It dried out and seemed fine. That is the part worth reading.
Pool, rain, washing machine or a cup of tea. We buy it, and we would rather you sold it sooner than later.
Modern Galaxies are water resistant rather than waterproof, and that rating degrades quietly with age as the seals harden. A five-year-old phone with an IP68 badge is not an IP68 phone any more, which is why plenty of water damage happens to devices their owners believed were safe.
The important thing about water damage is that it is not an event, it is a process. A phone that got wet, dried out and worked perfectly afterwards is corroding on the inside on a timeline of months, not days. It usually fails eventually, and it is worth considerably more today than it will be on the day it does.
So if yours went for a swim and has been fine ever since, this is the honest advice: that is the best possible moment to sell it, not a reason to relax.
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.
Water damage is the one fault where waiting genuinely costs you money on a schedule, because the phone is corroding while you decide. If you are going to replace it, doing both at once is worth more than doing them six months apart.
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 still works right now
A wet phone that currently boots, charges and passes a camera test is worth far more than one that does not, even knowing it may fail later. Test it and describe what you find.
What it went into
Clean water is survivable. Salt water and anything sugary are much worse, because they leave a conductive residue that keeps corroding long after the phone is dry. Say which it was.
What you did afterwards
If it was switched off quickly and not charged while wet, its chances are much better. If it was put in rice and then plugged in, that is worth mentioning too, honestly.
How long ago it happened
Corrosion is cumulative. A phone that got wet last week and one that got wet two years ago are in genuinely different condition even if both work today.
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.
Water damaged Galaxy questions.
Also selling one of these?
One minute, one number.
No account, no obligation, no salesperson phoning you at supper time.