What is a cracked iPhone actually worth?

If you have ever typed your cracked phone into a buyback site and been offered less than the cost of a coffee, you are not alone. In our July 2026 check across 14 UK buyback sites, the best offer for a cracked iPhone 13 on some of them was £1.62. That is not a typo.

The reason is simple: most buyback sites treat a cracked screen as a write off. Their business is reselling phones as they arrive, so anything that needs work gets priced as scrap. The screen is the most expensive part of the phone, and if they cannot resell the device without replacing it, they pass that whole cost, plus margin, back to you.

We look at it differently. A cracked iPhone 13 still contains a working board, camera, battery and frame. Repaired, it becomes a phone someone will happily buy. Beyond repair, it becomes parts that keep other phones alive. Either way it has real value, which is why our calculator pays several times the lowball offers for that same cracked iPhone 13, and the price on screen is always the live one.

The honest answer to the question, then: a cracked iPhone is worth what its working parts are worth, not what the laziest buyer will pay. Get a few quotes, and treat any offer under a tenner for a phone that powers on as a sign to keep looking.