Remember These 5 Rules When Selling Your Old Devices

In an era when we are flooded in various new devices from tech firms around the world, we’re likely to switch to a new phone or laptop quickly, which means we’re selling out old tech more.

And these are five vital rules to remember when you sell your old device.

1. Take enough photos

Don’t be lazy to take well-lit pictures of your device if you want to sell at the best price possible, especially when you sell it online. Not only do photos help potential buyers know what they’re getting, but they also ensure for you including the device’s condition before it goes to a buyer’s hand like scuffs and marks.

You should take photos from every angle, with any noticeable damage. This is because when you send the device to a dishonest buyer, they may swap it with a damaged one of the same model, asking you for a refund while keeping your device. Without photographic proof, you can become the victim of this scam. Also, for this reason, take notes and photos of the device’s serial numbers in case the buyer try to swap the device.

2. Make sure you have backed up everything you need

It may be time-consuming to back up your files, but it’s well worth doing if you don’t want to lose your important files. Now you have improved broadband, higher cellular speeds, and easier access to cloud services to make your backup process faster.

And besides major documents like photos and work spreadsheet, remember to back up your messages, pictures that you posted on social media, and whatever’s not already on the cloud.

If there’s time, you may also want to check every single app on your device and go through to find any data that you haven’t backed up yet. And lastly, double-check to make sure literally everything has been backed up.

3. Deregister your devices and software

With the help of cloud services as well as various Google, Apple, and Microsoft logins we can carry with us, it’s much easier now to reinstall apps and software. However, it’s still essential to ensure you’ve got the physical media or downloads codes that you need and where you got the software.

Furthermore, you should deregister web and software accounts when you can, from both security and logistical view. While apps like Photoshop and iTunes limit how many devices you can authorize, logging out of Netflix and Facebook, etc., means there are no digital trails left behind.

Usually, you can do this after selling the device, just make sure you do it. If you’re selling an iPhone, you should deregister your handset from Apple’s Find my iPhone service.

4. Clean your devices properly

Cleaning can take time to and you may be too lazy to do that, but if you want to push the price higher, you should clean your device. This is, in fact, an essential part when you sell anything.

Potential buyers give extra attention to the current condition of whatever gadgets they’re considering to buy, so cleaning can make a huge difference. Dirt and dust make your device look old and less powerful than it is, and do you want that?

Also, cleaning up helps you find out any damages or marks that you didn’t notice before, which you can add to your listings. You should declare such defects up front, even if that may bring down the price a little bit, don’t try to be deceptive about this.

As time-consuming as it may sound, cleaning up shouldn’t take an entire day, and you should also check the level of water resistance of your device.

5. Erase everything properly

You don’t want the new owner to be able to browse through your photos, documents or even log in your social network accounts, do you? There must be a large amount of data after the time you use it, so it’s necessary that it be erased.

Thankfully, software developers now enable a full factory reset of your devices so that you can wipe all the data. It’s not that time-consuming, so don’t be lazy.