Buying Used Devices: What Your Shop Should Record

Three separate situations make you glad you kept a record, and none of them announce themselves. A device turns out to be stolen and the police ask where it came from. A seller returns claiming they were underpaid or that the deal was something else. A tax or trading inspection asks you to justify a purchase paid in cash. In all three, a complete record turns a serious problem into a short conversation.

The second reason is commercial. A shop that resells refurbished devices needs to know what it paid, when, and in what condition, to price the resale and to honour its own warranty. Buy-back stock without records is stock you cannot price, cannot trace and cannot defend if a buyer comes back.

The third reason is simply that recording it is cheap. Everything below takes about two minutes at the counter if the fields are in front of you, and several hours to reconstruct afterwards if they are not — assuming it can be reconstructed at all.

Record the full name, date of birth, address, and the details of the identity document you were shown — its type and number. Look at the document rather than glancing at it, and check the photo against the person in front of you. This is the single step most likely to be skipped when the shop is busy, and the one that matters most if the device is later flagged.

In several countries you are required to verify identity from an official document for second-hand purchases, and in some you must record specific fields from it. Whether or not you may photograph or copy the document varies, and in a number of places copying is restricted. Recording the type and number is generally the safer default; check the position where you operate.

Two practical rules apply everywhere. Do not buy from minors, or from anyone who cannot produce identity documents, whatever the story. And treat a seller offering several devices of the same model as a situation calling for more questions, not fewer — that pattern is not proof of anything, but it is the one that most often precedes a problem.

The identifier is the heart of the record. On a phone, that is the IMEI — read it from the device itself, not from the box, since boxes and devices separate. On a laptop or tablet, the serial number. On anything else, whatever number the manufacturer uses. Nothing else designates a specific device unambiguously, and a description like black iPhone, good condition designates nothing at all.

Check the identifier before you pay, not after. Whether a stolen-device database is available to you depends on your country and sometimes on your trade association, but the check takes seconds where it exists. Also verify that the device is not locked to a previous account: a phone that cannot be reset is a phone you cannot resell, regardless of who owns it legitimately.

Record the condition properly and photograph it. Screen state, casing, battery health where the device reports it, and whether the device powers on. Two photos at purchase settle any later argument about what you received, and they also protect the seller, which is worth saying out loud at the counter — it makes the whole process feel like procedure rather than suspicion.

Record the price paid, the date, and the payment method. Payment method matters more than shops expect: several countries cap cash payments for second-hand purchases, or require traceable payment above a threshold, precisely so that transactions can be followed. Where a cap exists, exceeding it is an offence regardless of the good faith of both parties.

Produce a document that both sides sign, and give the seller a copy. It should identify both parties, describe the device with its identifier, and state the price and date. That document is the seller's proof that they sold the device legitimately, and your proof that you acquired it in the open — the same piece of paper protects both of you.

Number your purchases in a single continuous sequence. A sequence with no gaps is much stronger evidence of a complete record than a folder of separate documents, and it is a formal requirement in some jurisdictions. It also makes an internal check possible: any gap in the numbering is a question worth answering immediately.

There is no international standard here, and this article is not legal advice. Obligations for second-hand dealers are set nationally and sometimes locally, and they vary widely — from almost nothing beyond ordinary bookkeeping, to licensing, mandatory registers, waiting periods before resale and automatic reporting of every purchase to a police database. The only reliable step is to check the rules where your shop trades.

France is a useful example of a strict regime, and the one we know first-hand. Dealers in second-hand goods must keep a register of purchases, commonly called the livre de police, with pages numbered in an unbroken sequence and entries that cannot be erased or altered. It records the seller's identity taken from an official document, the description of the item, the price and the date, and it must be produced on demand to the authorities. It has to be kept for years after the last entry.

Other countries take other routes. Several US states require licensed second-hand dealers to report purchases electronically to law enforcement, sometimes within 24 hours, and to hold items for a waiting period before resale. Elsewhere the requirement is a local licence, or nothing specific at all beyond general commercial law. None of the French rules apply outside France, and nothing in the paragraph above should be read as describing your obligations — find out what yours are.

Whatever the local regime, the fields listed in this article are close to the union of what strict regimes ask for. A shop that records seller identity, device identifier, condition, price, date, payment method and a signed document is ready for almost any rule it later discovers applies to it.

Retention periods run to several years in most places that regulate this at all, and the records must be produceable on request. A ring binder in the back room technically satisfies the obligation and makes searching impossible. The day you actually need it, you will be asked about one IMEI, not about a month of purchases.

Search by identifier is the requirement that people discover too late. When a request arrives, it names a device, not a customer. If you cannot search by IMEI or serial number, you are reading through a binder. If you can, the answer takes seconds and includes the seller, the price, the date and the photos.

In SERVO, device buy-back is recorded as part of the same workflow as repairs: seller details, identifier, condition photos, price, and a purchase document generated for signature, all searchable by identifier. Personal identity data is subject to data protection rules as well — keep it because you are required to, keep only what is required, and restrict who can see it. For the rest of the shop workflow, see our guide to running a repair shop.