trade-in

Apple's new iPad 2 is certainly a nice upgrade from the original, but it may not be revolutionary enough to convince owners of the original iPad to shell out for a second tablet. One way to justify an early upgrade is to sell or trade in your current iPad, to at least cover some of the cost of a new model.

Searching online for the best deal for my 32GB Wi-Fi iPad (which originally cost $599), I found the offers ranged from under $200 to nearly $400, although some required more effort on the seller's part than others. … Read more

Upset because you just bought a Verizon phone but now crave the new iPhone? The good news: Verizon will give you a $200 gift card if you swap your current phone for an iPhone. The bad news: You'll still need to pay the full retail price for the iPhone.

Nestled about halfway down on Verizon's iPhone FAQ is a reminder to customers still under contract that they can't upgrade to the iPhone at the promotional pricing, namely $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model. That means subscribers who don't want to wait … Read more

Target has started rolling out a new electronics trade-in program designed for mobile devices and video games.

According to the company, customers can now walk into a supported store and trade in their iPhone, iPod Touch, any cell phone, or a video game. Upon doing so, a value will be placed on the product at the company's new in-store mobile centers. Customers will receive a gift card in that amount for as little as "a few dollars up to more than $200 per item depending on the product and its condition."

Target also offers an online service … Read more

In case Apple and AT&T's preorder problems weren't indication enough, here's a bit more evidence that the new iPhone 4 looks to be in high demand.

Since Steve Jobs announced the latest update to Apple's smartphone, customers have begun to hit up gadget trade-in sites to sell their old iPhones, which could be a sign that they're ready to upgrade to the latest version of the iPhone. According to consumer electronics trade-in Web site Gazelle.com, 10,000 iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS handsets have been turned into the service in the … Read more

7-Eleven--probably best-known for Slurpees, hot dogs, and being open all night--is expanding its game offerings by getting into used console titles.

The franchise announced Monday a partnership with Game Trading Technologies to create a new program called Great Games Below $20. The program will bring "a mixture of games" into more than 3,000 7-Eleven stores starting immediately.

All titles available in 7-Eleven stores will be preowned and priced at $19.99 or below.

According to Game Trading Technologies spokesman Jody Janson, all the major consoles and handheld platforms will be represented in 7-Eleven's game lineup. Janson … Read more

With a sleek new form factor and internal memory instead of an optical UMD drive, Sony's new PSP Go handheld gaming console is a very different animal than the original PlayStation Portable. Naturally, dedicated mobile gamers have been asking what, if anything, could they do with their collections of UMD game and movie discs if they upgrade to the PSP Go.

After initially hinting that current UMD games could be either converted for use on the SSD/Memory Stick-only PSP Go, or physically traded in for a digital download version of the same game, Sony now says that's not in the cards. … Read more

Now that you've gotten yourself a new ride by trading in your clunker, it's time to do the same with your wireless router.

Meraki, the first networking vendor to bring the Wireless-N standard outdoors earlier this year, launched Wednesday its Cash for Wireless LAN Clunkers promotion campaign.

The program is for those who want to upgrade their legacy 802.11b/g network (which caps at 54Mbps) to the 802.11n (which caps at 300Mbps) network with a Meraki wireless access point. The promotion includes a $150 credit for each access point traded in for one made by Meraki. … Read more

Starting this week, Radio Shack will pay you to bring back your old, unwanted electronics to its stores.

The retailer has launched a new in-store trade-in program that it's describing as a way to instantly upgrade to the latest technology.

It works like this: Bring in working phones, cameras, MP3 players, game consoles, video games, or GPS receivers to a store and an employee will appraise the product's value and offer a Radio Shack gift card for that amount. The gift card can be used right away, but proper ID and a current address will be taken to … Read more

Thursday's launch of a games trade-in program by Amazon.com has already begun to make waves in the games resale business. Shortly after the program was announced, competitor GameStop's stock took a dive, dropping nearly 14 percent by end of day Thursday.

As a follow-up to the announcement, GameStop's CEO Don Matteo went on the record telling Edge Online he had no faith in Amazon's model based on his company's earlier attempt at a similar program. Matteo was, of course referring to sister site TradeStop. Back in 2005 the site featured a similar offering, where users could get cash for games which the company would then turn around and re-sell on GameStop.com. The service also let people send in DVD movies and music CDs. GameStop discontinued the program at the end of 2005.

Strengths Amazon is bringing something to the table that brick-and-mortar game resellers cannot easily match: Gamers who send in their used titles can spend their Amazon credit on things that aren't video games. For people who are selling games for a system they no longer have or use this is a clean break. It's also a chance for Amazon to make some extra cash when a user buys something that costs more than the credit they earned.

Another thing users may flock to is transparency. Amazon is showing users exactly what it will pay and has made this list able to be searched. Both GameStop and Game Crazy, two of the largest game resellers, offer no such feature on either of their sites. Instead you're limited to a list of hot games or promotional trade-in values, or you have to go into the store to find out the game values. Both companies will mail larger trade-in value lists, but the lack of an online system has led to users creating wikis to chronicle the ever-updating prices that can fluctuate by supply, demand, and retail price drops.

There's no special membership program. Both GameStop and Game Crazy have special memberships that its customers can join to get special discounts or receive a higher trade-in value for their games. Amazon doesn't offer this, which some may find appealing. Amazon pays everyone the same price in return for them logging-in with their Amazon.com account credentials. There's no annual fee, and the cost of shipping your games in is free.

There are no up-sells or pushy salespeople. You never have to talk to a human being in the entire exchange, which can be seen as a step up. Games retailers typically push paid membership programs, game pre-orders, and certain titles based on sales deals or events. For someone trying to offload their games and buy something new Amazon is letting you skip this.… Read more