Inspect in person

Bring

• A charging cable and a power bank (dead units get "tested" by nobody)
• Your SIM card for phones, a disc you own for consoles, a controller you trust
• A flashlight (your other phone) for ports, lenses and frame edges
• The playbook checklist open on your phone
• Cash in an envelope, exact amount plus your walk-away number, counted at home

Order

Identity first: is it the exact model and storage the ceiling is for? Settings → About settles every argument. Then locks: iCloud / Google / carrier / bans. Then function: screen, cameras, buttons, ports, drive, fan. Then cosmetics last, because cosmetics only change the price; the first three decide whether there is a deal at all.

Check the parts that cost money to fix before the parts that are cheap. A cracked back glass, a bent HDMI port and a drifting stick are the three that turn a flip into a loss.

The reset

Every unit gets signed out and reset in front of you, before money. Phones: sign out of iCloud / remove the Google account, then Erase All Content and Settings, then set it up on your SIM. Consoles: remove users and factory reset. Sellers who "will do it when they get home" keep the unit.

If a phone asks for the previous owner's account after a reset, it is locked. Hand it back.

Say the price after, not before

Do the checks with your mouth shut about money. Then state one number: the ask if it passed everything, or the ask minus the repair you found ("the stick drifts, that is $30 to fix, I can do $140"). One number, said once, calm. Most sellers take it. If not, the walk-away number in your envelope is your answer, and it is fine to use it.

Never

• Pay a deposit, ever
• Pay before the reset
• Accept "it works, I just cannot show you right now"
• Let a seller "help" with your phone or read a code to them
• Argue. If it is not the deal, it is not the deal