/
14-day lock
Offer holds when description matches.
48-hr processing
Two business days from arrival to confirmed offer.
Free shipping
Prepaid USPS label in your inbox.
BBB 4.69
Ten years. Same Phoenix team.
SELL YOUR GALAXY S21 5G
A Galaxy S21 5G pays between $8 and $60 today, and every row in between is in the table below. Those are small numbers and there is no point pretending otherwise. This was a $799 phone in 2021 and five years is a long time in phones. It is still money for something that has been sitting in a drawer, and if yours is genuinely dead we will recycle it for free rather than talk you into shipping it for nothing.
Worth saying once: a carrier calls this a trade-in, and we call it a Buyback. The distinction is not vanity. A carrier is running a discount mechanism, so the handset itself is almost incidental and the offer is a flat number with two tick boxes on it. We are buying the phone in order to own it. That is why the grades on this page are narrow and specific, and why we would rather you ran a fingernail across the back than told us it was in nice shape. The number follows the phone, not the sale.
The thing to understand about this particular model is what the back is made of.
The Galaxy S21 is the one Samsung built with a plastic back. Not the Plus, not the Ultra, just this one. It is polycarbonate finished to look like glass, and it caught a lot of criticism at the time on an $799 phone. Five years later it changes how you should grade yourself, in both directions.
Plastic scratches far more easily than glass. A Galaxy S21 that lived in a pocket with keys will have a back covered in fine lines that the same life would never have put into a glass panel. That is the whole difference between two grades here. Average is light wear your fingernail passes straight over. Fair is wear your fingernail catches on. One row of the table apart, on a phone this cheap, is a real share of the whole thing. So run your nail across the back rather than eyeballing it.
Plastic also does not shatter. Drop a Galaxy S21+ and the glass back goes; drop a Galaxy S21 and it usually takes a scuff or a flat corner instead. Scuffs and dents are wear, not damage, and they do not make the phone Faulty. That matters more than it sounds, because the bottom row of the table is a long way down and a scuffed plastic back does not belong there.
None of which lets the phone off the crack rule, because the front of it is not plastic. The screen is Corning Gorilla Glass Victus and the three camera lens covers are glass too. A crack in the screen, a chip in a lens cover or a split in the plastic back all force Faulty on their own, however well the phone still works. Peel the screen protector off before you decide, because a cracked protector over an undamaged screen fools people in one direction and a hairline crack hiding under an intact one fools them in the other.
Two more Faulty rules to know. Anything on the phone that has stopped working, and on a Samsung that is a principle rather than a list, so a dead speaker counts the same as a dead camera. And burn-in, because this is an OLED panel like every Galaxy S ever made. The step by step burn-in check is on the Galaxy S21 FE page and it works identically here. What is not on the list is battery. There is no percentage rule on a Samsung, no health screen, nothing to look up.
If you are not sure whether this is the plain S21, hold it up. The Galaxy S21 is 6.2 inches and 169 grams, the smallest phone in the family. The Galaxy S21+ is 6.7 inches with a glass back that feels cold and hard. The Galaxy S21 FE is 6.4 inches and also plastic, so for that one you need the model number rather than the feel of it.
Unlocked pays the most here at both sizes and every grade. Sell my Galaxy S21 and where to sell a Galaxy S21 both bring back a lot of names, and at these prices the real risk is not a low quote but a quote that quietly drops after you have posted the phone. We check each one by hand within 48 hours, we tell you what we found, and you can have it back for free if you would rather. That is the version of best place to sell a used Galaxy S21 that is worth having.
LIVE PRICES
The used resale value of a Galaxy S21 5G runs from $8 for a cracked 128GB to $60 for a sealed 256GB. Almost every phone we see is somewhere between those two.
Both columns are unlocked and both are read from the live price feed each time this page loads.
| Comparison row | 128GB | 256GB |
|---|---|---|
Brand New | $50 | $60 |
Flawless | $50 | $60 |
Good | $40 | $50 |
Average | $36 | $45 |
Fair | $24 | $30 |
Faulty | $8 | $10 |
HOW IT WORKS
Pick 128GB or 256GB, your carrier and your grade. Take the case off and run a fingernail across the plastic back first, because on this phone that is what separates Average from Fair. The price you accept is held for 14 days, so there is no rush to post it.
