I upgrade mobile devices twice a year on average, and have a steady stream of other gadgets being put into and taken out of rotation. I take pretty good care of my devices as well – screen protectors, cases, all that. The smart thing to do when rotating out a device would be to sell it on ebay. But honestly, I hate the hassle. Taking pics, writing great descriptions, finding decent boxes and packing materials. To me, it’s not worth the time.

I recently discovered an ebay store near me. It’s not really ebay-owned of course, it’s called “SellIt4U” or “SellUrCrap” or something. But regardless, they list your stuff on ebay and take a cut of the profit. So I brought my old Nokia N90 over there to see what they could do.

First they check if it’s going for over $50 – otherwise it’s not worth their time. Then they ask about the condition, functionality, etc. Then you sign something and leave. That’s it.

They email you the listing when they put it up. Here’s the listing for my phone (might be taken down at some point since it closed.) I was totally surprised at how many pics they took and how straightforward the listing was. They honestly did a solid job listing it.

It brought in $217. I’ll get around 60% of that – and all I had to do was leave it there.

For me, this is absolutely perfect. Some may complain about their 40% cut. But compared to the $0 I’d get leaving it in my closet, I’d say it’s a great deal. I’m heading back there this week with my XV6700, my wife’s RAZR (we moved her to a Cingy Family Plan – will probably post something on that soon), and an old iQue 3600 PDA/GPS.