Flip Phones for Profit
Appraisal Quick Sheet
Companion to "Price Any Phone in Five Minutes."
1. Sold+used filter steps
| Search the exact phone on eBay | ☐ |
| Filter to Sold Listings (asking prices are wishes; sold prices are facts) | ☐ |
| Filter condition to Used | ☐ |
| Sort until the comps describe the same phone you are buying (condition apples to apples) | ☐ |
2. The three comp-matching traps
| Trap | The fix |
|---|
| Model variants (an iPhone 13 and an iPhone 13 Pro blend in one search) | Search the model number from Settings, not the marketing name |
| Storage (128 GB and 256 GB sell at different prices) | Appraise at base storage; treat extra storage as a bonus so comps never flatter the deal |
| Carrier status | Locked comps for locked phones, unlocked comps for unlocked (the most common comp error on a clean search) |
3. Three comps, err low
Worked example: three matching solds at $340, $355, $360. Average, then shade down: pricing the risk that your unit is slightly worse than the photos and that the market dipped this week.
| Comp 1 / 2 / 3 | Average | Shaded expectation |
|---|
| $340 / $355 / $360 | ~$350 | ~$350 shaded low |
| | |
4. The max-offer formula
max offer = (expected sale price × (1 − fee rate) − shipping − supplies) − target profit
Worked example (assumptions: $350 expected sale, eBay no store at ~13.6%, shipping and supplies ~$14, target profit $70): fees about $48; 350 − 48 − 14 − 70 = about $218. If the seller's price is above that, the deal does not exist yet. If your computed max offer is within $20 of the expected sale price, the deal is too thin to survive a single surprise.
| Row | Worked example | Your numbers |
|---|
| Expected sale price (shaded) | $350 | $ |
| Fee rate (eBay no store ~13.6%; store ~9.35%) | $48 | $ |
| Shipping + supplies | $14 | $ |
| Target profit | $70 | $ |
| Max offer | ~$218 | $ |
5. Corpus-era price ladder (sanity check, not a promise)
| Sells near | Operators' old ladder | Today |
|---|
| $100 | pay $30 to $40 | Today's compressed market means most deals sit below those old spreads. Current operators describe margins of 5 to 15% on average; well-sourced sellers 30 to 50. Use the ladder only to smell a trap. |
| $300 | pay $150 to $180 |
6. Discipline
| Never meet a seller without having run the comps first | ☐ |
| Never trust memory of last month's prices; they drift down as new models land | ☐ |
| Never let a seller's urgency become your urgency ("I have another buyer" is a price pressure line, not information) | ☐ |