Your used iPhone, appropriately priced, would have appealed to someone with no need for all cameras working, the buyer also adept at replacing the battery. So, to appeal to such a potential buyer, I'd have listed it with this approach:
1) Price it according to condition and repair needed for normal mobile use.
2) Include in Title the item's limitations, e.g. "2 of 3 cameras working" and "limited battery life". That's about the most positive way you could present those caveats, byet still attract interest to proper buyer.
3) In very first paragraph of Description, elaborate on the limitations. After all, you are WANTING to eliminate potential buyers who will not be happy with its present condition. Also, confirm what is properly performing in the phone's functionality
4) Include in the description that you will be clarifying with any buyer that person's knowledge from the plain and accurate description that the item has condition limitations, and that confirmation response will be prerequisite to shipment. Use of ebay Messages associated with the transaction will provide a reference stored in Seller's and Buyer's message record that any ebay CSR can reference.
5) With this full disclosure of an item's condition, you are demonstrating with due diligence that you are honestly describing a "Used" condition item that is worth what you and the buyer have agreed fulfills the buyer's expectation.
I have successfully sold items with minor defects in the "Used" category of Condition by being fully "upfront" about caveats in the listing description, while my choice of the "For parts or not working" would have eliminated the item from consideration by many potentially interested buyers. By providing true, accurate information, those buyers were given a better opportunity to save money without paying for a feature or condition they don't need. I would not list an item as "Used" with a known major obstacle to normal use without doing all I could in listing and sale fulfillment to ensure buyer awareness.
An expample of such among items I sell might be a stereo receiver with non-working Phono input, unable to use a turntable without its own phono preamp; or a VCR (which most buyers now only use for playback), with analog tuner missing channels 14-125 (now in non-use); a DVD recorder with non-functioning VHS transport, which many buyers would be using pnly to rcopy from other format camcorder tapes.
I agree that ebay's allowance of puchases from smartphones, whose view of listing requires proactively selecting "See full description" to see it, is responsible for many purchases by buyers who never saw important information needed to have a clue as to what they'd bought. My problem, however, has been with buyers purchasing items from cell phone that I'd listed with "Local pickup" OPTION, then requesting to cancel the order when they got the invoice that includes the shipping, or, in some cases, even after they had somehow failed to notice that they had paid for the shipping. I always ask buyers in these situations if their use of a smartphone for purchase is partially to blame for their error. I would be happy for ebay to make it harder for buyers to get to the payment button in the mobile app without scrolling through full description and, for Local pickup purchase, seeing a reminder to make selection, "I am agreeing to pick up this item in City, State".
