I buy phones directly, every single day. Not resell — direct acquisition, at volume. And the biggest thing I've learned watching flippers try to source is this: most of them are shopping the same overpriced channels everyone else is (Swappa listings, marketplace "deals" that already got picked over, trade-in sites that take a 20-30% cut before you even touch the device).

The margin in phone flipping isn't in the sale — it's almost entirely in the buy. If you're paying retail-adjacent prices for your inventory, you're capping your own upside before you even list it.

A few things that actually move the needle:

• Storage tier and battery health matter more to resale price than cosmetic condition in most cases — don't overpay for "mint" units with degraded batteries

• Carrier-locked vs unlocked spread can be 15-20% — know your buyer before you buy the unit

• Bulk lots are almost always better margin than one-off buys, but only if you can grade fast and accurately

If you're doing 5-20 phones a month and want direct pricing instead of picking through the same picked-over listings as everyone else, that's exactly what I built Sourced for. Not a course — an actual working pipeline.