Selling old electronics for cash can be a win-win situation. You make some money and the old computer, printer, cellphone, or other electronic item stays out of the landfill.

How to do it depends on where you live. If you are in or near a city, you can take things to places that accept them. If you are in a more rural area, you can send them in, often at no cost.

Selling Your Devices Directly

This would not qualify as the easiest method, but it may be the way to make the most money. You could:

• Have a yard sale
• Take part in a cooperative flea market
• List your items on Craigslist, if you are willing to have people come to your home or to meet them someplace public
• Sell on eBay (Here’s a way to just get cash for your old phones from eBay)

Best Buy, Staples, Amazon, and More

Best Buy has one of the most popular recycling-for-cash programs. They explain it on this page of their website. The product categories they accept include

Staples is also known for taking trade-ins for an amount of money you can use in the store. You can do it by going there or by using the online form, as this page explains.

Amazon takes trade-ins of things you bought from them in exchange for store credit. This can include books and other non-electronic things. Details here.

Here are some less well-known sites:

Erecure

Gazelle

Nextworth

Cash for Electronic Scrap

So that gives you some choices.

A Video of Tips on Recycling Electronics

Quite short and to the point from GreenerGadgets.org:

Before You Recycle Your Electronic Devices

Whether it’s a hard drive or something else, you need to clean up all that data. Just erasing your laptop doesn’t do it. Here’s a good article about how to get rid of old electronics, with details about backing up and cleaning data off.

So selling old electronics for cash can certainly be done. If you would rather donate to a non-profit, check out the national Cristina Foundation.  If you decide you’d like to make money recycling electronics and other items, here is a link to a webpage about an ebook on the subject, from a guy who has been doing it for years. One way or another, it’s always good to get rid of old stuff you have no use for.