Selling a phone with a cracked screen: is that possible?

A crack in the display feels like a total loss. It is not. Devices are refurbished anyway, and a cracked screen is one of the most predictable cases in that process.

Is a repair worth it before the sale?

In most cases no. You pay for the repair at the end customer price, while the purchase price only rises by a fraction of that amount. That rarely adds up. It is different if you want to keep using the device for a while anyway: then you are repairing it for yourself, not for the sale. What determines the price of a screen replacement is covered in What does a screen replacement cost.

First: get to your data

As long as the device still starts and the touchscreen at least partly responds, make a backup, just as you would otherwise. If the touch no longer responds at all, there are two routes:

• Backup via the computer: connect the device. If you have to confirm Trust This Computer on the phone, you need working input for that.
• Connect a mouse or a keyboard: with a suitable adapter many devices can also be operated with an external mouse. That gets you through the confirmation dialogues.

If nothing works at all, data recovery helps. What else helps in this situation is covered in Phone will not switch on any more.

The step you must not skip

Sign the device out of your account. Without this step it cannot be used for the purchase. This also works remotely from a computer, even if the phone can no longer be operated. The instructions for that are in Removing the activation lock. And even if you can no longer delete the data: during refurbishment every device is completely reset.

Being honest pays off

State the damage precisely in the valuation: cracked glass, image visible or not, touch working or not. Those three details make the difference in the grading. A defect you keep quiet about will be noticed during the inspection anyway and only leads to a correction. Start at Sell your phone, or put the amount straight towards a new device with trade-in.

Conclusion

A repair only pays off if you keep the device. For a sale the rule is: back up your data, sign out of your account, declare the damage honestly. The rest happens during refurbishment, and your broken phone becomes a working device for someone else again.