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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 PLUS 5G
A Galaxy S21 Plus 5G pays between $11 and $75, and the table below carries every step between those two. Neither end is a big number for a phone that cost $999 in 2021, and we would rather say that than talk around it. It is still cash for something that is currently a paperweight.
One word first, since it is the one people search for: the carrier version of this is a trade-in. A Buyback is not the same animal, and the clearest tell is where the number comes from. Theirs is set by a promotion, so it is whatever makes a new handset look affordable this quarter, generous on one model and mean on the next with nothing logical joining them. Ours comes off what a used Galaxy S21+ is actually selling for this week. That is also why we hold it for 14 days rather than pretend it is permanent. The number moves, and we would rather say so.
Now the thing people get wrong on this exact model, and it costs them a grade every time.
Look at the camera block on the back. On the Galaxy S21+ that block is metal, and it is not stuck on. Samsung called it a Contour Cut Camera housing and built it as part of the aluminum frame, so the housing and the side rail are one continuous piece of metal that wraps around the top left corner.
That corner is the highest point on the back of the phone, which means it is what lands first every time the phone goes off a table. Five years in, most Galaxy S21+ housings have taken something. Owners see a dinged corner, decide the phone is damaged, and pick Faulty.
It is usually not. Metal is not glass. A dent, a scuff, a flat spot or a shiny worn edge is wear, and wear puts you in Average or Fair, not Faulty. Getting that call right is worth more to you than the gap between the two storage sizes, so give it a proper look rather than a glance.
Here is how to read the metal instead of guessing at it. Hold the phone under a ceiling light or beside a window and tilt it slowly, watching the reflection of a straight edge, a door frame or a window bar, travel across the housing. A scratch or a scuff makes the reflection go dull and cloudy as it passes. A dent makes it kink, because the reflected line bends where the metal is pushed in. Cloudy is wear. Kinked is a dent, and a dent is still wear.
What does drop you to Faulty is glass, and there is glass sitting inside that metal. Three lens covers on this phone, not four, and the whole back panel is Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, front and back in Corning's own words. Any crack or chip in any of it is Faulty on its own, no matter how well the phone works. Drag a fingernail over each of the three lens covers and then around the edges of the back panel. If it glides you are fine. If it drops into a line, that is a crack.
The other two things that force Faulty here are worth naming so nobody is surprised at inspection. First, anything on the phone that has stopped working, which on a Samsung is a principle rather than a list. A dead speaker, a button that no longer clicks, a charging port that only holds at one angle, a camera that will not focus, all of it lands in the same place. Second, screen burn-in, because this is an OLED panel like every Galaxy S. The self-test for burn-in and the list of things that are not burn-in live on the Galaxy S21 FE page, so we are not going to repeat it on all four.
There is no battery rule at all on a Samsung, which surprises people who came here from an iPhone page. No percentage, no health screen, nothing to look up. Skip it. And if you are not certain this is the Plus rather than the Galaxy S21, tap the back with a fingernail. The Plus is glass and sounds hard and bright and feels cold. The S21 has a plastic back and sounds dull. The Plus is also 6.7 inches against 6.2.
Unlocked pays the most on this model at both sizes and every grade, with no exceptions. Sell my Galaxy S21 Plus turns up a long list of sites, and the useful question is not who quotes the biggest number today but whose number survives being opened. Where to sell a Galaxy S21+ comes down to that. We check each phone by hand, we tell you what we found, and if you would rather have it back than take the revised price, it goes back free. That is the whole difference.
LIVE PRICES
The used resale value of a Galaxy S21 Plus 5G sits between $11 for a cracked 128GB and $75 for a sealed 256GB. Most phones that reach us are in the Good to Fair band.
Both columns are unlocked prices, pulled live rather than typed in by hand.
| Comparison row | 128GB | 256GB |
|---|---|---|
Brand New | $65 | $75 |
Flawless | $65 | $75 |
Good | $55 | $65 |
Average | $50 | $59 |
Fair | $33 | $39 |
Faulty | $11 | $13 |
HOW IT WORKS
Choose 128GB or 256GB, your carrier and your grade. Tilt the phone under a light first and separate what is dented metal from what is cracked glass, because only one of those two takes you to Faulty. Whatever price you accept is locked in for 14 days.
