Selling, recycling old cell phones

Dear PropellerHeads: I just got a call at work from some company wanting to buy old cell phones. Is there a service available for individuals to sell back or recycle old cell phones and other tech trash for cash?

A: Yes ... next question please. Just kidding, you know there's got to be more to this article than that. So here goes!

There are several sites that list tech recycling and buy-back options on the Web. Most even offer to pay for shipping your items to them. The sites vary both in what they will accept and the cash they will pay. However, most will accept any phone and lots of hardware for recycling even if they don't offer cash for the item. Keeping the tech trash out of landfills is a wonderful thing even without an additional cash payout.

One of the popular sites that offers buy-back is Gazelle (www.gazelle.com). Gazelle will buy back everything from cell phones to game consoles to old movies. Once received, all personal data is removed. Items that are re-saleable are re-sold, and items that must be recycled are recycled responsibly.

Just for fun (and because I really want a new Android phone), I searched for the buy-back price for my Blackberry Curve 8320 at Gazelle and some other sites. Those I checked asked a few questions about my phone, such as its condition and what accessories I wished to send along. Then they gave me an instant cash offer. I don't remember what I paid for my phone, but if you're like me, any cash for a phone you no longer want is a bargain. Gazelle offered me $47 for my phone, and will send a post-paid box for me to send it to them ... not bad!

NextWorth, (NextWorth.com), offered $44.40 for my phone. And at roughly the same buy-back price were SellMyOldCellPhone.com and YouRenew.com. My lowest offer came in at $28 from BuyMyTronics.com.

Gazelle seems to have the broadest array of buy-back services, but even sites such as SellMyOldCellPhone.com will buy items other than phones. They will accept cell phones, iPods, GPS devices and others.

And if your techno-trash really is just trash, feel good about going green by spending just a bit. For $6.95, GreenDisk (GreenDisk.com) allows you to print a shipping label. Use your own box and fill it with up to 20 pounds of techno-trash and send it on its way. GreenDisk has other pricing structures for larger amounts of techno-trash and even has convenient containers for collecting your trash and then shipping it back.

And don't forget eBay. My Mama always said, one man's trash is another man's treasure. I'm not sure that goes for tech trash, but who knows!

So that new Android phone is around $100 with my phone plan. I'm already about half-way to buying it by selling my Blackberry to Gazelle ... sorry, got to run home and look for more tech trash. I hear my new Droid ringing in my future!

When the PropellerHeads at Data Directions aren't busy with their IT projects, they love to answer questions on business or consumer technology. E-mail them to questions@askthepropellerheads.com or contact us at Data Directions Inc., 8510 Bell Creek Road, Mechanicsville, VA 23116. Visit our website at www.askthepropellerheads.com.