Every refurbished seller invents its own condition grades. Pick a seller and the label you're looking at, and we'll show you what it actually means — and what the same device is called everywhere else.
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There is no industry standard for refurbished condition grades, so sellers reuse the same words for different things. These overlaps are calculated from each seller's own published definitions.
At Back Market AU it means micro-marks only. nothing visible at close inspection (about 20 cm). At Mobile Guru the same word means scratches and/or small dents you can see in normal light. fully functional — a materially different device at the same label.
At Back Market AU it means light marks. nothing visible at arm's length (about 50 cm). At Mobile Guru the same word means noticeable scratches and digs. fully functional — a materially different device at the same label.
7 sellers, 23 published condition labels. Bands are RefurbVerify's normalisation of each seller's own wording — not a claim any seller makes.
| Seller | As New | Near New | Light Wear | Visible Wear | Heavy Wear | Not published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Australia Manufacturer | Certified Refurbished | — | — | — | — | — |
| Back Market AU Marketplace | — | PremiumExcellent | Good | Fair | — | — |
| OzMobiles Specialist | New | Ex-Demo | ExceptionalExcellent | Good | — | — |
| Mobile Guru Specialist | — | Premium | Amazing as New | Excellent | Good | — |
| Phonebot Specialist | — | Like New | Grade A | Grade B | — | — |
| Reebelo AU Marketplace | Brand New | Like New | — | — | — | ExcellentGood |
| Recompute Specialist | — | Excellent Grade (A Grade) | — | — | B Grade | — |
Sources — each seller's own published grading page: Apple Australia · Back Market AU · OzMobiles · Mobile Guru · Phonebot · Reebelo AU · Recompute
Grades are marketing language. Australian Consumer Law is not.
Consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law apply to refurbished goods and cannot be excluded, restricted or modified by a seller's own warranty terms. A lower grade does not remove them.
Goods must be of acceptable quality judged against price and any condition disclosed before sale. That is exactly why the label matters: a disclosed “Grade B” sets a lower bar than an undisclosed one.
OzMobiles, Mobile Guru and Phonebot each publish a minimum 80% battery health. Back Market and Reebelo tie battery to the listing, not the grade. Check which you're buying.
Across the AU listings we track, warranties run 12 to 24 months. Mobile Guru publishes 24 months; Phonebot 12 with 30-day change of mind. US sellers commonly offer 30 to 90 days.
No Australian seller's grade tells you whether the handset is Australian stock or a parallel import. That affects network band support and who honours the manufacturer warranty. Ask before you buy.
Only Apple's grade names the refurbisher. On marketplaces, the grade is applied by a third-party seller you haven't been introduced to.
No. Only Phonebot and Recompute use letter grades among the sellers we track, and they apply them to different scales — Phonebot's Grade A sits below its Like New tier, while Recompute's A Grade is its default. Everyone else uses words like Excellent, Premium or Like New instead.
OzMobiles, Mobile Guru and Phonebot each publish a minimum of 80% battery health across all grades, with 90% floors on their top tiers. Back Market and Reebelo publish battery ranges but do not tie them to the cosmetic grade.
No. Consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law apply regardless of grade and cannot be contracted out of. What the grade does change is the benchmark for acceptable quality — a clearly disclosed cosmetic defect is not a fault.
Not according to the sellers themselves. Every Australian grading page we checked describes its grades in purely cosmetic terms and states that all grades are fully functional. Phonebot puts every grade through the same 72-point inspection.