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.

Cash In Old Gadgets To Buy New Gadgets

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are almost upon us. Just look at all the new smartphones and other electronic gadgets that are going on sale, if they aren’t already. Exciting, isn’t it? Yet we know that times are uncertain and that we should really think about how we are going to pay for those shiny new things. Here’s an idea: Get your old stuff to pay for your new stuff!

Sounds a bit fanciful, but it can work. How? It’s because we all collect... make that hoard... electronics and photography gear of all types. Never mind that we aren’t using this gear anymore. We just have it around. It’s too good to throw away and too much hassle to sell, so there it sits. What we don’t consider is that there is a veritable savings account worth of value in all that unused equipment. There’s your cash source to buy the new, new gadgets this holiday season. Now, if there was only a way to tap it.

You’re in luck! There is a fast and easy way to convert your unwanted gadgets to cash. It’s an online service provided by Gazelle, a leader in recycling high technology gear. What they do is make you an offer based on the current market value of your items. If you elect to sell, you get a free postage paid mailer that you pack up and drop off at the shipper. At the other end, Gazelle will evaluate each item for operation and condition. Once checked out, they send you a check. Now when you get that bill for the new flat screen HDTV or video game, you’ve got the funds to cover it. It’s recycling at its best.

This process actually works all year long, but it’s particularly valuable right now. That’s because we tend to buy big time for ourselves and others through December 24, with the heartburn of credit card bills coming due in January or February. There’s no time to waste.

Start scouring the house and even those desk drawers at work. Look in the bottom drawers, especially. That’s where unused gadgets go to hibernate indefinitely. Get a big bag or box and start filling it with cell phones, video games, laptop computers, movies, MP3 players, digital cameras, PDAs, gaming consoles, GPS devices, camcorders, desktop computers, LCD monitors, calculators, camera lenses, satellite radios, external drives, streaming media, home audio equipment, projectors and Blu-Ray players. I’ll bet you’ve got anywhere between a modest box to half-a-room full.

The next step is to get price offers for each item. Consider it a game that pays. Perhaps you can engage family members or co-workers to help evaluate a massive tech collection, especially if they think they might benefit from the proceeds. Find your item through a search on the Gazelle site. Find the exact model you have and then check the radio buttons for functionality, condition and available accessories. Click the “Calculate” button and you’ll see how much they’ll pay you. I just tried a Nikon camera lens and saw I could sell it for $90. If you think that price is fair and want to cash-in, click the orange “Add to Box” button to lock in the offer. Then move on to the next item.

Procrastination is not to your advantage. Technology, like milk and most everything else, loses value over time. Chances are that you’ll get a better offer today than you will in a week or a month from now as your unused gear just gets more and more obsolete. Word to the wise!

Once you have evaluated your collection and see the now substantial total offer, all you need is that pre-paid shipping box. You get that by clicking on the “Checkout” button. When your container arrives, pack each item carefully using recycled newspaper or other soft packing material and sent it in. Congratulations, the hard work is done! Now it’s just a matter of waiting for the moola.

Can it get any easier? Not unless someone came over, ransacked your place while you watched TV, and peeled off a roll of bills on their way out. This is the next best thing. It takes minimal effort compared to running ads, dealing with people at the door or dragging everything through the auction process. When you’re done, you have cash in hand, the satisfaction of recycling things you don’t need anymore, plus all that extra shelf and drawer space you’ll need for your new acquisitions.

Are you motivated to start the process? Gather your gear and get recycling offers for your gadgets now. Those big sales are about to start!

Recycle Video Games and Gaming Systems

So, how many video games and gaming systems do you have? Not just the two or three that you are using now. How many different systems and how many games for each system are there hidden in the nooks and crannies of your house or apartment? Too many to count? I thought so.

Now, how would you like to quickly and easily convert some of those games and game consoles that you aren’t using anymore to cash? Yes, cold, hard cash. Well, actually it’s a check and it’s neither cold nor hard. But it is money. It’s money that you can use to buy anything you want, including the latest in video games and gaming systems.

Did I happen to mention that this is quick and easy? One of the reasons that we all have a bunch of systems and dozens upon dozens of games scattered here and there is that unloading them can be a lot of trouble. Unless you have a local store that buys this stuff, you are faced with the onerous chore of running classified ads and dealing with whoever shows up at the door and whenever they decide to show up. Or, you can take pictures and run auctions, hoping for the best. Oh, it didn’t sell? That’s depressing.

Forget all that grief. Sell your used video games and game systems to an online recycler and be done with it in minutes, not hours or days. The process is about as easy as you can get and it’s even fun. Think of it as a treasure hunt. You’re on the hunt to see what you can get for stuff that’s just taking up space right now. All you need to do is run a quick search for the game or game platform that you own. You can also just browse through the selections if you have the time and enjoy the trip down memory lane.

Once you’ve found your game, just answer a couple of quick questions about the condition of the game disc or cartridge and what accessories you have. Then click the “Calculate” button and find out how much you’ll get paid for what you have. Each one takes a matter of a few second. If you like the offer, you can add it to your “box” which is like a shopping cart in reverse. All done? Go ahead and request a free pre-paid mailer. When it comes, pack your items in it and send it on its way. Once the condition of your submission have been verified, you’ll get a check in the mail. It could be enough to buy a new game. It might be enough to buy a whole new system. It all depends on what you have and what condition it is in. The newer and cleaner, the better.