A prepaid USPS label arrives by email. Remove your Google account from the phone, then factory reset it, and keep that order. The phone travels on its own. There is nothing to gain by sending the cable, the case or the box.
Somebody here checks the phone by hand within 48 hours of it arriving. Matching your description means the money goes the same day, by gift card, PayPal, bank transfer or check. Not matching means we write and tell you what we found, and you take the revised price or have the phone posted back free.
SPEC SHEET
| Samsung's name for it | Galaxy S21 5G |
|---|---|
| Announced | January 14, 2021 |
| On sale | January 29, 2021 |
| US model numbers | SM-G991U on carrier phones, SM-G991U1 unlocked. Both quote identically. |
| Display | 6.2-inch flat Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 2400 by 1080, adaptive up to 120Hz |
| Front glass | Corning Gorilla Glass Victus |
| Back | Plastic. This is the only Galaxy S21 with a plastic rear panel, so it is the quickest way to tell it from the S21+. |
| Frame and camera housing | Aluminum, with the camera housing cut as part of the frame |
| Rear cameras | 12MP wide, 12MP ultra wide, 64MP 3x telephoto |
| Front camera | 10MP |
| Chip in US phones | Snapdragon 888 |
| Memory | 8GB RAM |
| Storage we buy | 128GB and 256GB. No microSD slot on any Galaxy S21, so nothing can be added later. |
| Battery | 4000mAh, 25W wired and 15W wireless. Battery percentage is not part of Samsung grading. |
| Battery rule | There is not one. No 80 percent line, no health screen, nothing to check. |
| S Pen | Not supported. In this family only the S21 Ultra takes one. |
| Water and dust | IP68 |
| Weight | 169 grams, 171 on the mmWave version. The lightest phone in the family. |
| Colors | Phantom Gray, Phantom White, Phantom Violet and Phantom Pink. All four pay the same. |
GALAXY S21 5G BUYBACK QUESTIONS
It comes down to storage, carrier and condition. A 256GB unlocked in Good condition is $50, in Average $45 and in Fair $30. A 128GB with a cracked screen is $8. Use the quote box at the top of the page to get the exact number for the phone in your hand.
Fair, most likely, and Fair is a normal grade rather than a bad one. The back of this phone is plastic, and plastic marks in a way glass does not, so a fine web of scratches on a five year old S21 is ordinary rather than a sign anything is wrong.
The test is your fingernail, not your eyes. Drag it slowly across the back. If it glides over everything, that is Average, worth $45 at 256GB. If it catches and drops into the marks, that is Fair, $30. Neither one is Faulty. Faulty needs a crack or a chip somewhere, or something on the phone that has stopped working.
Feel the back panel. The Galaxy S21 is plastic, so it warms to your hand and sounds soft if you tap a fingernail on it. The Galaxy S21+ has a Gorilla Glass Victus back that stays cold and rings when you tap it. Size confirms it: 6.2 inches and 169 grams against 6.7 inches and 200 grams.
If the phone is too scuffed to judge, open Settings, About phone, Model number. SM-G991U or SM-G991U1 is this phone. SM-G996U is the S21+, SM-G990U is the S21 FE and SM-G998U is the Ultra.
Yes. It grades Faulty and it still pays: $8 at 128GB and $10 at 256GB, with free shipping both ways.
The screen is Gorilla Glass Victus, so it cracks like any other phone even though the back does not. Any crack or chip anywhere puts the phone in Faulty on its own, whether or not the touchscreen still responds. Pick Faulty at the quote step and the number will not change when we open the box.
Peel the protector off and find out, because it is worth the thirty seconds. Tempered glass protectors crack easily, that is the job they were sold to do, and the screen under them is often untouched.
With it off, tilt the phone under a lamp and look at the reflection across the glass rather than through it. Then run a fingernail over anything you spot. Gliding means a scratch and you are still Fair or better. Catching means the screen itself is cracked and the grade is Faulty. Either way, send the phone without a protector on it.
