After Chris Manning upgraded to an iPhone 4S last month, he had to figure out what to do with a 4-year-old Motorola flip phone, a quandary facing many consumers after a holiday season that ushered in a slew of new electronics.
Electronics such as the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S were the top-searched products on eBay during the holidays. Likewise, shopping comparison site PriceGrabber saw a 26% increase over last year in electronics searches this holiday season.
But what happens with the old devices? Increasingly, consumers are turning to retailers’ trade-in and recycling programs. Retailers such as eBay, Amazon, RadioShack, Verizon and Best Buy give cash or gift cards for old electronics that are still usable. The devices can then be refurbished and resold.
EBay Instant Sale, which offers cash for used electronics, has made almost 110,000 offers since Christmas Day, 20 times the offers made during the same period last year, says spokesman Todd Witkemper.
While he says much of the increase is most likely due to the program, which began in October 2010, “having a year under its belt,” he also credits heightened awareness about these types of programs. “People can now see that they can get the money back when they need to replace electronics,” he says.
The most popular items traded in are cellphones, and the top five most popular offers made since Christmas have all been for older version Apple iPhone or iPod products. A 16-GB iPhone 4 in “like new” condition will sell for almost $190.
The increasing popularity of trade-ins for cash can be linked to the “accelerated replacement cycle” of smartphones, says Ross Rubin, an analyst at market research firm NPD. As new technology hits the market more frequently, consumers are upgrading to new devices and left with old devices that still have value, he says.
RadioShack, which started a trade-in program online in 2008 and rolled it out to all stores in early 2009, offers gift cards in exchange for everything from cellphones and laptops to MP3 players and digital cameras. Amazon, which started accepting trade-ins for video games in 2009, now offers gift cards for electronics, along with books and DVDs.
For online trades, consumers are generally asked to identify the product model and the condition it’s in, after which they’re presented with an estimate of its worth. If they mail it in, the store will send them a gift card or, in eBay’s case, make a PayPal payment. If the retailer determines the condition is worse than indicated, they will send a new estimate or offer to send the item back.
EBay, RadioShack and Amazon all say the holiday season is busy for trade-ins.
“Customers know they’re getting something new, and it becomes more relevant to think about what they’re going to do with an old product,” says Rob Dunlap, divisional merchandise manager for RadioShack’s Trade Save program.
Still many of those old products end up stashed in drawers, unused, or thrown in the trash. In 2009, just 25% of electronics at the end of their life span were recycled, with cellphones clocking the lowest recycle rate at 8%, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Most electronics have hazardous elements in them,” says Mark Robards, vice president of sales for electronics recycler ECS Refining. “The base-level reason for recycling is to keep them out of landfills.”
EBay, RadioShack and Amazon all offer to recycle products that have no resale value, working with third-party processors that both refurbish products and pass along recyclables to companies such as ECS Refining.
Manning, 43, of Denver, has decided that he will recycle his Motorola phone because, “it seems like the sensible thing to do.”
“If it was exceedingly difficult to recycle these items,” he says, “I doubt I would go through the hassle and likely (would) throw them away.”
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