My husband upgraded his phone and gave me his old one, so even though technically there was nothing wrong with my old phone (except that it couldn’t send e-mail) I now have a new (to me) phone.  And even though my new phone was a hand-me-down, I’m carrying a little eco-guilt about upgrading when I didn’t absolutely need to (although, did I mention that I can now approve website comments where ever I go?).

So what do I do with the old phone?  Wisebread has a good answer!

 Xin Lu (one of my favorite Wisebread writers) has an article about Gazelle, a website that helps you turn your electronics into cash.  Check it out.  You can asses the value of everything from cell phones to gaming consoles on their website (without having to sign in or anything) and sell it to them for resale if you’re happy with the cash offered.  You can also donate the cash to a charity of your choice, if desired.  They promise to wipe out any data that may be left on the items you send in.

Of course you can also donate your cell phone and take the tax deduction.

In all likelihood, I will probably hang on to my old cell phone for awhile as a backup (it’s only worth 9 bucks), so if something happens to my “new” one I can opt to send it out to be fixed instead of buying a new one or going phoneless during the fix.   But I plan to root around the house for other old electronics to price out on Gazelle.