Yes, and the grade is Faulty. Samsung grading here is a principle rather than a checklist: if any part of the phone has stopped doing its job, the phone is Faulty. A camera that will not focus, a volume rocker that no longer clicks, a charging port that only works at one angle and a fingerprint reader that never recognizes you are all the same answer. At 256GB that means $10 rather than $50 in Good.
If you want to be thorough, Samsung Members has a Diagnostics tool under the Discover tab that tests each part in turn and tells you what fails.
It does. Burn-in makes a Galaxy S21 Faulty, and every Galaxy S has an OLED panel, so it can happen to this one. The usual shapes are the clock, the icons along the top and the navigation bar at the bottom. The full check, along with the things that look like burn-in but are not, is written out on the Galaxy S21 FE page. Nothing about it changes for this screen.
No, and there is nowhere on the phone to look that figure up either. Samsung grading here has no battery percentage in it at all. If you came across from one of our iPhone pages expecting that rule, leave it there.
A battery only affects the grade by breaking. If the phone cuts out while the meter still shows charge, will not charge at all, or the back panel has started to bulge, that is a failed part and the phone is Faulty for the same reason a dead speaker would be.
No, and this is the only outright no on the page. A phone that will not power up cannot be tested, so we would be inventing a price, and your photos, messages and saved passwords cannot be wiped off it while it is dark. Neither of those is something we are willing to guess at.
Try a wall charger and a known good cable for half an hour first. If it stays dead, take the free label anyway and tell us which you want: we will erase it to Department of Defense standards and recycle it at no charge, or send it straight back to you at no charge. On a phone worth this little, free recycling is often the sensible answer.
Not while payments are still running. A phone on a carrier installment plan or a lease counts as being under a financial obligation, and we cannot purchase those. Clear the balance, wait for the carrier to record it as owned, and it prices like every other S21 on this page.
No. Three separate locks can stop a sale, and any one of them stops it at every grade.
The Google account lock, or FRP, is the one people trip by accident. Take your Google account off the phone first, factory reset second. Do it in the other order and the phone will demand your password from the next person who switches it on, and it comes back to you with nothing paid. Our erase your device page has the sequence.
Knox is next. Rooting or installing custom firmware trips a counter that cannot be untripped, and a tripped Knox counter means we cannot buy the phone. Last is the IMEI, which fails if the phone was reported lost or stolen, blacklisted, or blocked by a carrier. Dial *#06# to read it.
It does. Unlocked pays the most on this model at both sizes and all six grades, with no exceptions anywhere in the grid. At Good 256GB, unlocked is $50, AT&T is $45, Verizon is $38, T-Mobile is $30 and the smaller networks are $25.
On a phone worth this little that spread is a big share of the whole thing, so if the S21 is paid off it is worth asking your carrier to release it first. If you would rather sell today, choose your real network in the quote box and we honor what it shows.
No, and neither adds a cent. Send just the phone. Samsung stopped putting a wall charger in the box from this generation on, so nearly nobody has one, and that is fine. Take the case and the screen protector off before you pack it.
None. Phantom Gray, Phantom White, Phantom Violet and Phantom Pink are the four Samsung sold and they are all worth the same to us. The only three things in the price are storage, carrier and condition.
A trade-in is credit against something else. Samsung deducts it from a new Galaxy, a carrier drips it through your bill for two or three years and stops if you leave them. You have to be buying to collect it.
A Buyback is a purchase and it ends there. We buy your Galaxy S21 5G and you get cash you can spend on anything, held at the quoted price for 14 days. Payment leaves the same day the phone clears inspection: gift card, which lands about 3 percent higher because the brands add a bonus, PayPal, which is instant and takes 2.99 percent, bank transfer in 2 to 4 days, or a check in 3 to 5. Only a sealed Brand New phone is restricted, and that one is PayPal only.
Pick 128GB or 256GB, your carrier and your grade. A minute, and the number is yours for 14 days. Run a fingernail over the back before you choose.
FREE SHIPPING / 14-DAY PRICE LOCK / PAID SAME DAY