Re-Commerce sites, or how to raise cash to buy that iPad 2

If you have your heart set on Apple’s new thinner, lighter iPad 2, but already own an iPad, don’t despair. This is a great time to sell your old one. You can try putting it up for sale on eBay, but you may find you’re in good company there. At last check, there were thousands of listings for “iPad” on the auction site.

Or you can turn to “re-Commerce” sites, websites that specialize in trade-in and buy-back of used electronics. You simply enter information about your device, the condition it’s in, what original items you still have for it, and they give you an estimate. If you accept, they send you a pre-paid shipping label and in some cases, a box for it, and off it goes. If they agree with your assessment of the condition, they send you a check, or paypal payment.

Here’s a recent segment I did on ABC’s World News Now with a round-up of websites that can help you recycle or sell those old (to you) tech gadgets.

[You can find this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHczNyjL9QA.]

GAZELLE.COM

Gazelle says nearly 4,000 iPads were traded in between Wednesday’s announcement and EOB Friday.  Gazelle expects to payout more than $2 million to iPad owners. This is double the number of iPhones traded in during the same two-day period.

Gazelle is currently offering $387 for a 64GB 3G + WiFi iPad in good condition. That will get you about half of what a new iPad will sell for. This is a good indication the iPad 2 is not only going to be a successful product for Apple, but a successful upgrade as well, as clearly millions of original iPad owners are expected to upgrade to the new model.

You can trade other items as well. It accepts products in more than 20 categories including: Blu-Ray Players, Camcorders, Cell Phones, Desktops, Digital Cameras, E-Readers, Gaming Consoles, GPS Devices, Laptops, LCD Monitors, and Players

NEXTWORTH

Next Worth offers a similar type of deal, but they also have a retail partnership with Target stores in the U.S., where customers can receive a Target gift card when they trade-in used electronics in-store. iPad units will be accepted for trade-in at Target locations by the end of March.

For those not near a participating retail store, simply get a quote online and get a check, Paypal, gift card or e-gift card mailed to you.

You go through the same kinds of questions, is it functional, is it scratched, are there dead spots on the display, do you have the original chargers and cables, etc.

iPad 64GB Wifi $390

NextWorth says they’re able to restore and refurbish almost all of the devices, and will be selling the traded-in iPads through its extensive sales network on their online storehttp://www.greatipodexchange.com/ in the next 7 to 14 days, as well as in other online stores. Through promoting reuse they help keep gadgets out of the landfill – they say whatever can’t be used is recycled in the US in accordance with industry standards.

ECOSQUID

EcoSquid is like the Orbitz of re-commerce sites. It asks you questions about your item and then does the comparison shopping for you, showing you what Gazelle and other sites will pay for it. It will also give you recycling opportunities for used electronics. Right now, there aren’t many partner sites for trade-in so the recycling program is more expansive, but it’s nice to know where you can recycle used electronics in your area without waiting for your town’s electronic waste day.

REFUND:

For customers who just couldn’t wait any longer and purchased a first-gen iPad from Apple in the last two weeks, you can bring it back to an Apple store before March 16 and Apple will give you a $100 refund to make up for the company dropping the price by $100.

Lastly, before you send anything in to re-sell, make sure all your information is wiped from it. It’s best to restore the device to its original factory settings to be sure everything is deleted.

For full details on how to erase the contents of your iPad, see Apple’s tutorial here:http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2110

Apple refreshes its iPad this Friday.

RE-SALE TIPS:

• Put your item up as soon as you decide to sell. The closer you get to a new release, the lower the value of your item.
• Shop around. Get a price from a few different sites. Gazelle offered me more money for my son’s old cell phone than Next Worth did.
• Completely erase all your personal data from your iPad, phone, laptop, etc. It’s generally best to restore the device to its original factory settings.
• If you can’t sell it, recycle it. Do yourself and the environment a favor and get it out of your kitchen drawers and into the hands of a company that will recycle it responsibly.

To learn more about technology, follow Andrea Smith on twitter (@abcandrea).