The Galaxy S26 Ultra is the most valuable phone we buy.
256GB, 512GB or 1TB. The biggest number on this site, and it gets smaller the longer you wait.
The S26 Ultra sits at the top of our price list, above every other phone we handle, and it is the one device where the timing argument is worth taking seriously rather than nodding along to. The gap between selling a current Ultra and selling last year's Ultra is the largest single drop in the Galaxy range.
Part of that is the phone and part of it is who wants it. Second-hand Ultra buyers are not looking for a bargain phone, they are looking for that specific phone: the S Pen, the telephoto reach, the battery that actually lasts. That demand is why an Ultra holds its number better than anything else Samsung makes, right up until the next one arrives.
If you are going to sell this phone at any point in the next year, the difference between doing it now and doing it after the next Unpacked is not a rounding error.
Every one of these has two numbers.
What it is worth working, and what it is worth faulty. Both are real, both are yours in about a minute, and both depend on the actual device rather than a best case printed on a page. That is why the number lives in the calculator and not in a table here.
Galaxy S26 Ultra
1TB
Galaxy S26 Ultra
512GB
Galaxy S26 Ultra
256GB
If you are upgrading, you are not selling. You are part-paying.
The one upgrade path an Ultra owner actually considers is a Fold, because it is the only Samsung that offers something an Ultra does not. What your Ultra is worth covers a genuinely large share of one.
Take the payout as EpicDeals.co.za credit instead of cash and we add 12% on top. That is us paying you for not needing the money in your account today, and it costs you nothing if you were going to spend it here anyway.
The 12% is only worth taking if you were going to spend it. If you need the cash, take the cash, and we will not make the voucher hard to refuse.
What actually moves the number.
Storage, which matters here more than anywhere
The people buying second-hand Ultras are frequently buying them to shoot video, and the gap between 256GB and 1TB is real money to them. This is the one phone where storage is a headline rather than a footnote.
The S Pen, present and working
It lives in the phone until the one day it does not, and a missing S Pen is the most common deduction we apply to an Ultra. Check the silo before you describe the condition.
The camera ring and the titanium frame
Both scuff, and on an Ultra both are what a buyer inspects first. A phone that has been cased since day one, with the factory film still on the camera plate, is worth noticeably more than the same phone bare.
Timing, which is the largest factor of all
This is the current flagship. That premium ends on a specific day, at a keynote, and it does not fade in gently beforehand.
Things that do not disqualify it.
Every one of these lowers the offer. Not one of them ends it. Pick the matching condition, say what is wrong in the notes, and the price you are shown already accounts for it.
- Cracked or shattered screen, front or back glass
- Burn-in or a green line down the AMOLED panel
- A battery that swells, dies at 30% or will not hold a day
- Fingerprint sensor under the screen that has stopped reading
- USB-C port that only charges if you hold the cable just so
- Camera with dust, haze or a rattling stabiliser
- Water damage, including phones that dried out and seemed fine
- Will not switch on at all
Three ways to take the money.
Cash
Instant offer
Assessed within 1-3 working days of arriving, paid within 5 working days of your offer being confirmed.
+12%
Trade-in voucher
Take it as credit on EpicDeals.co.za instead and we add 12%. Useful if the plan was always to upgrade.
+10%
Consignment
We list it, we sell it, you get 10% more than the instant offer. Most sell within 13 days.
Trading since 2014 as Epic Deals, with 2,500+ reviews and 30 people who answer the phone. Not a stranger with a bakkie and a WhatsApp number.
Galaxy S26 Ultra questions.
Also selling one of these?
One minute, one number.
No account, no obligation, no salesperson phoning you at supper time.