Local cash
Usually the strongest net outcome if the phone can move in your area.
Clean Flip Academy
Profit Guide
Long-tail guide
Phone flipping profit calculator: the simple math that should happen before every buy.
The first useful calculator is not fancy. It answers four questions: how many phones you can buy with your current cash, what your margin per phone looks like, how much one full round can make, and how much that becomes if you repeat the same budget across the month.
Core formula
The basic spread is still buy price minus sell price.
Beginners overcomplicate this. The basic local cash formula is: profit per phone = sale price - buy price. Then multiply by how many devices your current budget can actually buy. That gives you one real round, not a fantasy projection.
- Start with your current budget, not the budget you wish you had.
- Use a sale price the market can realistically absorb, not your ideal number.
- Keep room for negotiation, mistakes, and slower-moving inventory.
The big mistake
People love gross revenue and forget net profit.
Seeing a phone “sell for more” is not enough. You care about what stays in pocket. That is why local cash often wins. A higher price on eBay or Swappa can still leave you less once fees, shipping, and payment processing get involved.
Shipped sale
Can help slower models, but only if the fee stack still leaves enough margin.
Monthly pace
Cash rotation matters as much as spread.
A thinner profit repeated two or four times can beat a bigger spread that takes forever to close. That is why the monthly cycles input matters. One clean local flip repeated fast can outperform a prettier screenshot of a listing that sits for weeks.
How to use our tool
Start with budget, buy price, sale price, and monthly cycles.
The free on-page calculator is built exactly for this. Use it to check:
- How many phones your current cash can fund
- Profit per phone
- Total profit from one full buying round
- Estimated monthly profit if the same cash rotates again
Where paid helps
The paid version starts where the free math stops.
The free calculator shows the clean local spread. The paid marketplace payout tool goes further: it compares local cash, Swappa, and eBay after fees and shipping so you can see whether a shipped exit actually improves the deal.