GuidesUpdated By Federico Ragusa
Used vs refurbished: which to buy, and what the grades mean
Buy refurbished if you want a warranty and someone to answer for faults; buy used from a private seller if you want the lowest price and can check the phone yourself.
The device can be identical. Refurbished means a business has tested it, wiped it and sold it on with a warranty of its own; used means the owner sells it as it is. The extra you pay for refurbished buys that cover, and the grade a shop gives it promises less than it sounds.
What refurbished actually promises
In the UK, refurbished has no legal definition. Each shop decides what the word covers. A careful refurbisher tests every function, replaces what fails, wipes the data, removes the old owner's accounts and adds a warranty of its own. A careless one cleans the case and sells it on. Both can call the result refurbished.
So find the page that explains the process: what is tested, what is replaced, whether a worn battery is changed and how long the warranty lasts. Warranty terms differ from shop to shop, and a longer one suggests the shop trusts its own work.
Apple Certified Refurbished is at the strict end: Apple's own refurbished iPhones come with a new battery, a new outer shell and Apple's warranty, which is also why they are rarely the cheapest.
What a grade tells you and what it leaves out
Excellent, Good and Fair; A, B and C; Pristine and Very Good. Each shop has its own scale and none of them is a standard, so one shop's Good might match another's Grade B, or its Grade C.
A grade describes the outside: scratches on the screen, marks on the frame, scuffs on the corners. It says nothing about the battery, the inside, or whether the screen is an original part; for those, read the shop's notes or ask. A lower grade with a new battery can be a better phone than a top grade with a tired one.
- Top grade (Excellent, A, Pristine): hard to tell from new at arm's length.
- Middle grade (Very Good, Good, B): light marks you see if you look for them.
- Lowest grade (Fair, C): visible scratches or small dents, and the same phone inside.
- Battery and replaced parts: a separate line, if the shop mentions them at all.
Used from a private seller: cheaper, with the checks on you
On eBay, Vinted or Facebook Marketplace you buy from the person who owned the phone. The price is usually the lowest you will find for the same model in the same condition, because nobody is paying for testing or a warranty. That work becomes yours.
Before paying, do what a refurbisher would. Read the battery health in the settings. Look at the screen on a white page. Try the cameras, the speakers and the charging port. Make sure the phone is signed out of every account: an iPhone with Find My still on is locked to its owner and no use to you. Meet in person if you can; if you cannot, pay through the site's own checkout so its buyer protection applies.
Your rights in the UK
Buy from a trader (a refurbisher, a second-hand shop or a business selling on eBay) and the Consumer Rights Act covers you. The goods must be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality. For a used or refurbished item, satisfactory allows for age and price, but a phone that stops charging after a week fails the test at any age. You have 30 days to reject a faulty item for a full refund, and if you bought online you also have 14 days to cancel, faulty or not.
Buy from a private seller and almost none of that applies. The seller must describe the phone truthfully and have the right to sell it; a fault that turns up next month is your problem. When you buy refurbished, the shop's own warranty adds to your legal rights and never replaces them.
When to choose which
Refurbished makes sense for a recent, expensive phone or laptop you will keep for years, for a present, or when you cannot see the device before you buy. Used from a private seller makes sense for an older model, when the price gap is wide and you can watch the phone working before you hand over the money.
In between, CeX and musicMagpie sell second-hand stock that has been tested and graded, and Back Market lists refurbishers of every size. In law they are traders even when they do little more than test, so your rights come with the purchase, usually at a price somewhere between the two.
How to compare prices
Compare the same model, with the same storage, in similar condition, with postage included. A refurbished phone at a shop's top grade and a used one described as 'a few scratches' are different purchases, and the gap between them pays for the warranty, the checks and the better finish.
Then look at the size of the gap. When refurbished offers sit close to what private sellers ask, the warranty costs you almost nothing and the choice is easy. When they sit well above, ask what else that money would buy. The table below shows what shops and private sellers ask today for the phones people compare most, with postage to the UK included.
Used phone prices, model by model
The typical price sits in the middle: for each model, half the sellers ask less and half ask more, delivery included. We only count offers that compare: same condition, delivery stated. We read the offers again several times a day, and the table is worked out again every hour. Prices read on 28 October 2026.
| Model | Typical price | Lowest | Compared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iPhone 11 · 64GB | £130 | £60 | 445 |
| Apple iPhone 15 · 128GB | £359 | £223.02 | 396 |
| Apple iPhone 14 Pro · 128GB | £345 | £214.50 | 275 |
| Apple iPhone 11 · 128GB | £161 | £90.40 | 216 |
| Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max · 256GB | £376 | £223.02 | 112 |
| Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max · 64GB | £174 | £108.08 | 52 |
| Samsung Galaxy A17 5G · 128GB | £145 | £99.99 | 30 |
| Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) · 16GB | £39 | £27.54 | 26 |
| Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) · 16GB | £41 | £23.37 | 16 |
| Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini · 8GB | £19 | £13.98 | 16 |
| Apple iPhone 11 · 256GB | £167 | £139 | 14 |
| Samsung Galaxy Xcover 3 · 8GB | £19 | £11.06 | 7 |
Is it better to buy a used or a refurbished phone?
That depends on how much checking you want to do. A used phone from a private seller is usually the cheaper of the two, and every check is yours. A refurbished one costs more and comes with a shop warranty and your full rights under the Consumer Rights Act. For a recent, expensive phone you will keep for years, refurbished is the safer buy; for an older model where the price gap is wide, used often wins.
What does refurbished grade A mean?
It means the top of that shop's own scale, and nothing more. There is no common standard for refurbished grades in the UK, so one shop's A and another's Excellent can differ. A grade describes the outside: scratches and marks. It tells you nothing about the battery or whether a part has been replaced.
Does a refurbished phone come with a new battery?
Not always. Apple's own refurbished iPhones come with a new battery and a new outer shell. Other refurbishers set their own rule, often a minimum battery health below which they fit a new one. Look for that figure on the shop's page, and ask if it is not there.
Can I return a used phone bought from a private seller?
Only if it is not as described. A private seller must describe the phone truthfully and have the right to sell it, and the law asks no more of them. If you paid through eBay or Vinted, the site's own buyer protection may help when the phone differs from the listing, under that site's rules.
Is a refurbished iPhone worth it?
Usually, if the refurbisher states its tests, its battery rule and its warranty, and the price is not much above a good used one. Apple Certified Refurbished is the strictest option and rarely the cheapest.