Amazon US offers gift cards, free shipment for your e-junk Amazon has launched an online junk shop which allows people to trade electronic goods in exchange for gift cards. The Electronic Trade-In Store will accept old phones, MP3 players, cameras and DVDs and computer games. Textbooks are also acceptable for trading. But the site warns that your item must exactly match descriptions …
Might be good for cheaper items not worth wasting your time on ebay, but $122 trade-in value for an unlocked Google Nexus One. They ebay for over twice that easily. Appears to be same for other items like Ipads. I may be wrong, but I see this disappearing after a time in a puff of smoke.
Maybe because it is something called overhead. If Amazon paid you what they were selling for on eBay, how would they make any money off of it. If you want market price, sell it on the market. if you want to get rid of it by using a broker, then don't expect market prices.
The fail is all on you.
I'll concede the "fail" icon doesn't necessarily apply here. And yes I understand the concept of overhead. I was simply saying I don't think there is enough demand for this sort of service for it to continue long term. In my experience, when someone has been willing to let go of an item for %50 or less of market value, they very often sell/give it to a friend or family member for that amount, or sell to a pawn shop where they get immediate cash-in-hand instead of waiting for a gift card.
I can understand going for the immediate and guaranteed gift card grab. It's definitely not for me, though. Looking at the prices they're offering and what the going rate is on a lot of that stuff, I'd much sooner go ahead and flog the merchandise on Amazon's own marketplace and make a significantly higher amount of actual money.
Now, that takes some more time, isn't a guaranteed sale, and involves doing a bit of customer service on occasion, but I want my money, not a gift card. Meeeh?
Paris, 'cause she don't take Amazon credit, either.
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