Refurb

Work refurb lots

Buying one used phone is a transaction. Buying thirty is an operation — and the only number that tells you whether it worked is the one for the whole lot, not for any single unit in it.

1. Turn the add-on on

   Refurb lots is an add-on, off by default — most shops do not buy by the lot, and the ones that do not should not have the extra screens in their way.

2. Register the lot and what it cost

   One lot, one total cost, however many units. From here every unit inside it carries its share, so you never have to reconstruct at the end what you paid per device.

3. Triage unit by unit

   As you go through the box, each device gets a destination and a grade: resale, refurbish, or donor. This is the step that turns a pile of phones into a plan.

4. Harvest from the donors

   From a device marked donor, pull the parts that are good and send them to stock. The unit stops being a phone and becomes the four or five pieces it was really worth.

5. Refurbish and finalise

   Start the refurb on the units you are fixing up, and finalise when they are ready to sell. Then look at the lot: what it cost, what came out of it, and whether you would buy that lot again.