When Steve Jobs was fired by his own company, Apple suffered terrible leadership. Apple started releasing new products and models every month, with some products being updated weeks after their initial release.
Apple was releasing so many new revisions and products, consumers became scared to buy an Apple product. They felt that if they were to buy an Apple product, theirs would become out-of-date in a matter of weeks.
Today, we’ve taken the opposite direction; everybody needs to have the latest and greatest device the moment it’s released.
Every six months, technology advances one step forward. It always feels as if we are waiting for the next iPhone to be released so we can run to the store and buy it.
To keep sales up and stock prices high, technology manufacturers need to constantly innovate and maintain the flow of purchases. To do this, they need to have something new and exciting for the customer, because who doesn’t love new and exciting things?
As we constantly buy the latest computers and smartphones, we need a way to recover some of the cost of buying the device we are upgrading from. The best way to do that is to sell off the current hardware to someone looking for something new, but not “new-new”.
Selling online is one of the best ways to get top dollar for your electronic device. You reach a national market that is willing to pay the highest dollar for your product. However, to get top dollar for your device, there are crucial steps that must be taken.
Join me as I go through the step-by-step process of selling a device online and how you can get top-dollar for it.
Is the device worth selling?
When a buyer is shopping online for a used product, they are presented with hundreds of listings. All of these listings are of the same device, but different people selling the device. Unfortunately, not every seller is honest about their listings.
Accidents happen when you own a device, especially with smartphones and how fragile they can be. If you are selling online, be considerate and always point out all of the device’s flaws in a clear and expressive way.
Online scamming is a problem and you should not be a part of it. If there is a cracked screen, missing keyboard key, or broken button, mention that in the listing for the buyer to know. Not doing so will only upset the buyer causing animosity and them demanding a refund.
The question to ask yourself when selling a device is whether or not you would be happy if you received this device with what you’ve put in your listing. If the front is all pretty, but the back glass is shattered, would you be angry if the device arrived in this condition without it being mentioned?
Broken or damaged devices have their place in the marketplace, but they are often sold for parts. Selling for parts is a challenge that I do not recommend many people take. While it may seem ideal to recover cash by selling working parts from a broken device, you do not fully know if that part you are selling is in 100 percent working condition.
If your device is in a working condition, then sell everything in one single listing. For computers, do not try to sell individual parts such as removing the graphics card and selling it on its own. People want a complete working system.
The same practice applies to smartphones. Selling a smartphone without a case, charging cable, or wall adapter could decrease how much money you make in the end.
In short, selling online shouldn’t feel like a scamming act. Be honest in your listing and be clear on what problems or faults the device has. Pretend you are both the buyer and seller of the device and make sure you would be a happy buyer and seller in a complete transaction.
Restoring to Factory Defaults
Think back to when you first bought the device you are now selling. Chances are you were excited to power it on for the first time and start messing with all of the settings and gadgets. It’s a great experience being a part of something new.
That same experience should be given to the new owner of the device.
Before even putting a listing up online, a factory reset of the device should be performed. We tailor our devices to our liking by installing applications, changing settings, and storing our digital lives on them. Just because we enjoy how the device is setup, doesn’t mean someone else will.
Practically every device on the market will come with a factory reset function. The steps to factory resetting are often clear and well outlined online through a quick google search. If you are unfamiliar on how to factory restore a device, use a preferred search engine using the phrase “[Operating system] factory restore”.
When a factory restore has been initialized, it will reset the device back to an out-of-the-box state. Just like the day you got it. All previous accounts, apps, logins, settings, and data will have been removed from the device.
As I will mention later on, it is ideal to factory restore the device before taking any listing pictures. A factory restore will show the phone in a state that the manufacturer intended it to be in. Not with your custom wallpaper and apps cluttering the display.
No matter what device you are selling online, chances are you have an associated account with that device. A Microsoft account, Apple account, or Google account that has the device stored under your name.
When everyone began getting smartphones, it became a problem that thieves would steal the smartphones to make a quick buck on the black market. In those days, stealing a smartphone meant you could essentially get a brand new, free phone.
To battle against smartphone theft, Apple and Google have installed safety measures to stop thieves. When a user or the carrier reports that a device has been stolen, they send a lock command to the phone. If the phone is ever used, activated, or factory restored, it turns the phone into a pretty paper weight. Only the original owner can restore it back to a working condition.
