Guide to UK : phone selling, buying and second hand stuffs

Are you planning to shift to United kingdom? Are you already in the UK or planning to visit? Then this post is for you.

Most often when we plan to travel or shift to another country the first thing we do is to change our old,slow smart phones.  If this is you and you are about to change your phone before moving to UK or if you are already in UK then hold on, read this post and decide.

Here, in the UK, the second hand electronics are really good and are valued unlike in India. They test and rate your smart phones or tabs or any electronic items related to entertainment like headphones, keyboards, laptops or even pedometer into three category based on the quality of the product we sell-"A" "B" "C".

If the phone or tab or whatever doesn't have scratches and is along with all accessories including the original box then they rate it "A". The box that we get when we buy the electronics can add value to it when we sell them here. So what you need to understand is that it's better to carry the box along, in case you change your mind to sell it and get a new one you will get a good cost.

The ones without box and in a good condition is marked "B" and the one with scratches is marked as "C".

As a seller: we can either get the money they are ready to pay as cash or get it as store credits. Obviously, the store credit will be more than what they want to give in cash. Store credit can be used to get something else from the same store.

As a buyer : when we want to buy some expensive electronic item and don't have enough money in hand we can confidently buy it in second hand here. If we are okay with the cost that they have coated for "A" grades then we'll and good,cue get the item that looks like new, in original box, but the only thing is someone would have used it before.

Another thing that confuses Indians when they try buying second hand phones is the word "unlocked". The concept of contract is not available in India as much as I know so I'm guessing that even if such a concept exists it's not popular. But here they give phones right from iPhone, in contract basis. Different service providers give you the phone at different monthly rent for the contract. Which means if you are opting to get an iPhone 6 with EE contract, you will have to pay a very less amount to buy the phone and for the rest of the term mentioned in contract you need to pay the monthly rent to use EEs service. There are lot of other benefits the service provider gives along with the phone like net packs and call packs. Names of a few service providers here are orange, EE, O2. So when you go to the second hand mobile sales shop and see these words on the phone that means the phone is under can use only the specified provider. I am not sure how legal it is to unlock a phone, you got to check that if you are going for an unlocked phone. But you can check of "any sim" phones.

       The shops that I have seen who do the second hand selling and buying properly are GAME and CEx. CEx has a site where you can check the rate for which they take your device and sell a device you need: webuy.co.uk.

My personal experience with CEx was pretty good. I sold my Samsung S2, without box or any other accessories as "B" grade for 70 in store credits and got a nexus 4 "A" grade with original box and accessories for 155 pounds.

So, what have you planned? To change your phone before coming here or to come here and get a good trade with it?

           

When I talk about phone I thought I will also make a mention about how I got my SIM card, if you are wondering about it. I came here and got a LYCA sim for 2 pounds. No identity proof was asked to give me a SIM card and you get it everywhere even in pound land. I chose LYCA because they let you call India at 1p, not paise but Brit p, per minute. Here the denomination after 1 pound is called p.

There is also a site to buy and sell other stuffs named gumtree. There you can get couch or anything you want. There is also a column called freebies where people who are immediately leaving the place post their stuffs to be given for free. 

Also, here there is a good practice of leaving good stuffs outside house when you leave, if you don't need them. Whoever wants will come and take it. So when you find something kept outside a house enquire and take it if you need it. I have even seen couches kept outside. This is not a low thing to do here. So when you vacate if you don't need something that's in good condition and don't have the time to sell it keep it outside the house and leave. It might help someone else.

Hope this article was helpful. Let me know if you want to know about something else.