Phones are the fastest way to lose money importing from China. Not because good stock is unavailable, but because five specific problems are easy to miss on a video call and impossible to fix once the box lands in Accra. If you buy iPhones for resale, check these before you pay.

1. Activation lock and MDM

A phone can look perfect, boot up, and still be worthless. If the previous owner's Apple Account is still attached, the device is activation locked and cannot be set up. Corporate phones carry a separate problem: mobile device management, which reinstalls restrictions after every reset and cannot be removed without the organisation that enrolled it.

What to do: insist that every unit is fully erased and past the setup screen before packing, and ask the supplier to film a random sample being reset and activated. Any supplier who resists this is telling you something.

2. The IMEI tells you the truth

Check IMEIs in bulk, not one or two. You are looking for three things: whether the model and storage match what you were quoted, whether the device is reported lost or stolen on a carrier blacklist, and whether it is carrier locked to a network abroad. A cheap batch of "unlocked" phones that turn out to be locked to a US carrier is a common story, and the discount never covers the loss.

Ask for the IMEI list before shipment and check it against the units that arrive. Serial numbers on the box mean nothing if the phones inside were swapped.

3. Model region decides whether the phone suits your customers

iPhones are sold in regional variants. Mainland China models are built around two physical SIM slots, which many buyers in Ghana and Nigeria prefer. Some models sold elsewhere rely on eSIM, and a few markets get eSIM-only hardware with no SIM tray at all. If your customers swap SIMs constantly or use networks that do not support eSIM provisioning, an eSIM-only unit is a returns problem waiting to happen.

Confirm the exact model number, not just "iPhone 15 Pro 256GB". Ask which region the batch came from and whether the units support the bands your networks use.

4. "Refurbished" covers everything from excellent to rebuilt

Grading in the used phone trade is not standardised. One supplier's Grade A is another's Grade B. More importantly, refurbishing often means replaced parts: screens, batteries, cameras, sometimes housings. Non-genuine parts can trigger warnings in iOS settings, lose features like True Tone or Face ID, and fail faster than originals.

Pin the grading down in writing before you order. Battery health minimum, whether the screen and battery are original, whether the housing has been replaced, what cosmetic marks are acceptable. Then check a sample of units against that standard, not just the three the supplier chose to photograph.

5. Warranty, documentation and your own after-sales cost

Apple's warranty support is regional, and a phone bought as used or refurbished in China usually arrives with no useful warranty for a Ghanaian customer. That cost does not disappear, it moves to you. Work out in advance what you will do when a unit fails in week three: who repairs it, what a screen costs locally, and how much of your margin that eats.

Also keep your paperwork straight. Customs valuation for phones is sensitive, and an invoice that does not match the stock in the carton creates a valuation dispute at the port. Phones have their own shipping treatment too, because batteries travel on slower air services than general cargo.

A short buying checklist

• Full IMEI list supplied and verified before payment
• Every unit erased, activation lock removed, no MDM enrolment
• Model numbers and regional variant confirmed in writing
• Battery health floor and original-parts terms agreed in writing
• Random sample inspected and filmed before the cartons are sealed
• Duty and freight calculated per unit, including the battery route

None of this requires you to be in Shenzhen. It requires someone in Shenzhen doing the checks on your behalf, with the authority to reject a batch.

Book an inspection before you pay for your next phone order, or ask our team what a batch should cost landed in Accra.