If you are in the business of selling used iPhones and Samsung devices, you understand that whenever you source inventory you have to weigh the trade-off between price and grade. Whether you opt for higher grade devices that cost more or lower grade devices that cost less depends on your customer base. Either option is good as long as your choices enable you to turn a profit. In order to satisfy the varying demands of our buyers, LogicalWireless offers a precise grading scale that enables our buyers to pick exactly where on the price/grade spectrum they want to operate.
It is interesting to note that buyers from different geographies make very different decisions when it comes to the price/grade trade-off. These trends likely indicate differences in demand in various geographies. In this blog post, we share some of our observations across specific geographies. We stop short of speculating about what these choices say about each geography, but we thought the observations were interesting nonetheless.
South America
We’ve observed strong variances within the South American region. Buyers in the Brazilian market tend to seek out very high grades. This includes immaculate-grade A2 and B1 devices. In contrast, our experience shows us that buyers in Colombia are often satisfied with used devices of C1 quality.
Africa
It should be noted that Africa is one of the regions where we’re seeing the most growth at the moment. One hot spot for wholesale cell phones within the African continent is Nigeria. What we’ve found is that buyers from Nigeria typically purchase phones that are graded either C1 or C2. These grades represent devices that have been used or heavily used.
The Middle East
We’ve found the Middle East region to be a bit of a mixed bag in terms of grading preferences. You may know that Dubai has historically been a free-trade gateway for the trade of wholesale cell phones throughout the Middle East and Africa. We’re aware that most of the devices purchased by clients in Dubai don’t actually stay there. Most are exported to other parts of the world via Dubai. This explains why buyers in Dubai often source a wide range of grades. By contrast, buyers in Iraq, another active region for the trading of used iPhones, prefer lightly used devices of higher quality. The most often requested grades in this region are B1 and C1, indicating lightly used/used devices.
Hong Kong
If you have been in this business for long, you probably already know that buyers in Hong Kong tend to focus on damaged and defective devices. This is due to the fact that these buyers typically sell to smaller buyers in mainland China that repair devices and then redistribute them throughout the world. Phones graded PGL, PTID, and PLB are commonly purchased by our buyers in Hong Kong.
Europe
Europe is another region, like Dubai, where we see a broad range of preferences when it comes to grade. However, certain pockets of Europe have very specific demand trends. For instance, we have noticed that buyers in Ukraine have a strong desire for high-quality devices graded A2 and B1.
The United States
The United States, even more so than Dubai and Europe, is a melting pot in terms of demand. Our experience is that buyers are looking for everything from new to damaged devices. Perhaps this is not surprising given the role of the United States in the global economy.
Keeping an Eye on Continued and Emerging Trends
LogicalWireless stays focused on the trends we see emerging among our clients because doing so helps us bring better value to the table. We closely watch trends to adjust our sourcing, supply, and grading practices to meet the needs of our clients. Our strategies are constantly expanding because we’re constantly receiving new business from companies seeking dependable, consistent inventory for devices throughout the grading spectrum.
Our buyers can have confidence in the fact that LogicalWireless is paying attention. We go to great lengths to expand and adjust our inventory to meet the specific needs of our buyers from around the world. All of the devices in our LogicalWireless Direct inventory undergo our stringent testing and grading process to ensure that our buyers receive consistent, predictable quality.
