uSell: A Substandard Way to Sell Electronics

What is uSell?

uSell acts as a go-between for individual sellers and “hundreds of professional buyers” of electronics and games. These buyers are apparently looking for bulk purchases of smart phones, tablets and other electronic devices.

How it works

Like many electronics resellers, the process of selling to uSell is easy. If you want to sell a cell phone, you plug in the type of device, capacity and condition. The site makes an offer. If you like the offer, they’ll send you a mailing label.

With other devices — tablets, cameras, computers, for instance — you click on what you’ve got; specify the model and other pertinent details to get an offer. Then, again, they’ll provide a label for shipping.

uSell Review

uSell isn’t an ordinary marketplace for electronic devices. It’s a consumer-to-bulk buyer market. Bulk buys are generally not going to pay as well as individual purchases and sales. So, don’t expect to get top-dollar here. You’re likely to get many times more by using a direct-to-consumer marketplace, such as Swappa, or another resale platform, such as It’sWorthMore.

In fact, uSell won’t even necessarily pay the quoted price for your device. Although some buyers appear satisfied, a number maintain they were scammed. They say they didn’t get anything close to quoted price after the buyer got their goods.

Recent complaints about uSell abound on sites like SiteJabber and Trust Pilot, which both rate the site poorly. Although Reseller Ratings gives them a highly-positive score, it appears no one has reviewed the site in well over a year (as of February 2025). The latest review on that site, from 2022, is titled “Bait and Switch.” You can imagine, the reviewer did not have a positive experience.

Ship and wait

Here you’ll ship the item and wait for for your electronic device to be evaluated. Consumers contend this can take weeks. The site will then either provide the payment promised or revise the offer, based on their evaluation of the phone’s condition

Revised offers

The most common complaint we see about this site is that the site not only revises offers, it revises them dramatically — to $1 to $3 per phone. If you don’t like the new offer, you can reject it and the site says it will return your phone for free. But it could take months for them to evaluate your phone and send it back.

Recommendations

If you have time to sell your phone, you’ll do much better negotiating with an individual buyer on Swappa than you would here. Swappa is a marketplace that brings individual buyers and sellers together. There are no middle-men. We’ve found this site typically generates the best deal for both buyers and sellers. You can check out Swappa here.

If you want to sell to a reseller for ease — i.e. you don’t want to negotiate with the final buyer — we like ItsWorthMore. The site gets great seller reviews and is almost always among the best-paying when we’re testing site offers. You can check out ItsWorthMore here.

If you still want to sell on uSell, you can find them here.

What their users say: From SiteJabber:

If I could give NO STARS I would! I recieved an offer for my iPod on 1/12/2024. Recieved my shipping kit no problems and sent in my device. Thats where things went wrong. It is now 2/13/2024. They have had my device a WHOLE MONTH and still no payment! I have written angry emails and all I get back is “2 business days”. LIES! Still no payment!

My wonderful son, who was a vent-dependent quadriplegic for almost 30 years, died and I sent his old ipod to usell. Got the email that they’d received the box but over two weeks later I had received nothing more. I send in a request that it be looked into and received back a notice that I’d sent them a iphone 6 instead of the ipod. This so did not happen. Then they tell me that they have no market for an iphone 6 and they will recycle it for me. I told them that I want my ipod back and they shouldn’t try to rip off little old grieving ladies!

Just got my check today, for $3.00. The problem is, I sent 10 units. Payment should have been $30.00. I took the time to check each one and made sure it met every requirement. Filled out the paper work on line ( would only permit 1 unit entry on form). Enclosed packing slip, indicating 10 units. Got e mail asking if i wanted the deal, said, no. Got $3.00 any way.

Good experience

Exactly 1 week after they received my phone, they issued payment. And it was the amount originally offered on the website estimator.

Rip-Off

I would have given zero stars if I could but had to choose one. Sent Samsung Galaxy only two years old. Excellent condition no damage. Never been taken out of the protective case. Was supposed to get $120. Now wants to pay $27. Buyer lies and says there’s water damage. IMPOSSIBLE! Phone never dropped nor has any water damage. I’m insulted! Told them to send my phone back & it better be in the same condition that I sent it in! This company deals with dishonest ppl. DO NOT SELL YOUR PHONE TO THIS COMPANY! You will regret it. They are LIARS!

Overall, the only thing I was disturbed was the pay for my iPod. It was a brand-new device, never been used, but you guys downgraded it to being “fair” device. That was very disappointing as at that time really needed the funds.

$40 offer to $3

“I sent them in a phone that was in flawless condition. It was barely two months old. They email me saying it was damaged and cut the price on what they would give me big time to $3 from $40. I am now waiting for the return of it. It better still be in perfect condition because that phone was not damaged when I mailed it”

I wish I would’ve read reviews prior to sending in my iPad mini. It worked fine, almost perfect condition but after sending in, recd msg that there was a slight imperfection so only worth $1.00! What a joke! Next time I’ll take my next device and get more pleasure by smashing it!

From Trust Pilot

I tried selling my cell phone to usell and shipped it out with the screen protector and phone case on. I got a message that usell no longer wants the device because of a cracked screen and wanting to purchase it for $1. When I shipped it out, the phone was working with no broken screen. I refused the $1 and had them ship it back. It was shipped back to me WITHOUT the screen protector and case. The screen came back broken and looks like it was hit with a hammer because it has the shape of circles on it. Usell ripped me off.

Sent a barely used phone that’s like new, and they said it’s damaged and would pay me $5 for it (what the f)

From ResellerRatings

“They offered $50 for my Kindle which I tested before sending and mailed in it’s protective leather case as well as lots of bubble wrap. They claim it doesn’t turn on and edited the offer to $3, gave only a week to reply and only 2 emails of notification about said downgrade. And are about to charge a ton to ship it back to me since I declined their insulting bait-and-switch offer.”

“I was given a reasonable offer of $53 on their website for my Iphone 6s. I had rated my phone as “good” condition, being it was in an Otter Box for all of the 4 years I owned it since it was new. When Usell received it, it took them 3 weeks to evaluate it. Then they claimed the mic was bad and the phone was damaged! They offered me $5 for it. This is how these people make money. They lure you into sending your phone in then devalue it and sell it for a bigger profit. Stay away from Usell.”

Worked for me

I found it simple to get the application filled out, mailed in with the phone, and accepted. It sold quickly and I got a check soon after. The new owner of the phone wins, as it was a great phone, the Usell folks win because they get a cut, and I win because I got a few bucks for a phone I will no longer be using.”

“The transaction was very good and very fast no problems.”

Updated 2/13/2025