Canada man pays $3,143 for box of Apple returns to try and flip them for a profit

Buying mystery boxes to flip can be a risky game, but one Canadian reseller decided to take a chance on a huge batch of Apple returns.

The entrepreneur spent $3,143 on a wholesale lot of used iPhones that had been traded in by customers and auctioned off by a carrier.

His plan was simple: repair any issues, list the phones online, and hopefully turn a healthy profit.

But after opening the box and inspecting every device, he discovered a problem that threatened to eat into his earnings.

He paid $3,143 for box of Apple returns hoping for a big return

The gadget reseller called Kristian Kumric purchased a lot of 30 used iPhone 12 Minis through a carrier auction platform.

The devices originally came from T-Mobile customers who had traded in their iPhones when upgrading to newer models.

At an average cost of just $102 per phone, the deal initially looked promising.

When the shipment arrived, he found a mix of colors and storage options, including 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB variants.

Even better, almost all of the phones were in excellent cosmetic condition, with very few scratches or signs of wear.

The majority of the devices were also higher-capacity models, which get stronger resale prices on the used market, and Kristian would know as someone who has flipped iPhones for profit before.

There was one obvious issue spotted immediately, however, as one purple iPhone had a cracked camera lens.

Still, that seemed like a small problem compared to what he would uncover later.

An expensive surprise arrived

After testing all 30 phones, the Kumric found that nearly every device worked properly, but the biggest issue turned out to be battery health.

Because the iPhone 12 Mini is now approaching five years old, many of the batteries had degraded significantly.

In fact, 21 of the 30 phones had battery health below 80 percent, meaning they would need replacement batteries before they could be sold through Amazon.

That meant paying for new batteries as well as labor costs to install them.

Despite the setback, the numbers still stacked up surprisingly well.

How much will he make in total?

After calculating repair costs, Amazon fees, and the original purchase price, the reseller estimated that the lot would generate around CA$7,792 in revenue.

Total costs, including repairs, came to roughly CA$5,022.

That left him with a projected profit of around CA$2,770, which works out to more than CA$92 profit per phone, not bad flip stats.

For a box of Apple returns that arrived with plenty of unknowns, the gamble appears to have paid off.