Ever used Amazon's Trade-In Service?

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Has anyone used the Amazon trade-in service for textbooks, video games and DVDs?

We sell on Amazon but some things you have to sit on for months before they sell. I'm in declutter mode and would love to get some of this stuff OUT of the house but still make money on it.

I know the trade-in value is lower than what you could potentially sell the items for yourself which is totally understandable. You also don't have to worry about shipping or ratings either so I think that is a fair trade-off.

Any experiences? The only hesitation I have is that they say if you send something that doesn't exactly match the description that they will dispose of it and not return it or give you any credit for it. Descriptions of condition are SO subjective that I would hate to send things and have them disallow them.

 

[bear_mom]

I use it for textbooks every semester. I trade in my old textbooks and then use that money to buy my new ones. Works well - I type in the ISBN number so it is an exact match. I end up spending around $10-$20 more in books than I get back, not too bad.

Dd used it once for DS games. She traded in 4 (not overly popular games) and got enough money to buy one new one. Worked well for her. You have to have the game, manual and case. We should go through DS and Wii games again and get rid of some..

Emily

 

[emilymad]

We used it for DVDs and Wii games. Most of the DVD's weren't worth more than 25 or 75 cents but we had a whole box so it added up. I think our total was around $30 that we got back. Amazon paid for the shipping. I thought if they didn't accept something they would send it back? We got our full payment so I am not sure. Some of our DVD's weren't in pristine condition but we had the case and paperwork in them so I don't think they are looking for 100% perfect items. The money was credited to our account very quickly. We plan on using the program again.

 

[RachaelA]

We've traded in a bunch of video games and some TV shows that we had on DVD.

We had one thing sent back. There was a tiny tiny tiny crack in one of the DVDs for one of the discs of a TV show we sent in. It still worked though. I wouldn't have seen it if they hadn't had a sticker showing me where it was. They pay for shipping (including if they send it back).

Everything we sent in was in near perfect condition (other than the one thing sent back!).

We have no issues with the program and they give more money for games/dvds then Best Buy or Gamestop.

 

[mackeysmom]

I used the "trade-in" feature to send back the individual seasons of Lost on DVD and put the $$ towards the Lost - Complete Series Collection. Worked out great for me .

- Laura

 

[laurafergie]

I do it all the time with books. Make sure your item is in very good to perfect condition. If they reject, they'll send it back to you. Easy-peasy.

 

[Yoshi]

I have had mostly good experiences trading in with them. I have had 3 games rejected so far. One had a torn label on the cartridge, one was rejected for no reason (they claimed it was not for resale but it was the retail version) and one they refused to honor because it was a mistake. It was a ds game that was trading in for $112 and was $20 used at Gamestop

 

[Cruise]

Have used them a few times. Had a game rejected once because it "didn't include all parts"... they had a sticker on it pointing to the part that said it "can be used with the Eye Toy (sold separately)." As far as I can figure, the trained monkeys couldn't figure out that "sold separately" meant that it wasn't actually included with the game.

The other thing I would suggest is that if you have a lot of stuff you're trying to get rid of, only send about 5 or 6 things at a time. Any more than that, and I've had reports of "item not included"...even though I checked and double checked the boxes myself and KNOW that everything was in the box. The trained monkeys also apparently get distracted after more than about 6 items and can't count that high. Amazon pays for shipping on all the items, so no big deal to do them as separate shipments. I'm sure this costs Amazon more in the end, but frankly, I consider it their own fault since they apparently can't figure out anything larger than a few items.

I've never had them dispose of anything that didn't meet their requirements even though they claim they will. I've had two returned (including the one mentioned above), but that's it. The other was for a damaged case, though I'm guessing it was damaged in transit since it was fine when I shipped it.

 

[Lisa_M]

I was thinking about using this service however after reading the reviews on Amazon, I decided against it. Also, this is not run by Amazon, but by a third party company and so if you have any trouble, Amazon will not be the ones to handle it.