Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton

Recycle your old gadgets and get significant dollars in return!  The two sites that do this the best are YouRenew and Gazelle.

Just look up your device on the website, answer questions about the plugs/discs you have, the condition of the device, and you get a quote back on how much they’ll give you.  Do this with all the devices you want to get rid of, and they’ll send you a box in the mail, postage pre-paid.  Just dump the stuff in and ship it back, then wait for your check!

Even if the device isn’t worth anything, they will still recycle it for you for free — which is better than many of the local electronics recycling programs in the area that charge beaucoup bucks for recycling.  And none of the device’s components will end up in a landfill — that’s a promise from the companies.

As an example, my old third generation iPod Classic (black and white screen – oh my!) in good condition with all the original cables & whatnot is worth $15 at Gazelle & $12 at YouRenew.  Better than I could get on Craigslist

Gather all the super old stuff you have lying around the library from past projects or test pilots gone awry.  Old digital cameras come to mind!  Unless your city/county/university has a policy against getting $ for your old junk, then this might let the library bring in a few hundred extra dollars rather quickly.  Both sites also allow you to hold fundraising drives by asking donors to recycle their gadgets and donate the money to you.  Nice!