Where to sell a phone in Dubai, and what it costs you
A classifieds listing shows the highest number and usually delivers the worst result. You answer lowball messages for a week, agree a price with someone, then watch them renegotiate in a car park over a scratch you had already photographed. Half the time nobody turns up and you relist.
Retail trade-in is quick, but it normally pays as credit against a new handset, which only helps if you were buying one anyway. We quote before you travel, and we hold it. The number you get on WhatsApp is the number you are paid, provided the phone matches what you told us. If the inspection finds something you did not mention, we show you what it is and what it changes, and you are free to take the phone and go.
Which phones we buy, and how each one is quoted
iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel sit in the catalogue, so you can get a price online in a few taps: pick the model, pick the storage, pick the condition. The iPhone hub and the Samsung hub go into the model-by-model detail, and Pixel is priced on the other-brands page.
Huawei, Honor, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus have no catalogue entry. Their resale values move too fast and too locally to publish an instant figure for, so send the model on WhatsApp and the desk prices it against what the market is actually paying that week.
Foldables need a different inspection again, and the Samsung page sets out what we look at on a Z Fold or Z Flip. The table on this page is live rather than fixed, so a model that has moved this month shows a different number to last month's.
What actually decides the price of a used phone
Three inputs do most of the work: which model it is, how much storage it has, and what condition the screen and body are in. Condition is the one worth being honest about, because the grades mean specific things at the counter. Like-new is a handset with nothing visible under a desk lamp. Good is light wear on the frame with clean glass. Below that you are into scratched panels, dents and cracks, each priced against what putting it right costs us.
After that it is function. Cameras that focus, speakers with no rattle, a port that holds a cable, working biometrics, no green line or burn-in. A phone that passes all of that in a scuffed frame beats a pristine one with a failing fingerprint sensor.
Some things move the number less than people expect. Box and charger help, but not by much. A screen protector that took the scratches instead of the glass only counts if the glass underneath is clean. Storage, by contrast, is worth checking before you write to us: on most models the gap between the smallest and largest tier is wider than the gap between a like-new grade and a scratched one.
The checks we run before we pay
Every phone we buy has its IMEI checked against lost and stolen registers before any money moves. A handset that comes back reported is one we cannot buy at any price, and it is better for everyone that this surfaces at the desk.
The second check is ownership. You do not have to be the original purchaser, and plenty of the phones we buy were gifts, hand-me-downs or handsets given to staff on exit. What the device does have to be is signed out of the previous owner's account. Still tied to someone else's Apple Account or Google account, it reboots into a lock screen that nobody else can clear, including us. If the previous owner is reachable, sort that out before you travel.
Bring your Emirates ID. Every purchase is logged against a photo ID, and that record is what keeps this side of the second-hand trade clean.
Damaged handsets are priced against the repair rather than turned away. What a specific fault costs depends on the model, so the iPhone and Samsung pages deal with those one by one.
Get the phone ready before you come in
Back up first. Photos, chats, authenticator codes, anything tied to your number. Once the device is wiped it is gone, and we wipe every phone we take. If a new handset is already in use, finish moving your data across before you erase this one.
Then deal with the line. Take the SIM out. If your number lives on an eSIM, move it to the new phone before deleting the profile; deleting it first means a trip to your operator to get the number back. Take out the microSD card too if the model has a slot.
Signing out is the step people get wrong, and it works differently on every platform. The iPhone page covers Apple Account and Activation Lock, the Samsung page covers Factory Reset Protection, and the other-brands page covers the manufacturer accounts layered on top of Google's.
Then bring the phone, your Emirates ID, and the charger or box if they are still sitting in a drawer at home.
Selling several phones at once
Clearing more than a handful, an office refresh, a reseller's stock, a batch of returns, stops being a walk-in and becomes a bulk deal. Bulk lots are quoted as a lot, settled by bank transfer or cash depending on size, and we collect from your premises anywhere in the UAE.
Bulk also carries the paperwork business buyers need: a single invoice for the lot, a device-by-device list, and certified data sanitisation with a certificate per device. Start on the bulk buyback page instead of this one.