This is a great way to stop thieves from stealing a smartphone, because the risk is nowhere near worth the potential value of a disabled phone.
Therefore, before you factory restore a device, it is key to remove the device from all associated accounts. Once the device has been removed from your account, it can be factory restored.
Cleaning the device
Okay, by the word “cleaning”, we mean preparing the device for wiping all of your personal data from the device. However, feel free to physically clean the device too! We mention that later on.
A buyer does not want your personal data and you don’t want the buyer ever having the possibility of retrieving that data. To stop data retrieval and from people stealing your files, you need to clean the device of data.
When data is stored on a storage media, it is stored in 1s and 0s known as bits. These bits are how the file is built, read, and stored on the device. There could be hundreds of thousands of bits depending on the file.
Looking at a file string, we may see 110100101001. Notice how the initial bit begins with a 1. This indicates an active file, one that is being stored on your storage media and can be read from. If we flip this bit to a 0, then the file is now deleted and appears to have been removed from the device.
Except if we type out the file bit string once more, 010100101001 looks a lot similar to the initial string. That’s because the file still remains retrievable but appears to the device as deleted and open real estate.
I explain about file deletion more in context in my How to Securely and Professionally Wipe a Computer Drive tutorial.
The tutorial linked to above is best used on a Windows computer. Windows 10 factory restore does a decent job at removing your personal files, but it doesn’t get everything. Following the guide above is the best and most secure way of wiping the contents from a computer’s drive. Just make sure to reinstall Windows after the restore.
When it comes to Mac, iPhones, and Android devices, their factory restore functions are sufficient to ensure that your old data was properly wiped from the device. If you want to be sure your data has been erased, you could perform two factory restores to have the device write over the storage media twice.
The takeaway here is that selling a device with your personal data on it is something you should never do. If the device cannot be properly wiped of your information, then do not sell it at all. You can, however, trade the phone in to a secured recycling location like a mobile carrier. They will ensure the phone is properly taken care of.
Pictures are everything
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and that is quite the case when selling online.
When shopping online, people shop for products with their eyes, not by reading. In fact, most people will make purchases just by looking at the pictures themselves rather than reading through the listing’s descriptions.
Whether you choose to sell your device on eBay, Craigslist, or Facebook Marketplace, if you create a listing with high quality professional pictures, chances are higher you will get top dollar for your device.
You are one person selling a used device amongst hundreds of others. You need a way for your listing to stand out among the others and high-quality pictures are a way to do that.
Before taking pictures, make sure your device is cleaned of any dirt, dust, grime, and fingerprints. You want the device to be presented in the best way possible as if it were brand new. This will help the buyer feel better about buying a used product.
When I review a product for Qwerty Articles, I take the pictures outside with strong overhead sunlight. The sunlight provides the perfect lighting and fully shows the product in all its glory. Furthermore, it will shine light all over the product equally rather than directly on one spot.
To add even a stronger, professional feel to the picture, I use a wooden background that the product sits on. It’s subtle, but really makes the picture something special. If I have to get a broad shot that requires angling the camera, I make sure the backdrop is open grassland or a metal backdrop.
If possible, take pictures outside, but be wary of reflections on the device’s screen. The buyer does not want to see your face, hands, or camera in the picture.
As a minimum requirement, six body pictures should be taken, one for each side of the device. Whether combined with the body pictures or a standalone, the device should be shown as on and working. Take close up pictures of the display both on and off.
Capture as much detail as possible of the product and use a camera that will create a zoomable image. This can be seen on eBay listings where you hover over the picture to zoom in on the product. This will allow the buyer to inspect the product in more detail and help them make a decision to buy it.
If there is a fault with the device, show that in the pictures. Don’t take extreme zoomed in pictures, but make sure that the fault is clearly shown in the center of the picture.
Lastly, make sure the lighting of the picture is correct and the product is in focus. If the image is blurry, it will discourage people and they will look elsewhere. Taking pictures may sound easy and it is, but they need to be of professional quality to get the highest profit.
Where to create your listing?
There are a lot of places to sell your device online, but the three largest online websites to use are eBay, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace.
eBay is the world’s largest online auctioning website with millions of viewers per day and thousands of sales per hour. On eBay, your listing can be for an auction where people slowly bid up against each other, a Buy It Now to make quick cash, a Make an Offer to see what people are willing to pay for the device, or all three at once.
