InstantSale
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eBay sees its iPad listings increase ten-fold over last year
Apple set March 7 as the date for its big iPad announcement. Eager customers are looking to sell their older iPads in anticipation of buying the latest model. Instead of dealing with Craigslist spammers and deadbeat auction buyers, many people are turning to eBay's InstantSale program to get quick cash for their tablet. Within hours of the iPad 3 event announcement, eBay told CNET it logged more than 125,000 trade-in offers, 97 percent of which were iPad models. This is a ten-fold increase in the number of offers made during the same month in 2011. InstantSale is a service that lets people trade in their devices for cash. It works similar to Gazelle, another well-known device recycling company. eBay's most popular trade-in tablet is the first iPad, with both the 3G and WiFi version sitting in the number one and number two spot. This isn't surprising as many iPad 1 owners passed on the iPad 2, while they waited for the rumored retina display of the iPad 3. The original iPad is also getting older and owners may start to run into compatibility problems. I have the 16 GB original iPad and, though it handles most apps with ease, there are an increasing number that require the faster hardware or camera of the newer iPad models. I'm planning on buying the iPad 3 and haven't sold my older iPad yet. I'm going to keep it and use it as educational tablet for my kids. If you have an older iPad, what are you going to do with it? [Via CNET]
Amazon adds electronics to trade-in program, pawns 2,550 gadgets and counting
If you've got some spare gadgets and need to make a quick buck gift card, there are any number of ways -- Walmart, Target, Best Buy and even eBay will instantly quote you a dollar figure these days. Now, Amazon is joining their ranks as the latest firm eager to stockpile still-somewhat-valuable tech, by adding electronics as the latest category for trade-ins. Pick from the 2,550 items currently recognized and describe the condition your camera / GPS / calculator is in, and Amazon will let you know how many dollars worth of credit it can give you alongside a prepaid shipping label. We can't tell if Amazon will give you better deals than the competition, but this beautiful brown Zune did fairly well. Never you mind that it typically sells for upwards of $40 at auction -- Amazon has mouths to feed, you know?
Recycle old gadgets (and make a buck or two) with eBay Instant Sale
You might already hawk your valuable old gadgets on eBay, but the auction house wants to broker your smaller transactions too -- that's why it launched eBay Instant Sale this last week. If you've got a (moderately recent) gizmo you want to get rid of right away, it looks as easy as can be -- answer the two questions above and get an instant offer, plus a free shipping label to mail it out. From the looks of a few sample queries, you won't get much for older items like the Dell Inspiron 8200 above, but we found a used Palm Pixi in good condition was worth a respectable $57, and even if your old featurephones aren't worth a cent, eBay's partners will recycle them for you and pay your shipping fees. Sure, you could donate the lot and write them off your taxes, but this sounds like it might be a worthy alternative to us.