We email you a prepaid USPS label. Sign your Google account out of the phone, then run a factory reset, in that order. Post the phone alone. Cables, cases and the box do nothing for the price, so there is no reason to part with them.
Your S21+ is checked by a person, by hand, inside 48 hours of landing here. When it matches your description the payment goes out the same day, as a gift card, PayPal, bank transfer or check. When it does not, you get a plain account of what we found and the choice between the new price and having the phone shipped back at our expense.
SPEC SHEET
| Samsung's name for it | Galaxy S21+ 5G |
|---|---|
| Announced | January 14, 2021 |
| On sale | January 29, 2021 |
| US model numbers | SM-G996U on carrier phones, SM-G996U1 unlocked. Both price the same here. |
| Display | 6.7-inch flat Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 2400 by 1080, adaptive up to 120Hz |
| Front glass | Corning Gorilla Glass Victus |
| Back | Gorilla Glass Victus. This is the fastest way to tell it from the Galaxy S21, which has a plastic back. |
| Frame and camera housing | Aluminum. Samsung's Contour Cut housing is part of the frame rather than a separate piece. |
| Rear cameras | 12MP wide, 12MP ultra wide, 64MP 3x telephoto. Three lenses, no laser window. |
| Front camera | 10MP |
| Chip in US phones | Snapdragon 888 |
| Memory | 8GB RAM |
| Storage we buy | 128GB and 256GB. No microSD slot, so what it shipped with is what it has. |
| Battery | 4800mAh, 25W wired and 15W wireless. Battery percentage plays no part in our grading. |
| S Pen | Not supported. Only the S21 Ultra in this family responds to one. |
| Water and dust | IP68 |
| Weight | 200 grams |
| Colors | Phantom Black, Phantom Silver and Phantom Violet, with Phantom Gold, Phantom Red and Phantom Pink in some markets. Color makes no difference to the price. |
GALAXY S21 PLUS 5G BUYBACK QUESTIONS
Storage, carrier and condition, in that order of impact. A 256GB unlocked in Good condition is $65, the same phone in Average is $59, and in Fair it is $39. A cracked 128GB is $11. The quote box at the top of the page gives you the exact figure for yours.
Probably not, and this is the most common way people underprice a Galaxy S21+. The camera housing is metal, cut as part of the aluminum frame, and metal dents rather than breaking. A dent, a scuff or a worn shiny corner is wear. Heavy wear you can feel with a fingernail is Fair, lighter wear is Average, and neither of them is Faulty.
Faulty is about glass. If one of the three lens covers is chipped, or the glass back is cracked, or the screen is cracked, then it is Faulty regardless of the metal.
To tell them apart, tilt the phone under a light and watch a straight reflection cross the housing. A scuff makes the reflection go cloudy. A dent makes it kink. Neither costs you the grade.
Feel the back. The S21+ has a glass back, so it is cold, hard and bright under a light. The Galaxy S21 has a plastic back that warms up in your hand and sounds dull when you tap it. Size settles it too: 6.7 inches against 6.2, and 200 grams against 169.
For certainty, Settings, About phone, Model number. SM-G996U or SM-G996U1 is the Plus. SM-G991U is the S21, SM-G990U is the S21 FE and SM-G998U is the Ultra. We pay on the phone that arrives, so it is worth thirty seconds.
Yes, and it is priced rather than refused. Faulty pays $11 at 128GB and $13 at 256GB, and we still cover the postage both ways.
Any crack or chip does it on its own: screen, back panel or lens cover. It does not matter that everything still works. Choose Faulty at the quote step and that number stays put once we open the box, which is the whole point of grading yourself honestly.
Average is light wear you cannot feel. Run a fingernail slowly across the screen, the glass back and the metal rails. If your nail passes over everything without dropping into anything, and the marks only show up when you angle the phone into a light, that is Average.
