3 ways to turn last year’s tech into cash

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The holiday season is wrapping up, and hopefully you unwrapped some good tech this year. Here’s where to take your old stuff to trade in for cash or store credit.

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Christmas 2021 has come and gone: Next up, 2022! Before we arrive at the start of a new year, it’s time to figure out what to do with all the old tech that was just replaced with shiny, new gifts. 

It’s tough to figure out where to go to find a place that’ll take old tech and give you more than just a credit toward the purchase of a new device. Lots of OEMs and telecom companies accept old devices, but most will just give you credit toward the purchase of a newer device that they offer.

You won’t find any of those offers here: The three offers presented below will offer you either cash or store credit so that you can buy something new to accessorize that new gift, or to turn into something completely different.

Trade in old tech with Amazon

Amazon takes practically anything with a power cord, and not only offers Amazon gift cards for devices, but also discounts on newer versions of Amazon hardware like Echoes, Kindles, and Rings. 

Additionally, Amazon has drop-off locations in several different cities, but it’s not nearly nationwide: New York City, Boston, Newark, Seattle, Dallas, Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh/Philadelphia all have locations that accept hardware, and additional locations in Washington State and Texas cover some smaller areas. 

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As mentioned above, Amazon doesn’t offer cash back, only gift cards to its own store, but considering the wide range of products available on Amazon it’s practically as good as cash.

Trade in Apple, get more Apple

Like Amazon, Apple doesn’t offer cash, though it does offer Apple gift cards. In addition to trading in tech for an Apple gift card, returnees can also select to trade a device in for credit toward a new one. 

Apple doesn’t accept nearly as wide a range of products as Amazon does. It’s mainly interested in iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, and Android devices, but only those that are relatively new (in the case of the iPhone, the oldest device that they’ll pay out for is a 6S). 

Apple will still take any device you want to give them, though it won’t pay for ones it doesn’t deem worthy. It does recycle them, though, so if you can’t be bothered to find a way to recycle your devices on your own, just let Apple take care of it. 

Get actual cash from Microsoft

Of the three trade-in systems covered here, only Microsoft offers one that pays out in cold, hard cash. It’s also the only one that contracts with a third party to handle its recycling program, which in this case is called CExchange. 

CExhange is a Texas-based company that handles electronics trade-in programs for a variety of large businesses, including WalMart along with Microsoft. 

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Because it isn’t tied to a particular brand, CExchange is able to offer payment via PayPal or bank transfer, making it perhaps the best option if you want to turn an old device into something that can be spent wherever you see fit. 

Getting your cash from CExchange isn’t instant, though. Once you complete the trade in process online, you have to send in the device and wait for them to evaluate it, at which point you’ll be either given the money it was appraised for, or made a different offer if CExchange doesn’t think you represented your device accurately. 

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