Condition guide
Condition is the single biggest thing you control in a quote, and it's the question people get wrong most often. So we grade with two physical tests you can do yourself in thirty seconds, plus a short list of hard requirements. No judgment calls about what counts as "minor wear."
The two tests
Hold the device at arm's length under normal room light. Turn it slowly. If you can see a mark from there, it does not qualify for the grade above. If you have to bring it close to your face to find anything, it does.
Run a fingernail across the mark. If your nail glides over it, it's a scuff. If your nail catches in it, it's a scratch and the device drops a grade. This is the line between Good and Fair.
The ladder
The same five grades apply to every category. The wording below is for phones and tablets; laptops, cameras, consoles and drones use the same ladder with their own failure points, listed further down.
| Grade | In one line | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Brand new | Still sealed. Never used. | Factory seal unbroken. All original accessories present and untouched. Never activated or registered to an account. |
| Flawless | Opened, but it looks unused. | No scratch, scuff, dent or chip anywhere on screen, back or frame. Screen perfect with no marks under raking light. Battery health 85% or better. Fully working. Signed out of all accounts. |
| Very good | Light marks you can't see at arm's length. | Passes the arm's-length test. No dents, chips or cracks. Battery health 80% or better. Fully working. Signed out of all accounts. |
| Good | Marks you can see but can't feel. | Visible fine scratches and scuffs that a fingernail does not catch on. No cracks, chips or dents. Battery health 80% or better. Fully working. |
| Fair | Wear you can feel, but nothing cracked. | Deep scratches, dings, dents or abrasions that a fingernail catches on. Frame may be visibly worn. No cracks or chips anywhere. Still fully working. Battery health 80% or better. |
| Broken | Cracked, damaged, or not working right. | Any crack or chip, however small. Screen faults such as dead pixels, lines, burn-in or an aftermarket panel. Won't power on. Battery under 80% or showing a service message. Water damage. Missing parts. Engraving. Bent frame. |
Hard requirements
Anything at Good or above needs a battery at 80 percent or better, with no "service battery" warning. Flawless needs 85 percent or better. On an iPhone, check Settings, then Battery, then Battery Health & Charging. On most Android phones it's under Settings, then Battery, or in the device's own diagnostics app. On a Mac, hold Option, click the Apple menu, open System Information and read Power. If you genuinely can't check, pick "not sure" in the quote and we'll test it here.
The device has to be signed out. That means Find My and iCloud off on Apple devices, your Google or Samsung account removed on Android, and any BIOS, firmware or MDM password cleared on a laptop. A locked device cannot be tested or resold. We will still make you an offer on one — as parts, by hand, not instantly — but it won't be the listed price.
If the device is still on a carrier installment plan, a lease, or a company finance agreement, it isn't fully yours to sell yet. Tell us in the quote. We can still buy many financed phones at a reduced price, confirmed by hand before we pay. Leased equipment usually has to go back to the lessor.
We check the IMEI or serial of every phone and tablet against the national blacklist. A blacklisted handset can't be activated by anyone, so it's worth parts value at best. We record the serial of everything we buy. We don't buy anything that isn't yours to sell, and we cooperate fully with law enforcement.
By category
| Category | What we check beyond scratches |
|---|---|
| Phones & tablets | Screen lines, dead pixels or burn-in; aftermarket screen; Face ID or fingerprint not working; cameras; charging port; speakers and mic; missing SIM tray; back glass; bent frame; water indicator. |
| Laptops | Dead keys; trackpad; hinge play or a lid that won't stay open; backlight failure, lines or dead pixels; dead ports; fan noise and overheating; liquid spill marks; won't charge; cycle count and "service battery"; BIOS or firmware password. |
| Consoles | Disc drive; overheating or random shutdowns; fan noise; HDMI and USB ports; controller stick drift or dead buttons; Joy-Con drift; handheld screens; account ban. |
| Cameras & lenses | Shutter count; sensor dust, spots or scratches; fungus or haze inside the glass; autofocus; scratched LCD or viewfinder; worn grip rubber; dented filter thread; mount play; weather seal damage. |
| Drones | Prop-strike marks on the arms; shell cracks; gimbal rattle, drift or failure to level; scratched lens; swollen batteries; whether it still flies and calibrates; whether it's unbound from your account. |
| Marine electronics | UV-faded or crazed bezel; clouded or delaminated display; salt corrosion on connector pins; fogging behind the glass; cracked case; missing gasket; broken bracket knobs; whether it passes its own self-test. |
Easy to miss
None of these are deal breakers. They just change the grade, and it's much better to tell us now than for us to find them later.
A name, a company asset tag or a logo on the back moves the device to Broken. It can't be sold as standard stock.
A replaced screen that isn't an original part shows up in diagnostics even when it looks perfect.
A chip the size of a grain of rice is still a chip. Any chip means Broken, even if the glass is otherwise clean.
OLED ghosting shows on a plain grey screen. Hold a blank white and then a grey image full screen and look for shadows.
A lifting screen or a case that no longer sits flat means a swollen cell. Don't ship it — call us instead.
Small part, real cost. Same for a missing stylus, battery door or memory card cover.
Questions
We email you what we found, which grade it moved to, and the new number. You can accept it, ask for a second opinion from a different tester at no cost, or decline and we ship it back to you for a flat $10 return postage (it's on you, because the device didn't match what you told us). We never pay a lower amount without telling you first.
No. Color never changes what we pay on any device.
Only what's underneath counts. Take the case and protector off before you grade it — a lot of people discover scratches at that point.
It grades as Broken. That sounds harsh for a device that looks new, but a battery swap is a real cost for us, and it's the honest way to price it.
Not for most grades. Brand new needs everything sealed. On laptops, cameras and drones the original charger, batteries and accessories are priced separately because they're worth real money.
Yes, and for anything you're unsure about that's the easiest route. We test it at the counter at 1879 W Flagler St while you wait and give you the number straight away.
