No Luck Returning Christmas Gifts? Recycle!

The holiday whirlwind is subsiding. Most of the wrapping paper has been rounded up and set out at the curb in a bulging plastic bag. What’s left is a pile of stuff under the tree that needs to go somewhere. Not the decorations, mind you. They have a box in the basement. It’s all those new gifts that loving friends and family showered upon you this year. You didn’t have the heart to tell them that you already have a smartphone or game console or MP3 player or navigation device or even a laptop computer that’s better than the new one in the box. Now what?

The week after Christmas is traditional for schlepping gifts back to the store from which they came. Another item or, better yet, a cash refund is your reward for standing in long lines to present your paperwork for inspection.

Oh, no. You have no paperwork. These gifts did not come with a refund register slip. The giver never thought of that or was so sure they were giving you the gift of a lifetime that you wouldn’t consider exchanging it for something else. Are you going to tell Aunt Millie, your mom or your bosses boss that you really don’t want that electronic whatever?

Save yourself the embarrassment and the standing in lines. There’s a much easier and more discrete way to unload a Christmas burden... er... gift. Just go ahead and recycle it.

What? Stick that new e-reader in the curbside recycling bin? That’s nuts!

Of course it is. I’m not talking about trashing a valuable piece of new electronic or photographic gear. What I’m suggesting is that you quickly and easily sell your new, but unwanted, stuff for cash to an online recycler. They’ll take care of finding it a new home where it will be wanted and you’ll be all the richer. Best of all, nobody’s going to rat you out to the boss or relatives.

How much can you get? The best way to see is to find your item on the Gazelle website. They maintain an up-to-date database of all the stuff they buy, with an instant online offer. You simply find the item you have to sell, check a few boxes indicating condition and available accessories, and then click a button to get an offer. If you like what you see, you accept the offer and you’ll get a free postage paid shipping box sent to you. Then carefully pack your item in the box, wish it the best for a new life, and drop it off for shipment. Once your item has been received and evaluated, you’ll get a check. It’s that easy.

What sort of gadgets does Gazelle buy? All sorts of cell phones, digital cameras, desktop computers, external drives, tablets, video games, PDAs, calculators, streaming media, e-readers, movies, gaming consoles, LCD monitors, home audio, laptop computers, GPS devices, camera lenses, projectors, MP3 players, camcorders, satellite radios and Blu-Ray players.

You’ll get the most money for new items, but you can also sell used devices of recent vintage in good condition. Cell Phones that have just come out of service are excellent candidates for resale. Sometimes you can get paid a good chunk of change for a cell phone that you got free from your provider. It’s well worth your while to check offers for every piece of qualified gear that you have around the house or office.

Now that you know how to convert gifts to cash the easy and discrete way, go ahead and get all that unwanted but valuable stuff out of your way before you have to find a place to store it. Once you have cashed-in unwanted gifts, you can look the givers in the eye and honestly say that you wound up with exactly what you wanted.

Sell Your Free Cell Phone For Cash

You were smart about where you bought your new cell phone and got a state-of-the-art smartphone for free with your service order. You didn’t pay more for service because you know those plans are the same price no matter where you get them. It’s the price of the phone that varies from store to store.

Now your contract has expired and it’s a good time to upgrade to a newer model phone. Once again, you want to shop around and get the one you want free or at a deeply discounted price. But, what about that phone that just came off contract? What are you going to do with it?

Most people toss their old cell phones in a drawer, figuring they’re too good to throw in the trash and might be useful someday. We’ll at least they don’t go in the trash. There are materials inside those phones that become toxic when they decay in the environment. But once in the drawer, a cell phone rarely goes back into service. Hey, it was a free phone so who cares? It’s not worth anything, right?

Nothing could be further from the truth. Just because YOU didn’t pay for the phone doesn’t mean it has a lower value. That marvel of technology may have cost hundreds of dollars to manufacture. You took good care if it and everything works just as well as it did a couple of years ago when it was new. That gadget has residual value that you can extract, once again because you are smart.

Here’s the smart thing to do with a free phone that has just come off of contract. Move as fast as you can to sell your cellphone for cash online. Technology has a limited shelf life. The older it gets, the less it is worth. The very best you can do is sell your unwanted phone immediately after you are done using it. Pocket the cash and use it for whatever you want. After all, you’re getting your new phone free too.

It’s an easy process. All you have to do is look up the particular make and model phone you have, check a few boxes about the condition of the device and what accessories you still have, and request an offer. You’ll get an instant online offer for your phone. If you like what you see, then click through and request a postage paid shipping box so you can send it in at no cost to you. Once your phone has been checked out, you’ll get a check in the mail. Mmmm. Money in the mailbox for something you didn’t pay for. Does it get any sweeter that this?

What about new phones that never went into service? You got a holiday or birthday present from a well-meaning relative, but you have no use for this thing. You don’t want to pay for a contract to put it into service. What to do?

A simple “thank you” will suffice. Then, when you are sure they are not looking, check the value of your gift and send it in for cash. Since it is brand new, it will be worth more than one that’s been used for a year or two and is no longer the latest model. You could be looking at a hundred bucks or more in your pocket if you act quickly.

Here’s another little secret to getting money for stuff you don’t want. Gazelle also offers to buy electronic games, navigation devices, digital cameras, laptop computers and many other recent vintage technology gear. It’s a virtual gold mine right after the flurry of holiday gift giving has subsided. It’s also a way you can regularly get cash for stuff you are upgrading any time of year. Who knew that free electronic gadgets could be worth so much?