Sell a Broken Samsung Phone in the UK for Cash (2026)

That Cracked Galaxy Isn't Junk — Here's What It's Actually Worth

The Samsung with the spider-webbed screen in your bedside drawer? The one with the battery that dies by lunchtime, or the camera that went foggy after it met a puddle? Most people write those off as worthless. That instinct costs UK sellers real money every year.

A broken Samsung Galaxy still has value — often more than you would guess — as long as it clears three simple hurdles. A cracked or faulty Galaxy sells for roughly a quarter of its pristine value: a broken Galaxy S23 Ultra is still worth around £80, an S24 Ultra around £110, and a broken S25 Ultra more again — provided it powers on, has no Samsung or Google account lock, and is not blacklisted.

Here is the short version before we get into the detail:

The "working" figures are the pristine "up to" prices — the ceiling a mint, boxed, fully functional phone reaches. The broken figures are estimates for a phone that powers on but has a cracked screen or a fault. Your exact number depends on the model, storage and the specific damage, so treat these as a guide and check your live quote before you commit. It takes about 30 seconds and the price is locked for 21 days.

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What a Broken Samsung Galaxy Is Actually Worth

TechLoop grades every device on a four-step ladder — Pristine, Good, Fair, Poor — and the price steps down with it. Pristine is the headline "up to" price. Good is roughly 85% of that, Fair roughly 70%, and Poor (the grade a genuinely broken phone lands in) roughly a quarter. A cracked or faulty phone almost always sits in Poor, but it is Poor, not zero.

Here is how that ladder plays out across the Galaxy Ultra range, which is where the biggest money sits:

Two things to take from this table. First, the Poor-grade figures are real payouts, not scrap value — a broken S24 Ultra at around £110 is more than a lot of working budget phones fetch in perfect condition. Second, these are estimates that move with the market and depend on storage and the exact fault, so the printed number is a starting point, not a promise. The only figure that counts is the live one.

If you want to see it for your own phone, TechLoop buys the whole range: sell a broken Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, a broken Galaxy S23 Ultra, or the newer Galaxy S25 Ultra, all in about half a minute.

Why a broken Samsung is still worth money

The value has nothing to do with goodwill and everything to do with economics. The UK's refurbished-phone market is enormous, and a cracked Galaxy is inventory, not rubbish. A screen swap is a routine job for a technician with wholesale parts. A tired battery is a fifteen-minute replacement. Even when a phone is too far gone to refurbish, its logic board, cameras, chassis and smaller components carry value on the parts market.

Samsung's own repair pricing sets the floor. Because an official screen or battery replacement is not cheap, there is always someone willing to buy your damaged phone, fix it themselves, and resell it. That demand is exactly why your broken Galaxy is worth something today.

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The Three Things That Have to Be True

This is where we have to be straight with you, because it is the part that catches people out. A broken Samsung is sellable only if all three of these are true. If any one fails, we genuinely cannot buy it — not "for less", but not at all.

1. It has to power on. The phone must switch on and stay on long enough for us to test it, read the IMEI, and complete a data wipe. A phone that is completely dead cannot be graded, cannot be verified, and cannot be legally resold. If it will not turn on, no buyback service should be quoting you a price on it — and we will not.

2. It has to be free of account locks. Samsung phones can be tied to a Samsung account and a Google account, both of which lock the device to you. A phone that is still signed in is useless to the next owner — they cannot set it up. You have to sign out of your Samsung account, remove your Google account, and switch off Find My Mobile before you send it. We will do our own GDPR-compliant wipe on arrival, but we cannot remove your account for you.

3. It cannot be blacklisted. If a phone has been reported lost or stolen, or blocked by a network for unpaid finance, it is blacklisted and barred from use on UK networks. We cannot buy blacklisted phones — that is a legal line, not a negotiating position. If you are unsure, you can check the IMEI status before you send it.

Clear all three and the door is open, however cracked, faulty or water-marked the phone looks. Fail one and the honest answer is that it is not a device we can pay for. We would rather tell you that up front than waste your postage.

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What Still Counts as Sellable

Assuming the phone powers on, is signed out and is clean, almost any physical or functional fault is fine. Here is a plain rundown of what we take and what we do not:

A few notes worth having. A cracked screen where the touch still works is the least damaging fault of the lot — it is cosmetic until it stops responding, which is why it keeps a phone near the top of the Poor band. Water damage is the wild card: a phone that got damp and still works fully is barely marked down, whilst one that boots but has a dead speaker or a flickering panel drops further. And a swollen battery is worth flagging clearly in your description, both for an accurate quote and for safe postage.

The pattern is simple: faults reduce the price, but rarely to nothing, as long as the phone is alive and clean.

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How the Grading and the Quote Actually Work

We keep this deliberately transparent, because surprise deductions after you have posted your phone are the single biggest complaint people have about buyback services. Here is exactly how it goes.

