Review: Why I Used Swappa to Sell My iPhone - Tom's Guide

Our Verdict

Thanks to its ease of use and good prices, Swappa is a not bad service for trading in your one-time phone or tablet.

For

Site is easy to employ
selling trends presented to seller
no seller fees
staff actively involved

Against

PayPal only accepted course of payment
not as established as other sites

Tom's Guide Verdict

Thanks to its ease of utilize and skilful prices, Swappa is a not bad service for trading in your old phone or tablet.

Pros

+
Site is piece of cake to use
+
selling trends presented to seller
+
no seller fees
+
staff actively involved

Cons

-
PayPal just accepted class of payment
-
not as established as other sites

As someone who tries to proceed up with technology, I believe in that location is a "right time" to unload an old device and go the maximum value back to offset the toll of the upgrade. The time came for my iPhone 5 when Verizon was offering a $225 trade-in, or so I thought.

I went to a Verizon store, iPhone v 32GB in tow, ready to replace information technology with an iPhone six 64GB. Later on waiting a few minutes to speak to a representative, I was approached by a short, burly guy in glasses who informed me that the promotion had ended and all I could become for my phone was $120. After a short conversation about how to get a better deal, he mentioned a site for selling mobile devices called Swappa.com.

Having never heard of Swappa, I hopped online to read about other people's experiences. In that location were quite a few positive reviews from individuals who had sold or purchased items on the site and but a few small-scale issues. Comfortable with my findings, I ventured over to the site to check it out.

Getting Started

The Swappa landing page is easy to use. In that location are tiles with a photo, product name and model number, selling price range, equally well equally buy and sell buttons. Yous can sell or buy phones from the four major carriers (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon), unlocked phones, tablets and fettle bands/watches. Visitors to the site can also toggle betwixt listings in the U.S., U.Yard., Canada and Europe.

Clicking the sell push button on the tile for Verizon iPhone five phones took me to a folio showing ii tabs. The get-go tabbed page showed a graph with the average selling price for the device over the last six-7 months. The 2nd tab lists all the device specs. To the right was a listing of the Criteria for Sale broken down into required and not allowed.

Required

● Device is fully functional, including all buttons and ports.

● Device is read for activation and not reported lost or stolen.

● Device is free of cracks and water damage and other not-cosmetic damage.

● Device has functional battery (non damaged) included with sale.

● The device and seller must otherwise qualify for auction in accord with our Terms of Service.

Not Allowed

● Device with bad ESN (or otherwise not able to be activated).

● Device with cracks on screen or glass.

● Device with water damage (or missing moisture indicator stickers).

● Device with an outstanding EIP balance (money owed to carrier).

Creating a Listing

In order to get-go the listing I had to concur that the device met the criteria and consent to Swappa'due south terms of service. Another box marked "Other Terms" outlined terms relating to expected handling times, acceptance of payments, listings that appear on other services (e.g., eBay, Craigslist) and listings in multiple countries.

Clicking the "Sell My iPhone 5" link took me to the "create my listing" page. The page had all the usual categories you might discover on eBay or other sale sites; headline, description, condition, and payment and shipping info.

Some of Swappa'due south specific categories on the page were damage or repair history, color, storage infinite, rooted, included accessories and PayPal- confirmed email address. PayPal is the only accepted course of payment at this time.

MORE: Best Smartphones

Perchance the about important category is the Device ESN / IMEI / MEID. All devices must exist verified by Swappa staff before the listing can be posted.

I big difference betwixt Swappa and eBay is that Swappa technically does not accuse a seller'south fee. At that place is a $10 charge added to the listing price and paid by the buyer.

When I created my listing, I set my price at $275 and the list showed $285 ($275 plus $x). If I had sold the telephone on eBay information technology would accept taken 10 percentage of the final value -- $25 -- leaving me with a turn a profit of $250 before PayPal fees. If I were charging shipping and treatment, eBay would accept made 10 percent of that too. Using Swappa saved me $15 versus eBay.

Adding Photos

I clicked the push to create and publish the listing, and on the adjacent folio I could add photos. Even though my listing was published, the telephone was not nevertheless available for purchase.

On Swappa, photos are required to verify the status of the item being sold (no junk phones immune). Whereas on eBay, people use vendor photos to show what the detail may look like instead of photos of the actual product; on Swappa the photos must be of the actual item for sale.

Afterward I uploaded the photos, Swappa had one more requirement. I needed to upload a photo taken of the phone with my verification lawmaking (assigned after clicking create listing) written on a piece of paper next to it so the listing could be verified by the Swappa staff.

The Payoff

An hour and a one-half after I uploaded photos of my iPhone 5, my list was approved past staff fellow member Paul H. He left a message in the comments section (at the bottom of all listings) so everyone who looked at the listing would know it had been reviewed and approved.

The listing was merely agile for two days before I got a bulletin (in the comments section) asking if I would accept a price of $250. I negotiated the price to $260 to account for the $x Swappa.com fee and completed the sale. An immediate payment was made to my PayPal account for $250. Unlike eBay, Swappa takes the $10 fee at the end of the auction instead of invoicing the seller.

MORE: Smartphone Interactive Buying Guide

Perhaps the biggest surprise was that 75 people viewed my listing -- a far college number than I had predictable. Two days after, the phone was packaged and shipped.

Swappa vs. Gazelle and Others

Selling a device on Swappa takes more effort than selling to Gazelle, Usell or even Gamestop, but in my case it was worth it to make double the money. When I looked at selling with Gazelle and Usell, their offering prices were $120 and $116.27 (the aforementioned equally Verizon's offer). Gamestop came in far lower with a cash offer of $60 and a trade offer of $70.

I was not surprised past the low offers since all three companies human activity every bit a middleman with the goal of reselling the device. Swappa acts more every bit a matchmaker, bringing buyers and sellers together and ensuring transactions get smoothly. As previously mentioned, eBay takes a final value fee of 10 percent and the listing tool is more than complex (confusing to some) than Swappa.

Bottom Line

As a new seller on Swappa, I establish the feel to exist a positive one. From the simplicity of the site design to the agile and available staff, the process was easy to understand and piece of work through. The fact that Swappa provides sales trend data saved me fourth dimension and ensured I got the maximum value for my iPhone.

In the cease, I earned double what Verizon offered. If I had another mobile device to sell, I would utilise Swappa once more.