What type of games and gaming systems can you sell? If you have anything for Atari, Microsoft Xbox or Xbox 360, Nintendo GameBoy or GameBoy Advance, Gamecube, DS, DS Lite, Wii, Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation 2 or 3 or PSP, you may be in luck. This is not a comprehensive list, so even if you have something else, it is worth your while to take a few seconds and see if you can get paid.

By the way, electronics recycling is not limited to video games and consoles. The most popular item to recycle is cell phones. There are hundreds of millions of them out there and many could be easily converted to cash. Also, digital cameras, desktop and laptop computers, LCD monitors, projectors, streaming media devices, home audio Blu-Ray players, satellite radios, camcorders, camera lenses, MP3 players, external drives, PDAs and even movies. Round up all your electronic stuff and send them in. You may be sitting on a small fortune and not even know it.

Is That A Game Or A Netbook?

The line between computers and electronic games has been fuzzy for years. That's basically because a modern gaming console really is a powerful computer, with the games implemented as applications software. So it should come as no surprise that Nintendo's new handheld game system has netbook-like features that include WiFi connectivity with security, a Web browser, and expandable memory.

Make no mistake about it, the Nintendo DSi is targeted toward gamers. It has a console you can hold in your hand, it's battery powered, and it runs Nintendo DS game cartridges. Actually, the DSi is the next evolutionary step for the Nintendo DS series. It's been an extremely popular product line for Nintendo. I've got the DS lite version myself. But what does this iteration offer that would justify an upgrade and how does this device intrude on the nascent netbook market?

In a way, the Nintendo DSi looks like it should be a small notebook computer. It's flat black case flips open to reveal...

Well, not a keyboard. Instead you'll find two screens. One is on the lid where you'd expect it. The other is on the case where you'd normally find a QWERTY keyboard. Instead of letter and number keys, there's a joystick control and some other push-buttons. The screens are slightly larger, 3.25 inches, than their DS lite predecessor. The lower screen is a touchscreen to make up for the limited number of buttons available.

The Opera Web browser and games make use of both screens, giving you about twice the visual real estate of a touchscreen cell phone. That's the other gadget that the DSi could be looking to partially emulate.

There are 2 cameras included in the DSi, which are new to the Nintendo DS family. One camera is on the case and faces outward. The other is on the inside and faces toward you. They're being promoted for taking taking goofy pictures and playing around with them using some comical photo editing features. But I'm thinking two-way video conferencing someday. Well, why not? There's a microphone onboard and WiFi transceiver. It's just a matter of someone coming up with the right app.

Music is also onboard this version of the DS. There's an AAC format music player and stereo speakers. You can even record short sound clips using the onboard mic and play around with them using the audio software. Oddly, this device doesn't support MP3, which is more of the industry standard. But it is a music player, and you have the SD memory card slot available to make sure you have enough storage for your music and photos.

Clearly, the Nintendo DSi is a toy and not a piece of business gear. The resolution of the screens and cameras is low by today's high definition standards. There's no Microsoft Office software package and certainly no disk drive. But think about it. Where netbooks are leading us is to a world in the clouds where the true processing power and massive storage will reside. The access device, be it a smartphone, netbook, or perhaps even a gaming console, is a thin client that only needs the hardware and firmware required to input and output to the cloud over the Internet.

So, what do you suppose some clever developers could do to hot-rod the functionality of the DSi? Could they build it out for VoIP telephony over WiFi using Skype? Play videos or live TV? Two-way video conferencing? Email and instant messaging? Multimedia messaging? Blogging? Tweeting? Running business applications from specially designed Web sites?

Perhaps this is a bit fanciful, but you can see how portable game consoles, cell phones and netbook computers are on a collision course. What gets used for what remains to be seen. For the mean time, if you are interested in a sweet portable gaming console with some multimedia and Internet capabilities, take a closer look at the new Nintendo DSi.

BlackBerry Fun and Games

Been working hard? Time for a break? Well, then, let's play some Guitar Hero. But no need to go home and fire up your video game console. We're going to play Guitar Hero on our BlackBerry. Anybody looking? Good. Pick your Gibson guitar, pick your favorite character, pick your venue and get ready to shred!

Wait a second. Shred and BlackBerry in the same sentence? Sure. Well, it may not be something you want to do in middle of some terminally serious business meeting. But when you're away from suit territory, why not? If it's YOUR BlackBerry, then you can jolly well put whatever stress relief on it that you want.

BlackBerry. It's not just for corporate email anymore. Or even spreadsheets. Bplay lets you add entertainment to spice up your stodgy smartphone. You can choose from games, themes, wallpaper and music. And it's all just for fun.

The top five games right now are Guitar Hero 3 Mobile, Texas Hold'em King 3, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Golden Tee Golf Mobile Edge, and Sudoku. Or is Call of Duty4 Modern Warfare more your style? Hey, it's good practice for corporate warfare. Tell your boss you need to stay in fighting trim if you get caught playing this one during company hours.

Dress up your stodgy BlackBerry screen with dozens of themes. How about Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia for a Star Wars theme? There's art, college, zodiac, movies and icon themes among the collection. Even Republican and Democratic political themes. Get 'em while the elections are hot.

Along with themes, there is wallpaper to transport you to a better place. That could be anywhere from a tropical beach to the dunes of Mars or the rings of Saturn. Anyplace but cubical wall beige or that phony office woodgrain.

By the way, what sort of ringtone do you have? Wouldn't an MP3 Realtone of your favorite music be a lot better? If you think so, you have a lot to choose from. All the genres including Reggae, Hip Hop, Rock, Country, University Fight Songs, Classical, Jazz and Gospel are represented. Pick the artist and song that represents you best.

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