When gold buyers were running television commercials inviting people to mail in their gold for cash a couple of years ago, I couldn’t believe that anyone would think that was a good idea. So, why should mailing your cell phone to a company in hopes of getting a check back be any different? Maybe the thought of getting some value out of something that had no value for a couple of years is different.
Although there are several options available for selling old phones, in the interest of blogging science I decided to sell my phone using one of the online buying services. My original intent was to use two or three different services then compare the results. Well, it turns out that only one of my phones had any monetary value at all.
I decided to test Gazelle.com. On January 18, 2012 I setup an online account and provided my email address, mailing address and details about the phone. They made an offer for the phone and gave the option of earning 5% more by taking payment in an Amazon Gift card. I originally asked for the gift card, but later opted for the check. I had no problems making this change with the help of their online chat service.
On January 24, 2012 the shipping kit they promised to send arrived. On January 25 I carefully packed my phone and mailed it to them in the USPS prepaid box they sent. Using the tracking number they provided, I was able to see that the package arrived in Roseville, California on January 30. Within a few hours after it arrived, I received an email confirming that it arrived along with this message: “We’ll open the box up shortly and check your items into the system to get you through our process fast.”
On February 1st I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the phone was worth more than twice the amount that they had offered me and that I would be receiving a check for $97.00. On February 9th, the check arrived.
Naturally there are risks in a transaction like this, but I have to say Gazelle.com was more than fair to me in this exchange.
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