If your nail catches on scratches but the glass is whole, you are in Fair. If you cannot see anything at all from arm's length, that is Good, and if there is genuinely nothing to find, Flawless. The moment there is a crack or a chip anywhere, none of that applies and it is Faulty.
Yes, at the Faulty price. Samsung grading here does not work off a list of parts that matter, because every part matters. If any of it has stopped doing its job the phone is Faulty, so a dead in-screen fingerprint reader, a volume button that no longer clicks, a mic nobody can hear you through and a camera that will not focus are all the same answer. At 256GB that is $13 rather than $65 in Good.
Quick way to be sure across the whole phone: open Samsung Members, go to Discover, then Diagnostics, and let it test each part in turn.
That is burn-in, and burn-in makes a Galaxy S21+ Faulty. Every Galaxy S has an OLED panel, and OLED ages unevenly wherever the same shape has been on screen for years, usually the clock, the status icons or the navigation bar. The full walkthrough for checking it, along with the things that look like burn-in but are not, is on the Galaxy S21 FE page. It applies to this panel in exactly the same way.
No. There is no battery percentage in Samsung grading and there is no health screen we ask you to open. If you have arrived from one of our iPhone pages, that rule stops at the Apple line and does not follow you here.
The only way a battery affects your grade is by failing. A phone that switches off with charge remaining, will not take a charge at all, or has started to swell and push the back panel outward is Faulty, and it is Faulty because a part has broken rather than because of any number.
That is the one thing we have to turn down. With no power there is no way to test the phone, so a price would be a guess, and there is no way to clear your photos, messages and saved passwords off it before it changes hands. Those two reasons are why the answer is no rather than a low number.
Leave it on a wall charger for thirty minutes with a cable you know works before you accept that it is dead. If it still will not wake up, take the free label anyway. We will wipe it to Department of Defense standards and recycle it at no cost, or send it back to you at no cost. Say which you want.
No, not until the balance is cleared. A phone carrying a carrier installment plan or a lease is under a financial obligation, and those are not devices we can purchase. Pay it off, let your carrier mark it as owned, and it prices exactly like any other S21+ here.
No. Any of these three stops the purchase at every grade, so check all three before you commit to a quote.
One, the Google account lock, which you may see called FRP. Take your Google account off the phone first and factory reset it second. Reverse that order and the phone locks itself for the next person and gets mailed back to you with nothing paid. Our erase your device page walks through it.
Two, Knox. Rooting or flashing custom firmware trips a counter inside the phone that cannot be reset, and we cannot buy one that has been tripped. Three, the IMEI, which fails if the phone is reported lost or stolen, blacklisted or blocked by a carrier. Dial *#06# to see yours.
It does, and on this model unlocked pays the most at both sizes and all six grades. Take Good at 256GB. Unlocked is $65, AT&T is $55, Verizon and T-Mobile are $45 and $45, and the smaller networks are $33.
On a phone at this price that spread is a real share of the total, so if the S21+ is paid off it is worth asking your carrier to release it before you sell. If you would rather not wait, pick your actual network in the quote box and we pay what it showed.
No, and there is nothing to gain by it. Send the phone by itself. Samsung stopped including a wall charger with the S21 generation, so a missing charger is normal and costs you nothing. Do take the case and the screen protector off, because a protector hides hairline cracks and gets in the way of the inspection.
No. Phantom Black, Phantom Silver and Phantom Violet were the three sold here, and Samsung added Phantom Gold, Phantom Red and Phantom Pink elsewhere. All of them are worth the same. Only storage, carrier and condition go into the number.
A trade-in is a discount dressed as a payment. Samsung takes it off a new Galaxy, a carrier spreads it across two or three years of billing and stops if you leave. You have to be buying something for either to happen.
A Buyback is a purchase. We buy the Galaxy S21+ 5G, you get money that works anywhere, and nothing else changes. No new line, no contract, and the price is held for 14 days once you accept it. Payment goes out the same day the phone clears inspection, by gift card, PayPal, bank transfer or check, and gift cards run about 3 percent ahead because the brands add a bonus.
Choose 128GB or 256GB, your carrier and your grade. A minute of your time, and the number holds for 14 days. Check the metal against the glass before you decide.
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