Sell your iPhone 12 Mini for cash

It comes down to your storage, your carrier, and how rough the phone looks. This page grids every unlocked combination. The quote tool covers yours exactly, and it takes about a minute.

No, and on a phone this cheap the gap is wider than it looks. A carrier puts a small figure on a mini, and it usually arrives as credit against your bill rather than as money. Credit only reaches you if you stay on the plan long enough to spend it.

A Buyback is a purchase. We pay for the phone once, in the form you choose, and nothing else has to happen. On a number this size that counts for more rather than less. A small credit on a monthly bill is easy to lose track of and easy to never collect.

Online buyers like us, carrier stores, kiosks and private listings all take them. Private sales are slow on this one. The audience for a small phone is small. Our quote takes a minute and holds for two weeks. That beats relisting.

These two are the hardest pair to tell apart in the iPhone line. Quoting the wrong one is the most common mistake here. Four checks settle it, and any one of them is enough.

Start with the back. On the iPhone 12 mini the two lenses sit one above the other. On the iPhone 13 mini they sit corner to corner, at an angle. That one is visible across a room.

Next, look at the notch at the top of the screen. Apple made it narrower on the 13 mini. The 12 mini's notch runs wider. Turn the phone on and compare it to a photo if you're unsure.

Now the color. Purple and white were only sold on the 12 mini. Pink, starlight and midnight were only sold on the 13 mini. If your phone is one of those five, you have your answer.

The last check is the one we go by. Open Settings, tap General, then About, and find Model Number. Tap it once to show the A number. A2176 is the iPhone 12 mini. Anything else belongs on another page. Get this right and the price you accept is the price we pay.

Fair is heavy wear that your fingernail can feel. Deep scratches, worn edges, scuffs on the aluminum, all with the glass still whole. Most five year old minis that lived without a case sit here.

Run a nail across the screen and around the frame. If it catches on scratches but finds no crack, Fair is your grade. A crack or a chip moves it to Faulty.

Yes, we buy them at the Faulty price. A split screen, a chipped corner, a cracked back, a nicked camera cover. All of those are Faulty. The grid gives you that number before you commit.

The mini gets dropped often because it's small and slippery. There's no penalty for saying so.

That one we have to refuse. A phone that won't power up can't be tested. Your data can't come off it either. We won't put a price on that. We'll recycle it for free, or send it straight back to you for free.

Under 80 percent grades the phone Faulty. A small phone holds a small battery. Small batteries get topped up twice a day, and every charge counts against the total. More charges mean a faster drop.

Do the check now. Open Settings, tap Battery, then tap Battery Health and Charging. The figure you want is Maximum Capacity.

The rule does not care what the glass looks like. A mini that still gets through the day can be under 80 percent and grade Faulty on that alone. It is also the most common reason a quote changes at inspection.

A message about servicing the battery counts the same way. Grade it Faulty and send it in. We still buy it, and an honest grade keeps your number steady.

Early. Apple ships a new lineup every autumn. Used prices step down in the weeks after.

There's a second clock on this phone. A battery keeps aging in a drawer even with the phone switched off. The day Maximum Capacity slips below 80 percent, your mini becomes a Faulty phone.

It does, and this model has a clear shape to it. We checked all ninety price squares today. A Verizon mini is paid exactly what an unlocked one is paid, on every square. AT&T sits below that. T-Mobile sits well below AT&T, and at 64GB it is a long way down. Pick the network the phone is locked to and read that column.

A Fair 128GB unlocked mini is $60 here. We pay it in full on the day the check finishes.

Not while money is owed on it. We don't purchase devices under financial obligations. An installment plan or a lease is exactly that. Settle the account, then come back and we'll quote the mini normally.

No, and there's no grade that gets around it. A clean ESN is required on all six. We return blacklisted phones, phones reported lost or stolen, and phones a carrier has blocked. A phone still tied to an Apple Account goes back too.

Check before you ship. Sign out of your Apple Account. Call your carrier if the account might not be clear.

Take a backup, either to iCloud or to a computer. Sign out of your Apple Account so Find My turns itself off. Then run Erase All Content and Settings. The Device Erasure Guides show each screen.

Every phone that reaches our bench gets a Department of Defense standard wipe. That happens whether you erased it or not.

Yes, and the numbers in the grid are the numbers. Small storage on a small phone sits at the quiet end of the market. Nobody should expect a windfall.

What it won't do is get better. The value drifts down every month it spends in a drawer. The battery clock runs the whole time. Cash today beats a dead mini in two years.

You pick the method when you accept the quote, not now. We pay via gift card, PayPal, bank transfer, or check, and whichever you choose leaves us on the day your mini clears inspection.

A gift card is emailed and averages roughly 3 percent above the cash figure, thanks to brand bonuses. PayPal is instant, with PayPal's own 2.99 percent fee taken out of it. A bank transfer takes 2 to 4 days. A check takes 3 to 5.

On a phone this size those two percentages are worth a second look. The gift card is the only choice that adds anything. PayPal is the only one that subtracts anything. Bank transfer and check pay the figure exactly as quoted.

One rule before you choose. A phone graded Brand New is paid by PayPal only. The other three are not offered on that grade.