Buy Back Programs on Electronics

The one thing about technology that frustrates so many of us is that old joke that as soon as you walk out the door, your item is outdated. It seems like as soon as something hits the market, and we go buy it, some hot newer item comes out so quickly after it, making our expensive new item not so new or happy to have. Hold on to an item for a year, and you might as well toss it out it is so antiquated it seems. But before you throw it out, it may be worth a little something to a company that will buy it back from you.

Amazon just recently announced their buy back program, where you can trade in your old electronics for gift card/credit. You have an old cell phone laying around? How about a never used MP3 player? Older camera or GPS system laying around? Regardless of where you purchased it from, you can now at least get something for it. Simply go to the Amazon Trade-In page and see what you can get. Have an Apple iPad 2 laying around? It might be worth $480 trade in depending on the condition.

The best part is, they pay to have the items shipped to them, and if they choose to not keep an item, it is returned within 14 days at their expense too. This service was just recently expanded to cover electronics, whereas before they only accepted video games, DVDs, and other media items.

Joining in on the fun earlier in the year, Best Buy stores launched a buy-back service also, which allowed you to bring a purchased item back within two years to receive a percentage of the purchase price back if the item was in good condition. This allows people to feel a bit better about buying the hot new thing, knowing tomorrow a hotter new thing may come out. Everything from TVs, mobile devices, laptops, tablets and more would qualify for this program.

Jeff McCormack resides in Virginia Beach, VA. where he works as a web designer by day. In his off time he is a husband, father, mail order book store manager, and musician. Aside from being a freelance writer for this Tech Careers blog, he also seeks to assist in career choices and information by contributing to other Nexxt blog sites.