If you have ever looked at two identical phones online and wondered why one is fifty pounds cheaper than the other, the answer is almost always the grade. It is the single most useful thing to understand when you are buying pre owned, and it is also the thing most shops explain badly.
Here is how we do it at Mintro.
We use three grades, not ten
Some places run six or seven grades with names like Pristine, Excellent Plus and Very Good. In our experience that helps nobody. You end up guessing what the difference is between Very Good and Good, and so does the person selling it to you.
We use three. A, B and C. That is it.
Grade A, like new
Pristine. No scratches, no marks, and the screen is flawless. If you held it next to a brand new one in the shop you would struggle to tell them apart. This is the grade to pick if the way it looks matters to you as much as the way it works.
Grade B, good
Light wear. There may be faint scratches, but you have to look for them, usually by tilting it under a light. From normal distance it looks like a phone somebody has simply been careful with.
Grade B is where most of our customers land, and for good reason. The saving against Grade A is real and the difference in the hand is small. If you are going to put a case and a screen protector on it anyway, Grade B is the sensible buy.
Grade C, fair
Visible scratches, dents or dings. It has had a life and it looks like it. What it is not is broken. A Grade C device is fully working and carries exactly the same guarantee as a Grade A. It is the best value on the shelf if you care about what it does more than what it looks like.
The grade is about looks. It is never about whether it works.
This is the bit worth remembering. A Grade C is not a phone with a dodgy battery or a soft button. Every single item we sell, whatever grade, goes through the same testing before it goes anywhere near a shelf.
Tech is tested with Blackbelt software, which checks the parts you cannot see by looking. Battery health, cycle count, cameras, speakers, microphones, charging, every button. If something fails, it does not get graded, it gets repaired or it does not get sold.
Battery health is stated on every listing as a percentage, and so is the cycle count where we have it. No hiding it in the small print.
Every grade gets the same guarantee
Two years on most items, whether you buy Grade A or Grade C. The guarantee covers the thing working, and a scratch on a Grade C was never a fault, it was the deal.
You also get 28 days to change your mind under our Buyback, and if you would rather spread the cost you can reserve an item with a deposit and pay weekly.
So which grade should you buy?
Buying it for yourself and you like your things to look sharp, take Grade A. Buying it for yourself and you are practical about it, take Grade B, that is what most of us would buy. Buying a first phone for a child, a spare, a work handset or a console that is going to live under a telly, take Grade C and put the difference in your pocket.
Whichever you pick, the photos on the listing are of the actual item, not a stock picture. What you see is the one that turns up.
Still not sure? Walk into any of our eight stores and ask to see both. We would rather spend five minutes with you than sell you the wrong thing.