Gadgetory

the time has come I'm coming clean I said the s7 for two years now and being someone that films the latest and greatest tech everyday it's gotten me wanting a new phone the thing is I don't want to spend a thousand dollars and I don't necessarily need something that came out yesterday so I'm gonna show you how to buy a good used phone okay I'm Biden s9 plus now I am NOT here to tell you what phone to buy and I'm sure you'll sound off in the comments about your favorite devices and what you would buy but what I am here to do is to tell you the best buying practices for a used device the safest and most reliable ways before we get to any of that though you have to remember that phones come out in cycles and there are better and worse times to buy certain devices so I hit up Chris Welch reporter here at the verge and I was like Chris is it a good time to buy an S 9 plus so there are pretty clear timelines drawn it's a good idea or a bad idea to buy a phone new iPhones come out every September so your relation violent if it's July or August Samsung puts out the Galaxy S at the start of each year March or April then the note follows that up in the summer Google this pixel updates in October in general Apple and Samsung both change their designs every two years then in between there's a more powerful version of the same phone with better specs a nicer camera stuff like that that's what we call the S here so the question comes down to do you want the new flashy design right away or can you wait one year for the more powerful more refined version of that same phone now Google is a bit different because the pixel generally hasn't used the same design more than once but maybe you'd be totally happy with last year's phone you don't need an aural engine to browse Instagram or a snapdragon 845 to play spotify so in your case you'd be totally safe to buy the s9 plus right now and since it's less than a year old buying it used will save you at least $100 and still get you a great phone okay so we are in luck it is a good time to buy a used s 9 plus but where do you start I mean there's a million different options personally I always look at eBay and Craigslist first Craigslist can be a little bit of a slippery slope if a phone is stolen and then you go to turn it on and the serial numbers flag to stolen you'll be out the phone and the cash and you'll have no connection to the seller so for this video I'm gonna skip it entirely but let's have a look at eBay so eBay has a ton of listings and I went on Samsung's website to see what a brand new s 9 plus would be is around eight hundred and forty dollars so I'm gonna try to beat that now for my sake I'm gonna search by Verizon because that's my carrier there are a lot devices but you'll have to do research on your own to figure out if they'll work on your network I've looked through a bunch of listings and I found this one this is the most promising it's a Samsung Galaxy S 9 plus 64 gigs for $549 for me this looks nice because the photos are very clear I can tell that there's no scratches on the device Wow they have a lot of five-star reviews 760 positive reviews and only six negative when a seller has a lot of positive feedback like this it's usually a pretty good sign that they're safe to buy from also when searching I've noticed a lot of stock photos used for the photo of the phones this is something you want to stay away from it's really important to see your device in the photos and maybe that means reaching out to the seller and asking for a photo of a specific thing just to be sure that that's the device and that he has it so 549 dollars on eBay that's pretty good but if you know anything about me you know I'm all about the deal so I'm gonna keep shopping there's this website called swap accom that I really like you're still buying person-to-person so there is a level of risk but there's a lot more safeguards in place to ensure that you're getting the device that you're actually looking at there's a few listings for the s9 Plus on here they range from about 500 to $800 that mostly has to do with the storage but I'm looking for the 64 gigabyte model so it's not a huge problem for me I'll be at the lower end okay so this one looks pretty good it's 514 dollars if you look at the photos you'll notice that there's like a code in there that's one of the safeguards that swapper has it basically is the code for the Sal so the phone that you're seeing in the photo is the phone for that listing I'm gonna scroll down I'm gonna read some of the comments next maybe I'll go in and I'll who the seller is if he sold things here before kind of all the same steps as eBay okay so this looks pretty good and another safeguard is that SWAPO doesn't allow the sale of broken or unusable devices now since you are buying used it doesn't come with a warranty so say down the line something happens to your phone or it glitches out you're on your own to get it repaired if you want a little bit more reassurance when buying a used phone you might want to look at refurbish models they come with a guarantee so if there's a defect down the road they'll replace the device for you you can buy reefers from a few different places including the manufacturer and your carrier but there's also sites like gazelle or Best Buy and they often have cheaper prices on these alright Best Buy's website is a little confusing and trying to find refurbs but if you scroll all the way down to the bottom where it says buying options that's where you'll see them now you can buy open box online it's a little more expensive or if you go into the store they have cheaper options but it's probably because they want you to actually look at it and know what you're getting before you leave the store so gazelle.com has certified pre-owned as well here's an S 9 + 64 gig through Verizon first six hundred and thirty-nine dollars that's cheaper than Best Buy but it's still not as cheap as swap a-- or ebay was so buying a refurbished device is definitely the safest way to buy a used device but for me I'd rather have the cheaper price and take the risk so swap ID is the most appealing to me the price was the lowest and although it doesn't come with a guarantee the seller seems like he sold things on here before and he has really good reviews and I feel good about it so I'm gonna go with swap it for this one and I'm gonna waive that whole guarantee so if something goes wrong I guess it's on me but what I will use gazelle for is selling my old phone it's not in great condition but I definitely want it recycled properly and I no longer need it so you can go on their website enter some info if it has scratches if it turns on at all and then they'll offer you a price they're gonna give you ten bucks for this thing and free shipping so I guess that means lunch on gazelle all right so sound off in the comments of your favorite way to buy and sell devices and who's got the oldest phone out there anyone got me beat also like and subscribe we'll see you next time