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# **There are nearly three old phones in every home. Here’s how to get more of them traded in**

UK households hold millions of unused phones worth real money. A firm offer based on the phone’s real condition gives people a reason to sell, and gives you stock you can count on.

**Trade-in and resale**3 November 2026·3 min read

Most people have an old phone in a drawer. Usually more than one. Research for the recycling campaign Material Focus found that UK households hold **nearly three unused mobile phones each** on average ([Material Focus, January 2024](https://materialfocus.org.uk/?press-releases=bank-between-1300-and-6330-by-re-selling-your-unused-tech)).

Those phones aren’t worthless. Looking at selling prices on eBay and Gumtree, the same research put an unwanted phone at somewhere between **£75 and £554**, depending on its age and brand. Across all the electricals people have stopped using, it counted **880 million unused items** in UK homes, an average of 31 per household.

For a trade-in or refurbishment business, that’s a lot of stock sitting idle. Supply of good second-hand phones is already tight, as we covered in [why trade-in quotes get cut on arrival](https://getlustre.co.uk/blog/trade-in-quotes-cut-on-arrival). So why don’t more of those phones get sold?

## Why phones stay in the drawer

Some of it is inertia. But for a phone that could be worth a few hundred pounds, inertia is often covering for uncertainty:

- **“I don’t know what it’s worth.”** An online quote depends on the customer grading their own phone, and most people have no idea whether theirs counts as “good” or “fair”.
- **“The offer will drop when they see it.”** Plenty of people have heard of a trade-in where the price was cut once the phone arrived. If the number on the screen might not be the number they’re paid, why bother?
- **“It’s a hassle.”** Finding a box, printing a label and waiting for an inspection is a lot of effort for an uncertain amount of money.

Every one of those comes down to the same thing: the customer can’t trust the first offer, because it isn’t based on the phone.

## Make the first offer one you can stand behind

If you can see the phone’s real condition before you quote, you can make a firm offer. With a [Lustre](https://getlustre.co.uk/trade-in) check, the customer opens a link on the phone they want to sell and, in about two minutes in its own browser, with no app:

1. **Photographs the screen in a mirror**, while the phone shows a one-time code issued to this check.
2. **Photographs the back and camera**, with the case off.
3. **Screenshots the IMEI**, which is checked against the make and model they said they were selling.

You get the damage analysis and an independent IMEI lookup by API or webhook, and you can price on that rather than on a guess. The offer the customer sees is much closer to the offer they’ll be paid, and you can check the phone in the post against the one you quoted for.

## A better pitch to the customer

That changes what you can say to someone with a phone in the drawer. Not “tell us what condition it’s in and we’ll see”, but “check it now and get an offer based on your phone”. It’s two minutes on the phone they’re holding, rather than a form full of guesses and a worry about what happens on arrival.

It also gives the customer more reason to act now. Phones lose value as they age, and the research above found that newer, better-known phones are worth the most. An offer they can trust is an easy reason to stop putting it off.

## Getting started

One API call creates a check and returns a link. Put it in your quote journey, or have Lustre text it to customers who’ve started a quote but not finished. You only pay for checks that are completed.

If you’d like to talk about adding condition checks to your trade-in journey, [get in touch](https://getlustre.co.uk/contact). For how checking the IMEI helps keep stolen phones out of your stock, read [know which phone you’re dealing with](https://getlustre.co.uk/blog/verify-the-imei).

## Sources

- Material Focus, [Bank between £1,300 and £6,330 by re-selling your unused tech](https://materialfocus.org.uk/?press-releases=bank-between-1300-and-6330-by-re-selling-your-unused-tech), 31 January 2024. Survey by Opinium of 2,000 UK adults, 5 to 9 January 2024, with prices from eBay and Gumtree.

## **Check a phone’s condition without seeing it **

Lustre checks the screen, back and IMEI from the customer’s own browser in about two minutes, and sends you the result by API.

[**See how Lustre works for trade-in and resale**](https://getlustre.co.uk/trade-in) [** Talk to us **](https://getlustre.co.uk/contact)

## **More from the blog **

- [8 October 2026<h3>**Why trade-in quotes get cut on arrival, and how to quote on real condition**</h3>](https://getlustre.co.uk/blog/trade-in-quotes-cut-on-arrival)
- [27 October 2026<h3>**Stolen phones are sold on. Know which phone you’re dealing with**</h3>](https://getlustre.co.uk/blog/verify-the-imei)

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