Buying a mobile phone on eBay

Thinking of buying a mobile on eBay? Our review will tell you a few things based on our experience of both buying and selling. First of all eBay can be a great marketplace for connecting those selling with those buying and give each a good deal. Declaring an interest, we have sold phones via eBay for many years and still do, we specialise in sim free phones (that is selling just the phones without sim cards, contracts or network tie-ins) these tend to be the most expensive type of phone but also give you the most flexibility for the future potentially. We're often asked why our phones are so expensive and sadly it's not because we have a large profit margin, so it's worth seeing the explanations of why there are many listings offering seemingly identical phones often substantially cheaper.
Network stock
In fact it costs networks or suppliers money to add network branding or locks to phones but generally this makes them worth less when you are looking to buy or sell the phone, the fact it says "O2" when you switch the phone on or has an "Orange" badge on the back of the phone can be just annoying or pointless if you're not using that network at the time, but locking the phone can stop you using it at all on other networks unless someone can unlock it for you. We often get told a high-street retailer is doing a phone cheaper for "just the phone" but what they mean is a pay as you go phone, this may mean it has been network branded or locked