There are a few ways that you can turn unwanted “stuff” into money. Yard sales, consignment stores, and eBay are all popular options. Today I decided to look at another way to turn “stuff” into cash. Well, not really cash, but Amazon.com gift cards. I consider those to be rather valuable because you can buy pretty much anything that you could want or need on Amazon.com.
Amazon.com offers a trade in program where you can send in items from a handful of categories – books, movies, video games, and electronics – and receive Amazon.com gift cards in return. This is appealing to me, because I have a ton of books that I have barely used that are just sitting upstairs taking up space. With a new baby on the way, I could sure use some Amazon.com gift cards to buy cute little clothes and other baby essentials.
I have not yet used the Amazon.com trade in program, but since I am curious about it and you probably are too, here’s how it works. First, take a trip around your house and round up those old books, movies, electronics, and video games. Then, go to Amazon.com and search the trade in store to see if any of them are eligible for trade in. If you find one of the items that you have and want to get rid of and the trade in value is acceptable to you, you can click the “trade in” button to add the item to your trade in submission. Add as many items to the list as you want, then add information about the condition of the items and review the trade in program terms and conditions before agreeing to submit your list of trade in items.
After that, you will have to answer questions about shipping so that Amazon.com can create a shipping label for you to print out. The good news here is that shipping is free. Next, pack up your items, put the label on the box, and ship it out within seven days. Once Amazon.com receives your items and checks their condition, your Amazon.com account will be credited with the appropriate amount of funds. So, it is not an actual physical Amazon.com gift card, but you do not have to wait for the gift card to come to you in the mail either.
The Amazon.com trade in program sounds promising. I plan to take it for a test drive within the next few days, and I will be sure to let you all know how it works out.
Photo by carlatx on morguefile.com.