Selling a phone in Kigali is mostly straightforward. The parts that go wrong go wrong in predictable ways: you price it from hope rather than evidence, you hand over a device that still has your accounts on it, or you meet a stranger somewhere you should not have.
Here is the order to do it in.
1. Find out what it is actually worth
Do not start from what you paid. Start from what phones like yours are selling for right now.
Search the exact model on a marketplace and look at what similar listings ask — then adjust down, because asking prices are optimistic. A phone in good condition with its box and charger sits at the top of that range. Scratches, a cracked back, or a battery that no longer lasts a day sit well below it.
Two things move the price more than people expect:
- Battery health. On an iPhone, Settings → Battery → Battery Health shows a percentage. Below about 85% a buyer will notice, and an honest seller says so.
- Whether it is carrier-locked. An unlocked phone is worth meaningfully more because the buyer can use any SIM.
2. Take photographs that answer questions
Most listings fail because they make a buyer wonder. Photograph the front powered on, the back, all four corners, the screen showing the settings page with the model and storage, and — this is the one people skip — any damage, clearly.
Showing a scratch does not lose you the sale. Hiding it loses you the sale at the meeting point, after you have both travelled.
3. Wipe it properly. This is the step people get wrong
Deleting your photos is not wiping a phone, and a factory reset alone is not enough on a modern device.
On iPhone: Settings → your name → Sign Out of iCloud first, then Settings → General → Transfer or Reset iPhone → Erase All Content and Settings. If you skip signing out, Activation Lock stays on and the phone is useless to the buyer — they will come back, and they will be right to.
On Android: remove your Google account under Settings → Accounts, then factory reset. Same reason: Factory Reset Protection will lock the device to your account otherwise.
Take the SIM and any memory card out before you hand it over. People forget.
4. Write down the IMEI before you sell
Dial *#06# and the IMEI appears. Photograph it and keep it.
It is the phone's unique number. If something goes wrong later — a dispute, a police report, a claim the phone was stolen — the IMEI is the only thing that identifies the specific device you sold. Ten seconds now, and it costs nothing.
5. Meet somewhere that protects you both
Not your home. Not the buyer's home. Not after dark.
A busy petrol station, a shopping centre, a bank forecourt, a café with staff and other customers. Somewhere with people and, ideally, cameras. Tell someone where you are going.
If a buyer insists on a quiet place or pushes hard to meet at night, that is the whole signal. There is no phone worth ignoring it for.
6. Get paid before the phone leaves your hand
Mobile money is the safest common option, and the rule is simple: wait for your own confirmation SMS, not the buyer's screenshot. A screenshot proves nothing. A pending transaction is not a completed one.
If you take cash, count it before handing the phone over. If the amount is large, meeting inside a bank is not paranoid — it is just sensible.
Do not accept a partial payment with the rest promised later. You will not see the rest.
7. Let the buyer check it
Give them a few minutes. Let them put a SIM in, make a call, take a photo, test the charging port and the speakers. A buyer who is allowed to check is a buyer who does not come back angry.
If everything you wrote in the listing is true, this step only helps you.
The short version
Price from evidence. Photograph the damage. Sign out of your accounts before you reset. Save the IMEI. Meet in daylight, in public. Confirm payment on your own phone. Let them look.
Most of this is about removing reasons for a stranger to distrust you — which is also most of what makes a sale go quickly.
If you would rather list somewhere with a wider audience than a WhatsApp group, RAY Markets is a marketplace for exactly this: free to post, used across Rwanda, and built so both sides can see who they are dealing with.