Locked vs unlocked value: what the carrier lock actually costs a buyback shop

Every locked phone on your intake shelf is worth less than the identical unlocked one. The question is how much less, whether an unlock closes the gap for less than the gap is worth, and which devices you should leave locked no matter what the arithmetic says. This page uses the freshest public dataset we could find, Swappa's October 1, 2026 price pull, and shows the method so you can rerun it on your own stock.

Last reviewed 2026-10-28. Written for shops by STACKS. Not affiliated with any carrier.

The gap, measured

Swappa pulled its price tables for 12 popular phones on October 1, 2026 and compared the Unlocked category against a listing weighted average of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon units, both for average asking prices in live listings and for Swappa Trade-In quotes (source). Two different numbers came out.

Asking prices barely move. Unlocked phones listed about 5 percent above carrier phones on a typical model, with a range from slightly negative to about 11 percent across the twelve (source). Sellers on an open marketplace do not discount the lock much, partly because many buyers plan to stay on the same carrier.

Trade-in quotes move a lot. Unlocked phones drew trade-in quotes 25 to 57 percent higher than carrier phones, with a typical gap around 32 percent (source). A trade-in buyer is pricing the risk and the work: a locked phone has a narrower resale audience, might carry a balance, and might need an unlock before it can ship.

The full table, all figures from the same article (source):

Swappa's own caveats apply: prices change daily, and small listing samples can swing a figure, which is why the iPhone 17 Pro shows a negative list gap with few carrier units for sale (source). Android list gaps run wider, which the article attributes partly to carrier specific software on those phones.

Which gap is yours

If you sell on an open marketplace to end users, the list gap is closer to your reality, and on a $600 phone 5 percent is $30. If you sell to a wholesaler, a trade-in aggregator or an export buyer, the trade-in gap is your reality, because you are the seller being priced for risk. Most buyback shops do both: retail the clean flagships, wholesale the rest. Run the arithmetic separately for each channel.

Getting your own numbers: the eBay sold method

Swappa's tables are a benchmark, not your market. For a live figure on any model:

1. Search eBay for the exact model and storage, then filter by Sold items. The public sold filter covers roughly the last 90 days (source). For longer history, eBay's Product Research tool (formerly Terapeak) gives up to three years of sales data with average sold price and range (source).
2. Split the results into "Unlocked" and the carrier you hold, matching storage and condition grade. Ignore listings that do not state the lock status.
3. Take the median of each group over the last 30 days, not the average, so one mispriced listing does not move you.
4. Subtract your selling fees and shipping from both. The gap after fees is the number you compare to the unlock cost.

Write the two medians on the intake ticket. Thirty seconds of research protects a forty dollar decision.

The net gain formula

Net gain = (unlocked sale price - locked sale price) - unlock cost - carrying cost.

Carrying cost is the part shops forget. If an unlock takes five business days and your money is otherwise turning every ten days at a 12 percent margin, a week of delay on a $300 phone has a real cost; call it a few dollars a day on an expensive device, pennies on a cheap one. Include it, and include the small percentage of unlocks that come back rejected and need a refund cycle.

Three worked examples using the Swappa trade-in figures, with the unlock cost left as a variable because it differs by carrier and model and because our price list is only visible to approved accounts:

• iPhone 16 (128GB), T-Mobile, paid off. Gap $93 ($328 - $235) (source). At any unlock cost under about $60 plus a few days of carrying cost, the unlock clears a margin of $30 or more. Unlock it.
• Galaxy S24 Ultra (256GB), Verizon, paid off, arrived locked. Gap $97 ($299 - $202) (source). Before you pay for anything, remember Verizon unlocks automatically when the balance is paid (source), so a locked one deserves a balance and blacklist check first. If it is genuinely clean and paid, the gap easily covers a policy unlock.
• iPhone 13 (128GB), AT&T, paid off. Gap $26 ($131 - $105) (source). On the trade-in channel this only pays if the unlock is cheap and fast. On the retail channel the list gap is $13. For a $26 gap, many shops are better off sending the device out locked and keeping the cash moving. This is a legitimate "do not unlock" answer that has nothing to do with risk.

The pattern across the table: flagships under two years old carry $90 to $145 of gap and almost always justify a policy unlock; three and four year old iPhones carry $25 to $35 and often do not. Android flagships carry wide gaps for their age because the locked versions are harder to move.

When not to unlock, whatever the gap says

• Blacklisted, or reported lost or stolen. No carrier will unlock it (source), and a third party that claims to has changed nothing about the block on the IMEI. Run the IMEI through the free CTIA Stolen Phone Checker before you buy (source). Detail on the financed and blacklisted page.
• Financed, or any balance owed. Every carrier's policy requires the balance paid in full before unlocking; the risk is that the original customer stops paying after the trade-in and the carrier blocks the IMEI. The gap does not matter if the device becomes a paperweight in sixty days.
• Activation Lock or MDM still on. A carrier unlock does not touch Apple's Activation Lock. Apple tells buyers not to take ownership of an iPhone that still shows "iPhone Locked to Owner" or asks for the previous owner's Apple Account (source). Get it removed by the owner first, or do not buy it.
• Gap below cost. See the iPhone 13 example. Leaving a clean device locked is not a failure.

Pricing the lock at intake

The cleanest way to use all this is at the buy, not the sell. Quote a locked phone at the locked value, offer the customer the unlocked value if they unlock it through their carrier before handing it over (the free routes are on the T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon and prepaid brands pages), and if they cannot, buy at the locked price and keep the gap minus the unlock cost as your margin. The customer gets a fair choice, and you never pay unlocked money for a locked phone.

Last reviewed 2026-10-28. Swappa's figures are a single day snapshot; rerun the sold-listing method on your own models before relying on any number above.

Questions shops ask

RELATED Value calculator Financed and blacklisted Carrier policies

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