My Experience Selling My Smart Phone to MaxBack

We all know the hassles of trying to resell a cell phone on your own... Posting on Craigslist and having strangers stopping by (if they do not leave you hanging) and risking them robbing or low-balling you. There is always Ebay, but you have to pay a listing fee and share a percentage of the final sale of the device with them.

I then searched on Google for sites that buy back cell phones and other in-demand electronic items. That's when I came across MaxBack at http://www.maxback.com/. I had switched cell phone carriers on the summer of 2014 from Verizon to AT&T. The Samsung Galaxy S5 Active phone was available on AT&T for $199.99 with a new 2-year contract, which was of interest to me. After having the phone and their new plan for a couple of weeks, I realized that Verizon couldn't be beat as far as plans went. I was “grandfathered in”, as they say, in that my unlimited data plan couldn't be topped. So, I returned to Verizon and purchased the Motorola Droid Maxx. I have a thing for rugged phones as am a clumsy owner of my belongings. Therefore, I was left with this wonderful Samsung phone that deserved to be owned by someone else that could better benefit from it.

I was a little skeptical that MaxBack would even give me anywhere near as close to an offer than the $199.99 paid for it to AT&T... To my surprise, they quoted the phone in “as new” condition, for $325.00. They even sweetened the deal with an additional $5.00 bonus for printing a shipping label off of their site, which I used to ship the phone in to them right away. The quote and offer to buy the phone is good for 30 days. Otherwise, you'd have to re-quote the phone and obtain a lesser price. I had also obtained other quotes from AT&T's own buyback site at https://buyback.att.com/#/start-a-buyback/discover-device-value and Gazelle's at https://www.gazelle.com/, but their offers could not beat what MaxBack was willing to pay.

I proceeded to print the label and packaged the cell phone in its original factory packaging and put it in another box surrounded by old newspaper to cushion it in transit. Otherwise, if the device arrives to MaxBack damaged, they will reappraise the phone and give me a much lower offer amount. I had read many reviews online about dissatisfied users of the service and MaxBack's rebuttals stated that the customer either hadn't packaged the phone properly, or that they have misrepresented the actual condition of the device.

Once I had shipped the cell phone to MaxBack, I tracked its progress on their website and they updated me that they had received the phone and were inspecting it. As stated by me, they also found that the phone was in the “as new” condition previously stated and notified me that the check was in the mail. They estimated the check to arrive to me in 5 to 7 days, but I got it about 4. The check was good on its funds and my bank honored it upon deposit. I was able to pay off my contract cancellation fee with AT&T with the sale of the Galaxy and move on with my return to Verizon.

I definitely recommend the use of MaxBack's service to sell cell phones to, but it's always wise to also obtain other quotes from legitimate buyback sites in an effort to obtain the best amount in return.