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Dead phones have a price. It is smaller, and it is real.

No power, a boot loop, or stuck on the Samsung logo forever. Send it as it is.

A phone that will not switch on is the hardest one to sell privately, because nobody buying on Marketplace will believe you about what is wrong with it and you cannot demonstrate otherwise. It is the easiest one to sell to us, for the same reason: we are buying it for the parts and the possibility, not for a demonstration.

Be aware of the honest split here. A phone that boots can be tested, wiped and resold as a phone. A phone that does not is worth its components, and that is a substantially smaller number at every model level. We would rather say that here than surprise you with it later.

The one thing genuinely worth trying first is a forced restart: hold volume down and the side button together for about thirty seconds, on a charger, with a cable you know works. A surprising number of dead phones are flat batteries and stuck firmware.

One exception, stated up front rather than buried: folding Galaxies. We buy the Z Fold and Z Flip sealed and unopened only, so a used one is a device we have to decline whatever is wrong with it.

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.

Any Galaxy S

S10 through the current generation

Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Watch

Same rules, same courier

Any Galaxy Note

Note 9 through Note 20 Ultra

Any Galaxy A

A14 upward

Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Watch

Same rules, same courier

If you are upgrading, you are not selling. You are part-paying.

If your phone has died and you need one today, a two- or three-year-old flagship is the fastest route to something good without a contract. What the dead one is worth is a real contribution rather than a token.

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.

Whether it shows any sign of life at all

A phone that reaches the Samsung logo and loops is worth more than one that does nothing on a charger, because the board is probably alive. Describe exactly what it does, including nothing.

Which model it is

This is most of the number on a dead phone. A dead Ultra has valuable parts. A dead A14 does not, and the offer will be honest about that.

Whether it was ever water damaged

A dead phone that got wet is a different proposition to a dead phone that was dropped, because corrosion spreads. Say which, if you know.

Whether the screen is intact

On a dead phone the display is often the most valuable single part left. An unbroken screen on a dead phone is worth declaring.

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.

Paid to South Africans for their old tech

R89,793,451

Counting live for Epic Deals, since 2013

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 that will not turn on questions.

One thing. Put it on a charger with a cable you have tested on another device, leave it fifteen minutes, then hold volume down and the side button together for thirty seconds. Flat batteries and stuck firmware look exactly like dead phones and are not.

One minute, one number.

No account, no obligation, no salesperson phoning you at supper time.