How to Sell a Broken SSD

A broken SSD is still worth selling — typically £5 to £22 at For Parts, against £20 to £90 in working order.

Can you sell an SSD that does not work?

Yes. Repairers, people replacing one component and buyers who want a project all shop deliberately at this end. None of them will accept a fault they discover after paying.

What actually goes wrong with SSDs

These are the faults that move an SSD down the grades, and the first things a buyer will ask about:

High total-bytes-written figures near endurance limits
Drives showing reallocated or pending sectors
Small capacities, worth almost nothing
Unbranded drives with overstated capacity

Grading it honestly

Fair covers something heavily used, or with a described fault or missing part: around £9 to £40. For Parts covers something not working or incomplete, sold as seen: roughly £5 to £22. Grades are seller-declared and nobody inspects them for you, so grading up does not raise what you get — it produces a buyer who arrives expecting something else. All five grades explained.

Working out what you actually have

Establish the fault properly rather than guessing at it:

Run a health check and report the written-bytes figure
Note the capacity and interface type
Securely erase the drive before selling

Photographing the fault

Photograph the damage directly and in focus — it is the evidence that the rest of the description is honest:

The drive from the label side, model and capacity visible
The connector, showing the interface
A SMART health readout on screen showing hours and data written
The underside and any thermal pad or heatsink

What to state in the listing

Alongside the fault itself, buyers of broken SSDs want these confirmed:

Capacity, form factor and interface
Brand, model and read/write speeds
SMART health percentage, power-on hours and total bytes written
Whether it has been securely erased

Capacity, interface and health: “1TB NVMe M.2 SSD, Samsung 970 EVO, 98% Health”. Capacity and interface are the filters. Including a SMART health figure is unusual and immediately credible, because buyers of used drives are specifically worried about wear.

What buyers will ask

Answer these in the listing rather than waiting to be asked:

“What is the drive health?”

Run a SMART tool and screenshot the result. Total bytes written is how buyers judge remaining life and supplying it unprompted sets your listing apart.

“Will it fit my machine?”

State the form factor and interface exactly. M.2 NVMe and 2.5in SATA are not interchangeable and the mistake is common.

“Has the data been wiped?”

Securely erase it and say so. Never sell a drive with a simple file delete — the data is recoverable.

Is it worth repairing first?

Usually not, unless it is cheap and you can evidence it. What lifts the price is condition and completeness, which a repair rarely restores:

Larger capacities and NVMe interfaces
Low written-bytes figures in the drive health
Recognised brands with warranty remaining
Original packaging for safe posting

If the work would cost more than the gap between £22 and what a sound one fetches, sell it as is broken and let the buyer decide.

When to list it

Steady all year. Larger capacities and NVMe drives sell fastest; small SATA drives are abundant and cheap.

Getting it to the buyer

Tiny and cheap to post, but static-sensitive. Use an antistatic bag inside a padded envelope.

WishThrift does not process payments, arrange delivery or hold funds. Confirm the money has cleared before the item leaves your hands, and keep the conversation on the site so there is a record of what was agreed.

Ready to list it? Free to list, no commission, and neither side pays a buyer-protection fee — create a free account, or read the full SSD selling guide if yours turns out to be sound.

Frequently asked questions

Is a broken SSD worth anything?

Yes — typically £5 to £22 at For Parts against £20 to £90 working. Repairers and people harvesting one component buy deliberately at this end. High total-bytes-written figures near endurance limits

Should I repair it before selling?

Usually not, unless the repair is cheap and you can evidence it. The things that genuinely lift the price are larger capacities and NVMe interfaces and a repair rarely restores those.

What do buyers ask about a faulty SSD?

The fault itself, in detail. Run a SMART tool and screenshot the result. Total bytes written is how buyers judge remaining life and supplying it unprompted sets your listing apart. The listing that answers it before being asked is the one that sells.