's no real interest in about a week, drop it 3% to 5%. Real interest means questions from buyers, not just views.
If a phone in good shape with a clean listing hasn't sold in two weeks, the price is almost always the problem.
Step 6: Grade it honestly
It's tempting to call a scratched phone Good. Don't. On Swappa, Fair phones list for only about 1% less than Good ones, so you lose almost nothing by being honest. What you gain is no returns, no disputes and better feedback.
The math is different at buyback companies. Some of them pay 40% less for Fair. More on that in Mint vs Good vs Fair.
A few things that help it sell
- Battery health. Put it in the listing. If it's above 90%, put it in the title.
- Clear photos of the actual phone, including any scratches. Buyers trust listings that show the flaws.
- Unlock it if it's paid off. Your carrier will usually do it for free, and unlocked phones have more buyers.
- Include the box if you have it. It doesn't add much money, but it helps it look cared for.
- Make sure the IMEI is clean. Swappa checks, and buyers do too.
Common questions
How do I know what my used phone is worth?
Match your exact model, storage, condition and carrier lock, then look at what that same phone is listed for on Swappa and what it sold for on eBay. Our free price pages show the current median across marketplaces for over a hundred models.
Should I price high and accept offers?
You can, but it usually slows things down. Buyers sort by price, and a high price means fewer people ever see your listing. Pricing right from the start almost always gets you more in the end.
How much should I lower the price if my phone isn't selling?
About 3% to 5% at a time, after a week or so with no real interest. Small drops keep you from overshooting.
Does a cracked screen change the price a lot?
Yes. A cracked screen or back puts the phone in a damaged category that sells for much less than Fair. It's often worth getting a quote on the repair first.
If you buy and sell phones regularly, Andover shows the median price across every marketplace for your exact configuration, updated every morning, along with every buyback offer. It's free to start.