How to take advantage of the Amazon Trade-In Programme…

By Sharon Fussell, August 19, 2011

Have you noticed that the Amazon Trade-In Programme is now available on Amazon UK?

Basically, Amazon has given you an option to trade-in your items as opposed to selling them. Thus, instead of receiving cash once your item sells, you get the value that Amazon have assigned to the product as an Amazon gift card. You accrue funds and then you can purchase goods from the Amazon site.

How the Amazon Trade-In Programme works:

First you will notice on the product description page of the item you are about to list onto the system a trade in price connected to that product. If you want to proceed you need to check if the product meets the condition specifications of the product, i.e.

Like New

Good

Very good

Acceptable

The value Amazon assign to a product is linked to a condition, if the condition of your product is deemed to exceed the item condition, e.g. if you send a product in very good condition and the item is assigned a value for an item in good condition you can receive a higher price than the one stated for some items.

You need to ensure that the item you send to Amazon is matched exactly to the one on the description page.

As far as I can tell you do not have to wait for the item to sell, you simply send it to Amazon using the free postage label, which you download.

Here are some of the rules and regulations as laid down by Amazon:

Trade-In List

“…There are limits on how much you can trade in. You will receive payment for items that meet or exceed the product eligibility criteria. Your Amazon.co.uk Gift Card account will automatically be credited for accepted items. If your items are considered to be in a better trade-in eligible condition than you specified, you will receive the corresponding higher amount.

Determining Product Eligibility

Only items that match the exact version displayed in our Amazon Trade-In Stores are eligible for trade-in. […] Items that do not match the items on the trade-in list will not be accepted. We’re constantly updating the Trade-In Programme with new titles.

Trade-In Condition

Specific conditions can be found displayed next to the item during the trade-in submission process. To view the condition description, hover over or click the trade-in product condition after you add the item to your submission.

Postage and Payment

All items must be postmarked no later than 7 days after the trade-in submission. You will receive an email confirmation and an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card will be deposited into your account within 2 business days of receipt and verification of your items.

You can trade in as many eligible items as you like. However, each individual trade-in order is limited to a total value of up to £150. If your total trade-in order is greater than £150, you will need to make multiple trade-in orders.”

For more information please see Amazon.com Trade-In Help

So what are the advantages to us of using this new initiative?

1. If you have an item that will not render you much of a profit due to its weight.

2. If you stand to make little to no profit, it may be worth sending to Amazon, receiving 25p instead of chucking it out.

3. You could accrue money on the gift card and give the card as a gift saving you money at Christmas time.

Although I have to say, as it appears books seem to attract a trade in value of 25p, it will certainly take a while before you reach the threshold of £150!

Reader’s Tip:

Hi Sharon,

For help in removing some or all of the shelf dust and marks from closed page edges use a white rectangular buffing block as used by nail technicians. They’re available at many beauty retail outlets.

Kind regards,

Heather

Thanks for this Heather… just to add to this tip: I use a nail emery board to rub imperfections from book edges.

TESTING TESTING

What do you think?

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