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Gazelle Comes Through Again: $437 for Used iPads

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A $878 check is on the way to me for a pair of used iPads thanks to Gazelle. Selling old gadgets on Craigslist or eBay can be tricky business. After having mixed results with those services I know use Gazelle.com as a first stop for selling my used gadgets. There are several buyback services out there, but I’ve come to trust Gazelle and don’t have any plans to switch services as long as their bids remain competitive.

When the iPad 2 was announced on March 2, I’d already sold my household’s pair of iPad 2’s to Gazelle. The company offered me $437 for each of our 32GB Wi-Fi iPads, which have an original MSRP of $599. Paying about 50 cents per day of iPad use isn’t a bad deal at all. This made upgrading to the new iPad 2 relatively painless and this time around my wife and I opted for iPads loaded with Verizon 3G.

While I may have been able to earn a few more bucks by selling the iPads to private parties, I would’ve had to spend at least a couple of hours on the process, meet with strangers or dealt with online payments and shipping. 

 

Gazelle simply sent out a pre-paid USPS Priority box that fit the pair of iPads perfectly. I dug up the iPads’ original packaging and chargers, stuffed it all in the box and dropped everything off at the post office. Yesterday I received an acknowledgement email saying that Gazelle had received the iPads. Today, the company followed up with the above note, telling me that the iPads did indeed check out as ‘perfect.’ If Gazelle finds that the gadgets you ship them aren’t as pristine as described, they will lower your payout or return the device if you prefer.   I always ask Gazelle for a physical check to avoid PayPal fees.

My favorite part of Gazelle is that the service allows 30 days to mail in gadgets after getting a price quote. This means I have the flexibility to keep a gadget before its replacement arrives. Fortunately, I was able to score a pair of iPad 2’s the day they launched, but it’s nice to have a buffer. Some competitive services require almost immediate shipment.

 

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. MC140

    04/01/2011 at 11:01 pm

    I did something similar, using Gazelle.com, with an entirely different outcome.

    As Steve was taking stage to make the announcement (which surprised a lot of us), I jumped onto Gazelle.com to sell my 32GB AT&T iPad. Sure enough, Gazelle made me a “good as new condition” offer (including all the accessories) of $522. I couldn’t believe it was so good, so I took it before the price plummeted. They sent me prepaid a snail mail label w/ box (that oddly didn’t fit the iPad), and a few days later after restoring my iPad to the default settings, I shipped it off to them.

    A side note: I ordered my original iPad the day it was available for pre-order, March 12, 2010. As you may know, Apple shipped the AT&T enabled iPads about 1.5 months after the WiFi only models, so I had plenty of time to get my screen protector and case(s) all ready for action. The day that I took it out of the box, it was wrapped head-to-toe in accessories. It’s never been out of a case.

    By the time my 32GB AT&T iPad was in the mail to Gazelle, their online offer price had dropped by almost $200. The iPad 2 was official by now, and I’m sure Gazelle.com was hammered with online customers wanting to trade-in their (not even a year old iPad) for some cold cash to upgrade.

    Gazelle emailed me once they received my iPad to tell me that the only thing that COULD have broken, was broken. The SIM card tray was jammed according to Gazelle, and therefore, they reevaluated my 32GB AT&T iPad to $100.

    I was baffled. My iPad had never seen the light of day without full front and back case, and I didn’t even know what side the micro-SIM tray was on, let alone did I ever try and eject card itself. But sure enough, the ball was now in Gazelle.com’s court (with this supposed SIM tray jam), and I had no choice but ask for my iPad back, for the eventual Craig’s list post. I wasn’t about to accept a $100 offer, as they were expecting.

    I got my iPad back (round trip about 2 weeks) with what looked to be screwdriver sized scratch near the tray, and sure enough, the edge of the tray was bent and jammed. It seemed to me that someone on Gazelle’s side used a flathead screwdriver of sorts to get my SIM card tray out, and failed miserably. What they succeeded at however, was screwing a possible frequent upgrade customer – yours truly – who is sadly now sour on their services.

    I understand that companies need to stay profitable, but this to me was clearly devious on their part. It was the only extremity on the device that they could have broken, and the only thing that I wouldn’t have checked.

    Lesson learned.

    • Xavier Lanier

      04/02/2011 at 12:03 am

      Wow, sorry to hear about that experience. I’d strongly suggest getting in touch with someone at Gazelle, perhaps customer service rather than sales/qa?

  2. kyle

    04/05/2011 at 11:34 pm

    I would recommend you to use http://www.buybuybuy.com if you have the best price.

    They have strict rating for their buyers and lower commission fee.

    Good luck!

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