I have five cellphones on  my Verizon account. A few of them are used by my children and grandchildren. Anyone with kids will know that in that situation the cell phones will not last the two years until its time for a free new or discounted phone . My grand-daughter should get a job with the quality control department at Verizon. She is a real power user, and wears out phones as fast as her sneakers.

Having  paid full retail to replace her phone a few times, I figured I would get smart and buy replacements on eBay.
Not wanting to buy someone else's junk, I look for sellers who are advertising NEW, NEVER used cellphones.
Here is my bit of wisdom, I learned the hard way. Unless you get a phone in a sealed manufacture's box, you are most likely getting a "REFURBISHED" phone. Most of these unscrupulous sellers claim that the phones they sell are overstocks bought from the provider or manufacturer in bulk as handsets only. A few claim that the phones are new , but the batteries are used. That is just so much bull crap.

When you bring a phone back to your provider that is broken or defective, they send it back for refurbishment.
The refurbished phones are the phones that are provided back to the customer when there is a problem. Then your phone gets recycled. These phones typically get an electronic check-up and are given brand new cases with nice new unscratched screens. Most times the screens even have plastic on them just like new phones. Inside that nice shinny case, is a used phone which may or may not still have problems. I have taken the LG Chocolate back to Verizon at least four times for exactly the same power socket failure. Each time I was given one of these refurbs, and kept the old battery.

When these  Refurbished phones are no longer current models, the backlog of refurbished stock is sold in box lot auctions to resellers who pitch them on eBay as  "New". They usually add these phones are bought in bulk from the manufacturer without accessories, that they then add and package in a plain box. If the phone is not in a sealed manufacturers box it is almost certainly a refurbished (used) phone.I have been taken by this scam more than once on eBay. If you complain most times you get a silly story like "My employee must have shipped the wrong phone, I also sell refurbs" 

Here is a tip, when buying a cell phone from a reseller on eBay, use an online tool like Toolhaus.org  to check all of the sellers negative feedback at once. You really can't just go by the percentage rating system the eBay uses.These guys sell so many phones phones that a few hundred complaints get lost in the feedback of thousands of unsuspecting buyers who thought they got a new phone for cheap. I bought my grand-daughter a supposed NEW LG V9800 , only to discover the previous owners data still in the phone. When I checked this guys total negative feedbacks on Toolhaus, I was amazed to see how many other buyers who had been duped. I guess this guy really has a stupid employee!

The most common phones in this scam are those from LG and Motorola. I don't know why. maybe they are the only manufactures with a refurb program!

Just remember if it's not new, in the manufacturers box, it is most likely a refurbished used phone!