About
GadgetGauge is independent decision support for someone buying a used iPhone from a private-party listing — not a certification, not an appraisal, and not a promise about any specific phone.
What this is
GadgetGauge compares a listing's asking price against a published, dated set of price evidence and applies a published set of risk rules to the seller's answers. It surfaces what your report establishes, what the seller only claims, and what nobody has checked yet — then tells you what would change the decision. It does not evaluate any device other than the supported iPhone models and storage tiers listed on Gauge a deal, and it does not have a path for a seller to prepare or list a device for sale.
Every rule it applies, every number it uses, and everything it cannot determine is published on the Methods page. Nothing about a result is decided behind a hidden score.
Who builds this
GadgetGauge is a consumer-first pilot project by MRTek LLC, built and maintained by a single independent developer. There is no support team and no support inbox — that is not an oversight, it is the current state of the project, and this page won't pretend otherwise. The pilot exists to prove one idea: that honest, independent decision support — with visible limits and dated evidence — serves used-phone buyers better than a marketplace-sponsored price badge.
If a rule looks wrong, or a page behaves unexpectedly, the right place to look is the Methods page: it publishes every rule and the current data status, and it is kept accurate rather than aspirational. There is no review queue for rule changes and no promise of a response — a small, maintained, and readable rule set is the trust mechanism here, not a support channel.
Independence, and how this makes money
GadgetGauge is not affiliated with, and does not represent, any marketplace, wireless carrier, phone manufacturer, or device refurbisher.
It does not make money today: no ads, no affiliate links, no sponsorships, and no user data is sold or shared for marketing. See Privacy for exactly what is and is not collected. If that ever changes, the change will be disclosed on this page and on whichever page it affects — not buried in an unannounced update.
Frequently asked questions
Do you collect my name or email address?
No. There are no accounts and no login. The request behind Gauge a deal is validated against a strict data schema that rejects any field it does not already expect — a name, an email address, or anything similar has no path into that request even if the form tried to send one.
Where are my saved deals stored?
In this browser's local storage, on this device only. There is no server-side copy. A different device, a different browser, or clearing this browser's data means a saved deal is gone — GadgetGauge cannot recover it. See Saved deals.
Is the listing text I paste sent anywhere?
No. Pasted listing text stays in this browser tab and is used only to suggest editable values. It is never sent as part of the check request, never stored, and never appears in a saved result, a shared link, or any analytics event.
Do you verify the phone or the seller?
No. GadgetGauge is decision support, not certification — it cannot inspect a physical phone, confirm who owns it, or confirm that a screenshot is current or genuine. See what GadgetGauge cannot determine.
Where do prices come from?
From a point-in-time, dated snapshot — either an approved eBay Browse API pull or, when that is not available, clearly labelled curated demonstration data. It is never a live feed. The Methods page shows exactly which one produced your result and when it was captured.
Why doesn't GadgetGauge just give me a plain yes or no?
Because it does not know enough to. It separates what your report establishes from what the seller only claims from what nobody has checked, and applies a published set of rules to that — it does not collapse those into a single confident answer it cannot back up. See a worked example where the price is withheld until an unresolved risk is answered.
Is this free?
Yes, free today — no paywall, no trial, no card required for anything on the site right now.