Recycle your old electronics and make money through Amazon

Every house has that one drawer.

You know, the one filled with the old electronics you used to love and now don’t know what to do with. Like that digital camera you don’t use anymore, the outdated MP3 player that no longer plays or the good old-fashioned flip phone that’s taking up drawer space.

Instead of allowing them to collect dust, there is an easy way to recycle those no longer used electronics of yours – while making some money in the process.

Amazon’s Trade-In program vows that you can get paid in the form of an Amazon gift card for selling them your electronics that you no longer use. We looked into it, and have answered any questions you may have:

What Can I Trade In?

There are 10 different categories that your trade-ins must fall under, but there’s still a good array of options. (Noteworthy: These trade-ins options include more than just electronics.)

• Tablets
• Phones
• Cameras
• Books and Textbooks
• Video games
• Wearables
• MP3 players
• TV and movies
• Music
• Other electronics

A wide range of categories that you can trade into means a wide range of stuff you can get rid of: anything from an old Wi-Fi router to outdated cookbooks to that graphing calculator you bought in college and used once.

Will They Actually Take My Items?

Once you have decided on what you want to trade in and have placed it in one of the ten categories, I’d recommend taking a look at their Eligible Products and Condition Criteria page for specific product requirements.

Finding your item on that page and seeing what exactly their criteria is could save you some time in the long run, just in case your product doesn’t match their requirements.

How Does The Process Work?

Once you find something that you’d potentially like to trade that also fits their criteria, go to amazon.com/tradein. Let’s say you want to trade in an old iPod touch. Type that into the search bar:

A list of different types of iPod touches will come up. Find the one that’s closest to yours. For this example, our iPod Touch is 5th Generation, 32GB and blue.

From there, you’ll select the current condition of your product. (I would be honest about the condition it’s really in, because if Amazon finds that it’s in a lower condition than you originally said, they’ll offer to buy it from you for an even lower price or return it back to you for free.)

Once you go through this page and state the condition of your product, you’ll be taken to an Order Summary page that lists what exactly you’re trading, how much money you’ll be getting and when.

After that, you’ll then print out a shipping label. This is completely free, meaning that you’re giving your old things to Amazon at no cost to you. Plus, you can ship multiple trade-in items in one box.

Pack up your item(s), put the shipping label(s) on the box and once Amazon receives it, they’ll inspect your item. If deemed acceptable, you’ll then receive your payment. If they reject your item, they’ll return it for free. Either way, they’ll notify you about the status of your trade-in item via email.

How Does The Payment Work?

If Amazon likes your item, they’ll send you your payment in the form of an Amazon gift card. No need to wait for it in the mail though; it’ll be immediately applied to your existing Amazon account.

Okay, But Is It Worth It?

Even if you go through this entire process and Amazon doesn’t end up taking your item, it really didn’t cost you any money, (besides packaging fees) so either way, you don’t have much to lose.

If you’ve got a bunch of items that you no longer have a use for and want to make some extra bucks, I’d say it’s worth looking into. Recycling these items to make some money is a more lucrative and less wasteful option compared to just throwing them out.

Going green while making some extra green sounds like a win to me.

Photo by GotCredit