Buyers are asking for serial number and IEMI numbers on a brand new Iphone

[traposse]

Hi, I rarely sell phones. 

I have a brand new Iphone 13 sealed in box to sell. 

After about 2 hours I already had this same question 2 times. They want a picture of the back of the box to see the serial number and IEMI numbers. 

Is it risky or not to send a picture of those numbers? 

How those number can be helpful for buyers? 

Thank you! 

[byto253]

Sounds sketchy to me to need that. But I am not an expert in this stuff. It may be they want to check if the phone is reported stolen or the IMEI is good but I think you can check that online yourself or maybe call Apple to check.

[ilikehockeyjerseys]

Phones are one of the most high risk items to sell on eBay for someone who is not a professional/full time phone seller. 

If you can sell it locally through a used classified site, and meet up at a safe location (police station, bank during business hours, etc), that would be a lot better. You can sell it locally for about 80 percent of your current BIN w/free shipping price, and walk away with the same amount of money. 

[electronicifycanada]

Buyers will often ask for those numbers to ensure the phone isn't blacklisted by the carrier or apple icloud locked.

[traposse]

Thanks, that's exactly what I decided to do sell it localy for 20% less. 

[byto253]

If you were selling a phone like this, how would you go about it?  It is new and sealed but would you also confirm that it is not blacklisted or cloud blocked and include that in the listing?  I don't like the idea of the serial and IMEI being sent in response to a random query. 

[electronicifycanada]

They can't do anything bad with just the serial or IMEI numbers. These numbers are usually on the outside of the box and inside the phone. ISP's and apple use them to block devices that have been reported lost or stolen.

You can google "icloud IMEI check" and see there's many websites that have a free search to check.

This is also standard practice when selling used phones locally, most buyers should ask for that.