You describe the phone honestly. When you get your quote, you tell us the condition — cracked screen, battery health, any faults. The price you are shown reflects what you describe. Our grading definitions spell out in plain English what Pristine, Good, Fair and Poor actually mean, so you can grade your own device accurately before you send it. Two minutes reading that page saves any awkwardness later.

Your price locks for 21 days. The online quote is guaranteed for three full weeks. Get a quote today, sleep on it, dig the charger out of a drawer, and the number will not have moved when you come back. Note that this is separate from the free postage label, which expires after 7 days once it is emailed to you, so post the phone reasonably promptly after you accept.

Postage is free. Once you accept, we email you a pre-paid Royal Mail tracked label. You pay nothing to ship it.

We inspect it honestly. When the phone arrives, we check it against your description. If it matches, you get the quoted price — no games, no last-minute trims. If the damage is genuinely worse than described, you get a revised offer with a clear explanation of why the grade changed.

You are never trapped. If you do not like a revised offer, you decline it, and we post the phone back to you free of charge. No obligation, no fee, no hard sell. That free return is the whole point — it means describing your phone accurately costs you nothing and hiding a fault gains you nothing.

You get paid the same working day. Once the inspection is confirmed, payment lands in your bank account the same working day, by bank transfer. If you would rather deal face to face, our walk-in store in Swindon pays cash on the spot; everything else is postal and covers the whole of the UK.

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How to Prepare a Broken Samsung for Sale

A little prep protects your data and stops your quote getting downgraded on arrival. If the screen still responds, this takes five minutes.

1. Back up anything you want to keep. Photos, messages, authenticator apps — copy them to another device or to the cloud first. Everything gets wiped, and there is no getting it back afterwards.

2. Sign out of your Samsung account. Go to Settings, tap your name at the top, scroll down and sign out. This is one of the two account locks that will otherwise block the sale.

3. Turn off Find My Mobile and remove your Google account. In Settings, disable Find My Mobile, then go to Settings, Accounts and backup, Manage accounts, and remove your Google account. Removing the Google account before you reset is what clears the reset-protection lock.

4. Factory reset. Settings, General management, Reset, Factory data reset. We run our own GDPR-compliant wipe on every device we receive, but you should always reset first anyway — belt and braces with your own data.

5. Remove the SIM and any memory card. These are yours. We are buying the phone, not your storage.

6. Note the faults you will declare. Cracked screen, battery health percentage, dead speaker — whatever is wrong, have it ready so your quote is accurate from the start.

If the screen is too smashed to navigate, you can still remove the account locks remotely from a computer: sign in at the Samsung account website and at your Google account to sign the phone out and disable Find My Mobile, then the phone can be reset on arrival.

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Common Mistakes When Selling a Broken Samsung

Assuming "broken" means "worthless". This is the big one. A cracked Galaxy S23 Ultra is not scrap — it is roughly £80. Binning it or shoving it back in the drawer is throwing money away. Every month it sits there, it is worth a little less, not more.

Forgetting the account locks. A phone that arrives still signed into a Samsung or Google account cannot be processed. Sign out and reset before you post, or your sale stalls the moment we open the box.

Describing the damage as better than it is. Calling a cracked screen "good" does not get you a higher final price — it gets you a revised offer after inspection and a delay to your payment. Describe it accurately and the quoted price sails through. Honesty is the fast route to getting paid, not the slow one.

Trying to DIY-repair it first. A cheap third-party screen or battery can actually reduce the value, because non-original parts get flagged during inspection and can upset features like the display calibration. Sell it as-is and let the refurbisher handle the repair.

Not checking whether it powers on before quoting. If the phone is truly dead, no honest service can buy it. Confirm it switches on before you spend time on a quote.

Selling to the first place you look. Prices vary between services. Spend five minutes comparing — start with a broken Samsung quote on TechLoop and check it against one or two others.

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The Bottom Line

A broken Samsung Galaxy is not rubbish and it is not a lost cause. If it powers on, is signed out of your Samsung and Google accounts, and is not blacklisted, it is worth real money — around £80 for a cracked S23 Ultra, £110 for an S24 Ultra, and more for the newer flagships. Those are estimates, and the honest, exact figure only comes from a live quote on your specific model and storage.

The alternative is watching it lose value in a drawer. It will not repair itself, and it will not be worth more next year. The grading is transparent, the postage is free, the price is locked for 21 days, and if a revised offer ever comes back that you do not like, the phone comes home free of charge — so there is no downside to simply finding out the number.

Sell your broken Samsung phone and see what it is worth in about 30 seconds. If the figure works for you, you get paid the same working day it is checked. If it does not, you have lost nothing but half a minute. Not a Samsung in the drawer but an iPhone? We buy broken iPhones too, and there is a full guide to selling a water-damaged phone if that is your situation.

Prices checked July 2026 and shown as "up to" pristine figures with estimated broken-grade values; actual offers depend on the exact model, storage and condition. Every online quote locks for 21 days — check your live quote for current pricing before you sell.