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Sprint and T-Mobile fight to buy back your old devices
With the new iPhone making its debut later and other phones coming out in the next few months, you're probably already looking for the best way to trade in your old device for a new one. Sprint and T-Mobile both want your business really badly, it seems, so now they're trying to one-up each others' -- and everyone else's -- buyback programs. While the Now Network has long paid up to $300 for old gadgets, the company will now start matching any higher trade-in price you get from the other three major carriers, in an effort to offer the best deal possible. But Big Magenta won't go down without a fight: in case you get a better buyback pricing from another carrier, the company will not only match it, but also add $50 on top of the total amount to make the deal sweeter.
Best Buy Buy Back becomes official, free through February 12th
Best Buy's gadget repurchase program has become official during the Super Bowl, courtesy of a silly commercial starring Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber. The ad's actually a lot less cringe-inducing than it might have been, though the content of the program still doesn't seem to make much fiscal sense to us. You have to buy into it at the time of purchasing a gadget -- that requirement is set aside until this Saturday as a sort of grace / enticement period -- and Best Buy depreciates at a very aggressive annual rate, arguably cutting more of your trinkets' value than the incumbent options like online auction sites. Skip past the break to see the two gentlemen at opposite ends of their careers selling their souls to the almighty dollar, along with Best Buy's full press release and Buy Back Program details.
Best Buy's Buy Back Program to be made official during the Super Bowl... by Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne
We heard about this during the news avalanche that was CES early last month, but today Best Buy has started making its new Buy Back Program official in emails sent out to valued Reward Zone customers. The gist of the scheme is that Best Buy will offer you set "Buy Back" prices for goods you purchase from its stores, advertising it as a reassurance that your electronics won't depreciate too much during your ownership. The leaked info we saw in January showed that you'll have to pay an extra fee at the point of purchase to enroll into the Program and Best Buy's highest re-purchase offers were capped at 50 percent of the initial price, so don't expect this to be any great favor to you, Mr. Consumer. For more info, keep your eyes locked on the Super Bowl this Sunday, when Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne (no, seriously) will do their best to explicate Best Buy's new venture. [Thanks, Jeff and John]
Best Buy's Buy Back Program will let you trade in old tat for new hotness
Best Buy's crafty ploy for the new year has seemingly been uncovered by BGR's tipsters. According to those knowledgeable sources (and the paperwork they've passed along), Best Buy intends to roll out a new Buy Back Program, which will guarantee a given trade-in value for your gadgets, depending on how old they are. Thus, any laptop, tablet, or smartphone you buy from the retailer will be tradeable for 50 percent of its original price within six months of purchase, 40 percent before the first year passes, 30 in the 12- to 18-month period, or 20 in the dying embers of a two-year ownership period. That's pretty hefty depreciation and you'll have to pay an up-front fee to get enrolled in the Program, but hey, if you upgrade like mad, maybe there's some way to make this a financially appealing proposition for the consumer. Maybe... though probably not.
Sprint offering instant credits for phone trade-ins
Saying that it hopes to boost the practice of phone recycling (with customer conquests a welcome side effect, we're sure), Sprint is now expanding its Buyback Program to cover over 900 devices with an instant credit when you trade them in to any of over 1,000 participating corporate-owned retail locations. Naturally, Sprint isn't about to hand you a wad of cash for these things, but the credits -- ranging from $5 to over $300 depending on the model, apparently -- help cut the bottom line on your account balance, and you can take advantage of the service up to three times per active line every 12 months. Unfortunately, it might not be that great of a deal: in the press release, they specifically call out the Bold 9700 as having a $161.05 -- and considering you can flip a used, locked Bold 9700 on eBay for well over $300, this looks more like a new revenue stream for Sprint than anything else. And who's recycling a Bold 9700 already, anyway?
Toys R Us videogame 'buy back' program underway nationwide
According to the gang at Joystiq, the Toys R Us videogame trade-in program launches in earnest today, meaning that any of you cats with old videogames laying around can trade 'em in for the retailer's gift cards, no questions asked. Just take your old games (even going as far back as the Atari 2600 or Intellivison) to the customer service desk of your local store and they'll make you an offer at which point, according to a store representative, the games are then "taken by a third party company that refurbishes them for resale." This year's been pretty tough, but between our old game cartridges, Cash for Clunkers, and Compton's "Cash for Firearms" program, it looks like things might finally be going our way after all! The worm has turned, our friends. Indeed, the worm has turned.
