Check Your Own IMEI Before You Sell the Phone
Sellers check last, if at all. Doing it first is what gets you the higher price and the fewer disputes.
Buyers have been trained to check. Sellers, mostly, have not, and the result is a familiar scene: a deal that collapses at the kitchen table because the phone turns out to be locked to a network nobody remembered, or because the previous Apple ID was never signed out. Running your own IMEI before the listing goes up turns those surprises into things you fixed a week ago.
Then clear the account side, which is what actually strands buyers. On iPhone: sign out of iCloud, turn off Find My and erase the device, then confirm setup reaches the home screen. On Android: remove your Google account before the factory reset, in that order, or the device may demand the credentials it no longer has. Take the SIM out, and if the handset was ever issued by an employer, verify no management profile reappears after the wipe.
Start with the lock, because it is the item with a price attached. Carriers unlock their own handsets free once the device is paid off and the service window is met, and an unlocked phone is worth noticeably more than the same phone locked — the unlock is the highest-return ten minutes in the whole process. Do it before listing, then re-check the IMEI so you can state "unlocked" as a verified fact rather than a belief.
Finally, decide what to publish. Share the IMEI privately with buyers who ask — that transparency is worth real money in a market full of vague listings — but keep the full number out of the public advert, where anyone scrolling past can copy it and, in the worst case, file a false report against your phone. A screenshot of your own clean result, with the middle digits masked, gives buyers the confidence without handing the number to strangers.
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Common questions
Should I check my own IMEI before selling my phone?
Yes, and before you write the listing rather than after. It confirms the lock status you are about to advertise, catches an old blacklist report you did not know about, and lets you fix the unlock and account issues while there is no buyer waiting. It costs nothing and removes almost every reason a sale falls apart on the day.
Should I put the IMEI in my listing?
No. Give it privately to buyers who ask, but keep it out of the public advert. A published IMEI can be copied by anyone, and the realistic abuse is somebody filing a false lost-or-stolen report against a phone they never owned. Private on request is the balance that works.
Does unlocking a phone before selling increase its value?
Noticeably, because it widens the buyer pool from one network to everyone, including travellers who want a local SIM. The unlock is free from the carrier that sold the phone once it is paid off and the service window is met, so the return on the time spent is unusually good.
What do I need to do before factory-resetting the phone?
On iPhone, sign out of iCloud and turn off Find My before erasing, or Activation Lock stays armed against your Apple ID. On Android, remove your Google account first for the same reason. Then remove the SIM and memory card, and check that no work profile or management notice reappears during setup.
What if my own IMEI comes back flagged?
Find out why before you sell anything. The usual cause is an unpaid instalment balance on the account the phone was bought through, which clears when the balance is settled and the carrier withdraws the report. Selling a handset you know is flagged, without saying so, is the thing buyers open disputes about.
Should I show a buyer my check result?
It is one of the most effective things you can do. A shared result showing the device, the clean blacklist verdict and the unlocked status answers the three questions every buyer has, and it is far more persuasive than the sentence "it is all fine" in an advert.