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Swappa.com for GrapheneOS compatible devices – Stay Away
- ethagnawl 7mo agoI went through this cycle myself a few months back. It seems like many sellers conflate bootloader unlocking with carrier unlocking.
- convexly 7mo agoDid you try disputing through your payment method or is that not an option with how Swappa processes things?
- djhope99 7mo agoUh oh. I just brought a pixel 6a from Swappa, was hoping to use a different os. Not arrived yet though.
- znsdx 7mo agosometimes the option to unlock the bootloader doesn't work until you connect the device to internet. not sure if the original person who posted tried that. this might be a non issue.
- OsrsNeedsf2P 7mo agoOP here. I did try connecting to the internet on both devices I got my hands on, but the bootloader remained locked.
- djhope99 7mo agoLuckily my pixel was fully unlocked- phew.
- laweijfmvo 7mo agoSwappa became a no-go for me when they started making exceptions to their rules for commercial sellers, justifying it by saying they were inherently more reliable. For example, using stock photos for multiple devices instead of the device you actually receive. All of three of these phones, based on the seller names, were those reliable sellers.
- NewJazz 7mo agoDo you any alternative marketplace? My last few ohones were from swappa, only good experiences so far.
- kay_o 7mo agoI have had good experience with Craig list seller in highly technical city, such as San Mateo, San Jose etc. Facebook Marketplace almost all of phone for sale is locked/stolen or the person selling does not know originator (f.e. Verizon phone never unlockable, includes all reseller) and often they are too non technical to know if it was bought from google play store ("factory unlocked") Often it will not even be paid off or intentional to scam you with a phone that will work for a month until it is reported stolen and unpaid loan
- glhaynes 7mo agoBummer of an experience. About a month ago I bought an unlocked 8a from a seller on Swappa and had no issue getting GrapheneOS (which works well!) on it.
- hmry 7mo ago> we are unfortunately not able to guarantee bootloader unlocking, as it is not feasible for us to search through thousands of devices in order to find one that is Ohhhh, is that how it works? Maybe I should try that next time. Instead of selling broken hardware as "NOT TESTED, AS IS, PARTS MACHINE" I should sell them as "100% working!" and when someone asks, I'll tell them "sorry, it's not feasible to search through all devices and find the working ones"
- uyzstvqs 7mo agoImagine a supermarket telling you "sorry, it's not feasible to check the expiration dates on all of our products".
- compass_copium 7mo agoI feel like supermarkets more or less do tell you this--I get expired crap all the time if I don't check myself.
- zephen 7mo agoOf course, you can do your own due diligence at the supermarket before you part with the cash.
- DANmode 7mo agoWhere are you located, generally?
- compass_copium 7mo agoNew England
- kube-system 7mo agoThat essentially is the case. Grocery stores make a best effort to remove expired foods but you can often find expired food on the shelf in the US. Go make a stink about it at the customer service desk and they will probably say exactly that.
- deeplowdock 7mo agoI wonder why almost no one in these GrapheneOS praise topic mentions that you won't be able to pay with your phone, and often even bank apps refuse to install on it - it was a deal breaker for me personally, and now I'm back under Google umbrella :<
- znsdx 7mo ago[dead]
- cyanydeez 7mo agoPaying with your phone just seems like one of those separation of concerns problem. I'm sure you have backup forms, and cash, etc, but there's something about not having to worry about the multinefarious capabilities of my phone if it's not in my posession.
- deeplowdock 7mo agoYou could then separate the audio system from your car and drive around with a boombox
- NewJazz 7mo agoDifference is a plastic card that is lighter and smaller than the phone is just as effective as the phone is for payments. When it comes to audio, a car stereo is going to be much more convenient and brtter quality than a boombox or bluetooth. That said, i did know someone with an older car who used a bluetooth speaker instead of their stereo, so they could connect their phone audio.
- 0x3f 7mo agoI don't know about where you live but here contactless card payments have lower limits than phone-based ones. Also the phone allows me to switch between multiple cards, including transit-specific cards.
- erelong 7mo agoSwappa has been "ok" in my experience I had issues with receiving incompatible "variants" of compatible devices when shopping for used phone for custom roms
- yogthos 7mo agoI just bought an official Pixel 9 to install GrapheneOS, and the process couldn't be simpler. Their webusb installer is extremely polished. You just plug your phone in, click through a few steps, and you're done. There's absolutely no reason to bother looking for a phone with GrapheneOS already preinstalled. As a side note, I've been using it for a few months now, and it works great. All the apps I use run on it just fine. Battery life is great, and you don't have a bunch of cruft from Google running on your device. Can highly recommend for anybody looking for a phone you actually own.
- NewJazz 7mo agoAs a note, swappa isn't selling phones with grapheneos preinstalled. It is selling used phones, you would still have to install gos.
- yogthos 7mo agoah I see
- kay_o 7mo agoThis is not the related of preinstalled. Swappa is selling bootloader permanently locked forever phones as bootloader unlockable
- OsrsNeedsf2P 7mo agoI'm trying to go through Swappa to help reduce waste and save a bit of money. Unfortunately, when I decided to go second-hand, I didn't expect issues like this.
- beej71 7mo agoI was just about to buy something from them, but maybe not now. I want a used pixel--where is the best marketplace for that?
- troyvit 7mo agoI've gotten used pixels off of ebay more than once and never had a problem. I feel like if it was that simple swappa.com wouldn't exist though. Maybe I've been lucky?
