Rave ‘n’ Crave Wednesday: Amazon’s Trade-In Store

There are many trade in websites: Gazelle, Best Buy, HP and Amazon. I stumbled upon Amazon’s Trade-In website when I accidentally clicked on it. Now, I had seen the option to trade-in one of my textbooks on Amazon before, but for a long time I had been against selling my used stuff. If I pay $80 for a book, why would I want to sell it back to a company for $35-$40? That company will then turn around and sell it for $50. In my eyes, there was no benefit to ME. It then occurred to me that if I buy it for $80 and sell it for $40, then I only paid $40 for the item. Furthermore, I paid $40, used it, sold it and now it is no longer taking up space in my house! It is all in how you view things . . .

Amazon will allow you to trade-in books, electronics, video games and DVDs. Many big name stores have teamed up with Gazelle.com for a similar concept. You look up an item you wish to trade-in. You are then given a value for the item based upon its condition. You box up the item yourself and the company covers the shipping cost. Amazon gives you a gift certificate for the value of your items. Gazelle will give you cold hard cash in the form of a credit on your credit card. If you use Gazelle, you can also get gift cards for Costco, Walmart (Evil W), or another big name store.

Personally, I LOVE Amazon. I am a happy Prime member. I have long wish lists of things that I want. When I looked up the value of my iPhone 3G on Apple’s website, they said it had no value. Amazon, on the other hand said it was worth $100! By the time I stopped procrastinating and traded it in, it was worth $77. It was my own fault for waiting so long. However, for a phone that I purchased in 2008, it was still an amazing deal!

In all fairness, I will say that some people have had problems trading in their iPhones to Amazon. Third party merchants receive the item through Amazon and grant the credit. There have been reports that items have had their conditions downgraded upon arrival at Amazon. If you value your electronics, make sure you write down the serial numbers of them and check the box to have your item(s) returned to you (at no charge) if they deem the condition to be less than you said it was. Otherwise, they can set an arbitrary value and give you less credit.

I have traded in old textbooks, an iPhone, an iPod, video games and movies that I no longer want or use. With Amazon’s trade in program, I have so far received more than $200 worth of credit. That credit can now be applied towards things I WANT on Amazon but don’t actually NEED. The only problem now is the gift card conundrum: Now that I have a gift card, what should I buy? All the things on my wish list don’t seem so important to me anymore . . . Now, I want something else! But, what?! Heh heh . . . consumerism is an evil thing.