Worth repairing a damaged iPhone before trading in?

turfthrower

I've got an iPhone 11 128gb that's not being used, and am thinking of bringing it along to CEX to turn it into some cash.

The back glass is broken and there is a single scratch on the front - not immediately noticeable but it is there. A local phone shop quoted me 75 euro to replace the back. The battery health on this device is at 90 per cent, it's upgraded to iOS 17 and I have the box and original accessories actually unused.

So I'm wondering if there is any point in repairing it before trading it in?

At the moment, CEX is quoting a purchase price of €294 for one of these handsets in 'A' condition, €270 for 'B' and €204 for 'C' condition.

Here are their published grading criteria:

• A - Mint - These products must be in mint/new condition. The product must be immaculate; if it is not then it is unfortunately not deemed as an A grade. All accessories means everything that would have originally come in the box. These must be official and the same condition as the product. These items also require their original box and inserts.
• B - Good - Product in good condition with all essential accessories. No box required.
• C - Working - Product in poor condition and fully working with all essential accessories. No box required.
• F - Non-Working - (Applicable for select Phones only). Product must be intact and not crushed, bent, or snapped. Must pass our IMEI check. No accessories required. All Apple products must have their iCloud account deactivated and Android v5.1+ devices must have Google Accounts removed.Non-Working Examples: Dead, cracked (screen, body, bezel etc.), water damage, broken/bleeding LCD (screen), not powering up, speaker/mic faults, broken aerial, etc.

Now, I'm thinking that they might actually class this phone as F if it has a cracked back. Anyone any experience with this?

Is it worth me spending 75 euro to repair the back, to bring this up to 'C' or even 'B' criteria, depending on what they think of the scratch on the front?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121129562#Comment_121129562

It’s just the rear glass so that won’t be a problem.

OP, you can sell as “Non Working” for €72. As you say a B grade is worth €270. So €195 post repair.

They’ll happily take it in whatever state but B grade is more likely once the back is fixed. They won’t mind a mild scratch on the screen but it wouldn’t pass as A grade (that’s basically brand new).

You’d probably get more on adverts or eBay with it repaired (or even as is) regardless but could take ages and you’d have to deal with a hape of stupid people first.

turfthrower

Okay, so an update. I had the back glass repaired, and in the process discovered the real reason the phone had been sitting in a drawer - one of the cameras was broken too. I decided to have it repaired at a combined cost of €120. So, that wasn't a great financial decision but I thought it would be better to give this device a second life rather than just bin it. Someone out there will get a great phone.

Brought it along to CEX and they quoted €270 for it, but then powered it on, checked the IMEI and discovered it was locked to a network. I hadn't known that. So that brought the value of it down to €207. Humph. I could have gone to the network to get it unlocked for a fee, but thought screw it, let's just get rid of it now.

So not a great financial outcome. I could probably have gotten more on Adverts.ie etc but I suppose I turned a phone with a broken back and camera, and locked to a network, into cash so that's not all bad.

On the other hand, I had a win in another area. I'm selling my 14 Pro Max and priced it with CEX and with Swappie. Swappie made me an offer via mail last week on the 20th that was pretty good. €1075. However when I went back on Friday when the 15s had been launched to check again on their site, the valuation had dropped to €710.

Eek. I mailed them and asked was the original e-mailed offer valid and they got back quickly to say they'd honour it. So that's pretty decent of them.

It's being collected by a courier tomorrow.