Phone Buyback Comparison: Six Sites, Five Buyers, One Date

• One device: Apple iPhone 13, 128 GB, fully working, no SIM or network lock.

• One storage size, the same everywhere.

• One self-declared condition tier, in each case the site's best used-device grade.

• Every site on the same day, 13.08.2026.

• Every price read off the public quote form, before any personal data was entered anywhere.

No device was sent to anyone. Nothing was opened, nothing measured, nothing tested. Only read.

Three buyers are missing. ZOXS and Swappie sat behind a bot check that never cleared. Back Market's buyback funnel failed everywhere with „Ups! Etwas ist schiefgelaufen.“, and its pages advertised „bis zu 245 €“ on one and „bis zu 235 €“ on another the same day, carrying no storage size or condition tier. So the count is five buyers, not eight.

Clevertronic appears here with its best used-device tier, "Wie neu" (more on that below). And the last row is one company with two shop windows: the WIRKAUFENS footer names asgoodasnew electronics GmbH as the operator, and asgoodasnew's own selling portal returned the same figure for the same configuration.

Take the tier called "Gut". On reBuy's quote form it paid 136,59 €. On WIRKAUFENS' calculator, it paid 188,41 €. 51,82 € of difference, for one label.

WIRKAUFENS describes "Gut" as „einzelne, leichte und oberflächliche Kratzer, kaum sichtbar“, barely visible surface scratches. reBuy describes "Gut" as „einige offensichtliche Gebrauchsspuren“ and adds „deutliche Kratzer, die mit dem Fingernagel spürbar sind“, fingernail-deep scratches. Those are two different phones wearing one name. Line them up and WIRKAUFENS' "Gut" sits about where reBuy's "Sehr Gut" does, which paid 192,91 €. The 51,82 € gap shrinks to about 4 €.

Germany's Verbraucherzentrale says as much (dated 04.03.2026): check what a platform means by "Wie neu" or "Gut" before you sell. The same trap runs the other way when buying; see refurbished condition grades apart in their own piece.

At reBuy, the worse surface also governs. Moving the display to "Wie Neu" while the back and frame stayed at "Sehr Gut" moved nothing. Only when both surfaces sat at "Wie Neu" did it climb to 202,82 €.

Not one of the five was binding.

reBuy labels the amount „Unser vorläufiges Angebot:“, our provisional offer. refurbed calls its number an estimated sale price and adds that the price is not final. 123verkaufen answers in its own FAQ with one word, „unverbindlich“, non-binding. t-online, citing the German press agency dpa, reports: the final buyback value is only settled once the buyer has the device in hand.

Going the other way, it looks different. Clevertronic's terms call your submission a „verbindliches Kaufangebot“, a binding offer to sell, and WIRKAUFENS' terms put it more bluntly: „Das Angebot des Verkäufers an WIRKAUFENS ist verbindlich.“ You are bound. The site is not. That asymmetry is the real story here, not the 33,28 €.

If the inspected condition differs from what you declared, a revised offer arrives by email, and if you ignore it, the five split three ways. At WIRKAUFENS no contract is formed without your express agreement, and reBuy handles electronics the same way and ships the phone back. Clevertronic instead assumes you meant to accept, refurbed accepts the second offer automatically, and 123verkaufen's terms go furthest: after up to three reminders across a month they reserve the right to buy the device „stillschweigend“, tacitly, at the proposed amount.

There is no statutory safety net either. The right of withdrawal under § 312g BGB protects mainly the buyer in a distance contract; here the site is the buyer, you the seller, so an automatic withdrawal in your favour does not apply. What protects you sits in the terms, not in the statute.

reBuy asks for maximum capacity and cuts hard at 80 percent. Clevertronic folds „Akku mindestens bei 81 %“ into its functionality question. 123verkaufen wants at least 85 percent. WIRKAUFENS describes the battery in prose with no number. And refurbed never asks.

So the same phone at 82 percent is paid in full at two sites, a downgrade at one, and a non-question at another. Those are each site's own criteria, not a measurement. What battery health means when you buy is covered in our piece on refurbished battery quality.

refurbed paid 199,69 € for "Sehr gut" and only 188,72 € for the better tier "Exzellent". Nearly 11 € less for the better-described phone. Why that happens, we honestly don't know, and won't guess in print.

At Clevertronic, "Neu" and "Wie neu" pay exactly the same: 222,00 €, the figure that also tops the table above. Six labels, five prices, and the best used tier is worth nothing next to sealed-new. Anyone weighing those two is wasting an afternoon.

This is the awkward part for a comparison site. The Verbraucherzentrale advises against buyback portals as a category (dated 09.02.2026): the market is not transparent, and a private sale through classifieds usually nets more money.

That is probably right. It just costs you something else: photos, a listing, the shipping risk. You get no buyer protection either. A buyback site takes that work off your hands, and pays less.

According to Bitkom (15.04.2026), German households sit on around 167 million unused phones, and 86 percent of people own at least one. Most of them will never be sold, they stay in a drawer. We looked at what actually happens to those phones in Germany, and for handsets with no buyback value left there is the recycling route and its own differences.

You will recognise the same names from the buying side in our comparison of Back Market, refurbed and rebuy.

Don't chase the site with the biggest number on its homepage. Find the tier that actually describes your device, then read two sentences in the terms: what happens when a revised offer arrives, and what happens if you say nothing. Those two sentences are worth more than the 33,28 €.

And since plenty need a replacement exactly when the old one goes out the door, our guide to buying a refurbished iPhone walks through what to check.

All prices as of 13.08.2026, read off the sites' own public quote forms. Buyback prices are recalculated daily, so these figures are a snapshot of that one day and not a standing ranking.