Been on メルカリ and seen alot of smartphones. The older ones seem like a real good deal, and the condition on most is amazing. Alot of them I’ve seen say “Sim フリー” in the descriptions. I’ve read this means mostly any sim will work on them?
I just wanted to confirm before buying, does anyone have experience with buying a phone on Mercari? And can I just plug in any data plan sim (ie. ドコモ , 楽天)? Please let me know <3
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Simfree means any sim card will work. However that term also applies to carrier unlocked phones. Carrier unlocked phones may contain bloatware that cannot be removed without rooting if it is an android phone.
Simフリー device will work with any sim around the world.
I had bought few iphones from mercari and all sim free and had no problem using it inside Japan or outside Japan.
Sim free is exactly what it sounds like. Any sim should work – i.e. not network locked.
One thing you do want to check is whether the device’s IMEI is blacklisted on the network you want to use it – only an issue inside Japan really as the carriers don’t share blocklists with the world.
Check the listing for IMEI (usually listed outright, or in the comments) and run it through the carrier’s IMEI check:
* http://nw-restriction.nttdocomo.co.jp/top.php docomo
* https://my.au.com/cmn/WCV009001/WCE009001.hc au
* https://mg.mb.softbank.jp/support/confirm.html softbank
As long as you get a 〇 or △ for it, it should be able to get on the network. △ (at least for docomo) means the phone might still be on a payment plan and MAY be disabled if the previous owner fails to pay – it’s up to you if you want to purchase a phone like that or not. If it’s × then you should not buy it as it’s blacklisted – due to nonpayment or being stolen etc.
sim フリー is one approach
another is searching for ロック解除 (opened restriction) which are operator specific phones that have been unlocked for sim-free operation
I’d be careful buying phones off there.
I got an “unlocked” phone off there, which was still locked to a USA carrier.
If they don’t have it already in the listing, ask for the IMEI number.
Then you can search the IMEI number for free to check if it’s really “unlocked”.