Friday, March 11, 2011

Money Money!

Today seems to be money day. Every time we turn around today there's been money arriving! I can only imagine that means our taxes will arrive in the mail today...

First, remember how I shipped off my old camera a couple of weeks ago? Well I knew I needed to sell it to fund my two new lenses but I wasn't comfortable selling it on Craig's List or Ebay. Instead I did some research of camera shops and other places that buy used gear. All of the camera shops I looked at required you to send in the equipment before they would give you any kind of quote (despite the words "Instant Quote" in giant letters on their website. Not cool.) I found two places that would give me online quotes and went with the higher one - Gazelle.com. They take all kinds of electronics so we also sent in Greg's old iPod Touch.

The quote (based on information I input about the condition) was for about $30 more than I anticipated getting for all my gear, without my flash. Plus another $40 for the iPod (it's an old 2nd Gen version). They paid for the shipping and notified me when it arrived and had been checked in. A few days later I got notice that my gear had been inspected and the condition verified, which means I got the same price I was quoted. I was afraid that was where they'd screw me - tell me the condition was not as good and reduce the offer. Nope. Got every penny they quoted on all 4 items. The money arrived in our Paypal account today! It would have taken longer if we'd requested a check, but from start two finish was just under 2 weeks. Very smooth process. I'd totally use them again. They not only resell products but will recycle things they can't sell.

And I still have a hot shoe flash for a Nikon camera to sell... $40 - excellent condition! Anybody? Anybody? (chirp chirp chirp.) Sigh. I'll figure something out.

We also got our Amazon.com trade in credit today. Back in January we sent them a bunch of video games we didn't use anywhere and got nearly $100 in Amazon.com gift cards (they take books and textbooks too). There was one game that we couldn't find the accessory for at the time, so when I found it a few weeks ago we sent it off too. Again, they paid the shipping so it didn't cost me anything to send it in. It went out the same day as my camera gear, so it took the exact same amount of time. Another $20 and change in Amazon gift cards!

Since we were on a roll I checked my Swagbucks account and sure enough, I had a $5 Amazon gift card waiting there.

AND we should have about $20 in Best Buy coupons posted to Greg's Reward Zone account either today or tomorrow.

I think Greg may have gotten a little Paypal deposit from WorldWinner today too.

Whew. Now I'm afraid to check the mail...

2 comments:

Allison said...

You are SO cool! How does the Amazon thing work? I'm wondering if they take old Playstation games that Hubby doesn't want.....and if they'll take some good used books. I'm all about some Amazon credit because of my Kindle and because I download MP3s on my phone from there too.

Susan said...

For Amazon, I go to my account and there's a link on the right hand side under "Your Other Accounts" for "Trade In Account." If that doesn't work you can search for one of the games and on the right side of the listing there should be a link right under where you order that says "Have one to sell" and under that "Trade One Here" HOWEVER, whether or not they'll take it and how much they'll pay depends on inventory. This is true of all the sites. I found a couple that we couldn't trade to Amazon that Gazelle was willing to take. SecondSpin.com will also take games. I would run through all 3 and see if one offers more than the others. Cash from Gazelle or secondspin will work at amazon too! And I looked at Amazon and they don't take books for trade, but you can sell them on their used marketplace. It was Swagbucks that takes books for trade but it's not for cash, it's for points that can be used towards gift cards and you have to have 600 points worth of books to trade to get free shipping. I've never dont a trade with them, but they take games too! I do use their search and shopping functions for points and have cashed in a couple of amazon cards a month from that.