- fwipsy 7mo agoI've also had good experiences on eBay. Buyers can leave bad reviews for anything so good reviews are a strong indicator. (That said, there are plenty of "genuine" laptop batteries for $15 from high-scoring sellers.) I feel like eBay put a lot of work into creating a competitive marketplace where honesty was rewarded, and it basically works well but they got an unsavory reputation anyways. Then Amazon tried to hide that complexity from the end user and buyers just get burned. Maybe Swappa is trying to go the Amazon route? I do not think there are real shortcuts here. Either the marketplace needs to vet sellers manually, or offer a competitive, transparent reputation system like eBay.
- Melonai 7mo agoSame here, I bought my current smartphone, a Pixel 6, two or three years ago for 200 dollars on eBay, and it arrived in pristine condition. Super small bump on one of the frame edges, not a single scratch on the display though now there are many, of course, I'm not that careful and the phone is cheap enough not to be too upset. I generally trust private sellers a lot more than professional ones, if you vet them well enough (check their page, check their reviews, check their other listings), the chance that you'll get a good deal on a device in the condition described. The incentive to gain a profit is a whole lot lower, a commercial seller has to make sure they're the winner in some way during a transaction, they have bills, staff and assets. A private person is often happy to just get rid of the phone, as it would usually rot in the old phone drawer, until it eventually ends up in an e-waste bin a decade later when they clean out. Getting a little money back is already a win. Surprisingly, I've never had a bad experience. I presume there's also buyer protection, but I'm hoping I never have to use it.
- rglover 7mo agoI've had good experiences with gazelle.com for used devices but never tried to load GrapheneOS on anything from them.
- sneak 7mo ago[dead]
- zargon 7mo agoSwappa is great for sellers and bad for buyers. They use a Paypal marketplace product and have no actual authority in a transaction, they just match buyers and sellers. If the phone is not as described, you'll have to pay return shipping yourself.
- lnx01 7mo agoIn the context of an online marketplace "Unlocked" means "Not carrier locked". This has _nothing_ to do with the bootloader.
- zenGull 7mo ago100% this.
- OsrsNeedsf2P 7mo agoMaybe. But Swappa confirmed it meant bootloader unlock
- wildzzz 7mo agoI wonder if the person you talked to actually knew what they were talking about. Swappa explains what an unlocked device means in their FAQ and a bootloader is not mentioned. https://swappa.com/faq/answer/unlocked-device https://swappa.com/faq/answer/unlocked-device
- jerlam 7mo agoThat's sad, because one of Swappa's main selling points (and the reason they got popular) is that they started out as a marketplace for Android phones, and should specifically know about rooted / bootloader unlocked / etc. phones. Enthusiast stuff. Their About page says: > The inspiration for Swappa sparked when Ben had trouble finding a good source for test devices for Android development projects.
- wildzzz 6mo agoI guarantee you that most people buying used phones are more concerned if the phone will work with their existing phone plan than if they can use it as a development testbench.
- zozbot234 7mo agoIf it's not a carrier locked device, what would be the reason for it not to be OEM unlockable once connected to the Internet? This is not about the device being logged into an existing user account, that would trigger FRP which is something different.
- neilv 7mo agoI've used eBay to buy several used Pixels for GrapheneOS, without problem. The easy way is to search for ones for which the seller explicitly says "OEM" or "bootloader" unlockable/unlocked (or seller says it already has "grapheneos", "graphene", "calyxos", etc., installed). For awhile, I came up with some tricks to try to get a better price by identifying ones that were bought directly from Google (rather than through a carrier, which are who has been disabling bootloader unlocking thus far), but decided it wasn't worth the effort. Of course, you can also just buy a new one from Google.
- dwagnerkc 7mo agoWell never needed an unlocked bootloader specifically, but have found Swappa to be solid place to buy used gear more generally - purchased 4 used iPhones and 1 Macbook Air so far.
- pmw 7mo agoI had a similar experience with eBay. The problem is that “unlocked“ typically refers to being able to use it on a different carrier—not related to the bootloader. So I bought an “unlocked” Pixel that had a locked bootloader. Returned it. Felt bad because the seller correctly classified it. Ultimately I found an eBay seller (thegizmotrader) that explicitly lists the bootloader as unlockable. When buying secondhand, I suggest looking for Pixels not associated with any particular carrier (as are sold by Google online store), and especially not Verizon.
- TwoNineFive 7mo agoI got scammed on Swappa about six months ago. I was buying a used Google Pixel tablet in "mint" condition. It was really used and terribly scratched up. Swappa staff were unhelpful and only after I opened a dispute with Paypal did I get my money back. I don't blame Swappa for a random dodgy seller, but this was an "Enterprise" seller, whom is still selling on Swappa today! See this reddit review, which isn't mine, but is almost exactly what I dealt with. https://reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1d8emzf/suckered_on_swappa_how_swappa_scams_buyers_by/ https://reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1d8emzf/suckered_on_swap... Reading OP's post, I can't help but wonder if they bought a Verizon Pixel. This is a very very well-known gotcha. Verizon locks their bootloaders and you can't bootloader-unlock Verizon Pixels, even after they are carrier-unlocked.
- imrozim 7mo ago[flagged]
- tamimio 7mo agoUnlocked bootloader, grapheneOS, etc etc are all technical terms and nerd culture no one knows outside of technical world, most of these sellers are not technical people, nor they have the time to check it, and unless the seller is technical dude himself, highly unlikely you will get a definitive answer. This has a downside like your scenario, but also a positive side when you find gems in used markets but the owner doesn’t know its potentials.