As the world’s largest auctioning website, the potential audience is massive. When a buyer has a desire to buy a product, they will look all over the web, including eBay. It is the place I choose to sell all of my devices.
Benefits from eBay include eBay seller protections, PayPal secured payment, easy listing and a place to write a strong description, as well as a place to showcase those pictures.
The drawbacks that come with eBay are that both eBay and PayPal take hefty fees from your final selling price. Moreover, you will have to ship the product to the buyer, but eBay provides you the option to charge the buyer for shipping.
Next, Craigslist is often the go-to place to sell locally. It’s fee-free, open marketplace is widely viewed by people who live close to you. It’s not the most elegant place to sell something, but it’s quick and typically results in a cash payment.
One of the drastic worries and downsides of Craigslist is that you have to meet the person face-to-face. Meeting people off the internet is not recommended, so, if you do meet a person from Craigslist for a sale, ensure that you meet at a safe location like a police station. You could even go the extra mile and inform the station that you will be outside meeting an online seller.
If a police station is not an option, do not go to a sale alone. Always arrive with a friend and if something does not feel right, leave. You can always sell your device to someone else.
Facebook Marketplace has recently picked up a lot of popularity. Like Craigslist, its open, local, and fee-free. You still need to meet the person to hand over the device and collect payment, but you get an insight of who the person is through their Facebook account. Still take precautions, even for profiles you know.
Creating the listing
So, you’ve chosen a place to list your new device. Now, it’s the most important part, creating the listing.
A listing for a computer should include the following: the computer’s hardware, operating system, condition, and bundled items like a monitor, keyboard, and/or a mouse. Smartphone listings should explain their operating system version, condition, and if they come with the charging cable.
If you saved the original packaging box that either your computer, smartphone, tablet, or laptop came in, make sure to include this in the listing. Adding or showing that you have kept the original product box and/or the original manual can greatly increase your view count for the listing.
Your listing should contain a catchy, but descriptive title. Again, most people shop by looking not reading. They will first scan the titles to see what interests them and then look at the pictures. Therefore, your title should include the device’s name, bundled items, and the condition.
Examples could include:
Samsung Galaxy S8+, White, Original Box & Charger, Great Condition, No Damage
HP All-in-One PC, Windows 10, i5, 16GB RAM, 1TB HDD, Like-New Condition, Warranty
Make sure that your best picture that captures as much of the included product in the listing as possible is the featured image. The featured image is your first image shown and would become the thumbnail image in the list of listings.
When choosing a price for your listing, see what others are listing their products at and expect a listing price around there. Moreover, check what the product costs to buy new. Nobody is going to buy a used product if it matches the price of a new unit.
Depending on how old the product is, half of what you original paid for the product is a fair listing price. List too high and people will be discouraged, but too low means you could have gotten a lot more.
Lastly, if you have to ship your device to the buyer, make sure to follow the following steps. Package the device with a lot of study materials to prevent the device from shaking or rotating around in the box. Having a box that is form fitting around the device is ideal.
Void space in the box should be filled with bubble wrap but be careful about putting bubble wrap around open circuits and exposed motherboards; it could cause a shock to the board and destroy it.
You need to remember that all shipping carriers treat boxes the exact same. It doesn’t matter if there is a diamond ring inside or a plastic toy. Not only is packaging the device important but use a carrier that provides tracking information as well as insurance. FedEx offers a free $100 value insurance on their package, but if your device is worth more it may be ideal to buy a higher insurance plan for only a few dollars.
Conclusion
If you follow what was mentioned in this tutorial, you are expected to make top dollar for your used device. Understand what you are selling, how to sell it, and how to market it to a buyer is the key in any online listing. It will be your listing against the hundreds of others online.
Meeting with people can be dangerous, therefore, if something doesn’t feel right, then leave. Meet somewhere secure and ensure that the cash they are handing over is real and the correct amount. Never travel alone to meet a stranger.
Protecting and taking care of your technology devices throughout the years warrants higher profit when it comes time to resell them. That original packaging box may not seem useful when you had just bought the device, but it sure does come in handy when reselling.
Use common sense while on the internet and be wary of scammers.
© 2018 Justin Vendette
