This past weekend I was cleaning out my car and in the center console, a place I rarely frequent, I found my old Blackberry and was wondering why I had stored it in my car in the first place and how long exactly had it been in there? Well I have had my iPhone going on almost 2 years so I guess I can conclude that my old Blackberry had been sitting in my car about that long. Why it was in my car is still a mystery to me though.
So the next question was, was it still working or had being stored in my car for almost 2 years in the cold Wyoming winters and hot inside the car temps summers fried my unused cell phone? There was only one way to find out, I dug through my neatly organized big snake pit like drawer full of power cords to see if I still had the power charger for it and low and behold I did! So I plugged that baby into the nearest outlet and let it charge for a few hours and was surprised to find out that it still worked! Now what?
What could I do with this, should I stash it away “just in case” my iPhone takes a bite someday? No because that is classic clutter and I really am trying to tackle some of the clutter issues in my house. Someday I may even be brave enough to go through my drawer of old power cords! Besides, even if my iPhone went on the fritz, I really have no intention to go back to my Blackberry, no offense to Blackberry users, but it just never worked for me the way I needed it to. Could I sell it and make a little money? After all it wasn’t a cheap purchase to begin with. Could I donate it and give it to someone who could use it?
So I did a little research to see what my options were.
Selling Old Cell Phones:
A quick search in Google lead me to quite a few sites where I could sell my old cell phone. One I had actually heard about from a friend was SellCell.com so I checked them out. SellCell is a website that compares prices from all the top online phone buyers, which is nice. It is sort of like Kayak.com where I always go to look for airline rates as it too compares prices from all the major players in the plane ticket sites. So I went ahead and entered my phone make and model “Blackberry Pearl 9100” to see what I could get for my old Blackberry. Immediately I was taken to a page of results that showed the various companies I could sell my old cell phone to and the “up to” price of what they would pay for it. The search results are listed highest to lowest and so of course I clicked the highest because I wanted the most money for this thing if I was going to sell it.
The first result was for a site called Sell And Recycle, upon clicking the “Sell Now” button I was taken immediately to the Sell And Recycle website where I could answer a few questions about the condition of the cell phone I was selling. It was easy enough. The site asked if it cell phone still worked, had water damage, condition, how many I had and if I still had the peripherals (AC adapter, original battery, original cables and original box). My cell phone was functional, had not water damage, was in good condition and I still had the AC adapter, original battery and original cables, the only thing missing was the original box (oh great now maybe in addition to hoarding cables I need to start saving the boxes too!). So then I hit the “Calculate” button to see what Sell And Recycle would offer me for my cell phone and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they would offer to buy my phone for $70.00! Pretty good!
It looks like they even provide you with a free shipping box that is pre-paid, so no out of pocket expense for me to sell my phone. Sounds good to me! When you go to check out you are given options to get your money either via PayPal, a check or donate the money to charity, which I thought was a really nice touch!
But what if I just wanted to cut out the middle man and donate my old cell phone directly to a charity? What are my options?
Donating Old Cell Phones
There are many options and charities that accept donations of your old cell phones. Here are a few worth note.
Cell Phones For Soldiers – Takes your donated cell phones and re-sells them to ReCellular, which then in turn pays Cell Phones for Soldiers enough money to provide 1 hour of talk time to soldiers stationed overseas via a pre-paid phone card. I personally am huge believer of supporting our military who sacrifice so very much for our country. For me, the saying “If you cannot stand behind our military stand in front of them” really resonates for me. I know that I could never, ever be in the military (I have been a military wife and that was enough for me thankyouverymuch) so standing behind our military and supporting them is always high on my list! Cell Phone for Soldiers will even let you print a pre-paid mailing label. So that is nice too!
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) & Call To Protect – Accepts donations of your old cell phones and re-sells them to raise funds to end domestic violence. Call To Protect has collection drop off centers throughout the US or for either program you can mail your old cell phones directly to them at the address provided. Again this is a great cause to support and another one I am a backer of. I grew up in a household with domestic violence so this rings true as a cause I support.
There are other charities out there that also accept cell phone donations and you may want to even search locally to see if your police station, fire department or domestic abuse centers take cell phone donations for use right in your very own community. Here locally I found out that the woman’s abuse shelter takes donations of used but still working cell phones and sets them up on pre-paid plans so that women who are working on a get out plan to get out of a domestic violence situation can have a secret phone to call on if there is an emergency, or for those that are out and are in the shelter they can have a phone number that their abuser does not have the number for so that they can have a number to use for seeking a job or securing housing etc. And this, is where I have decided to donate my cell phone, supporting a cause I believe in and putting that support right back into my very own community!
Tags: Cell Phone, Charity, Domestic Violence, Donate, Make Money, Military, Sell, Soldier
Posted in Articles, Featured Article, Frugal Living |
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Hey guys, I wanted to just post a quick reminder as you are cleaning out your coupon binders and boxes that our military families stationed overseas can use your expired coupons up to 6 months past their expiration date.
Hey guys, I wanted to just post a quick reminder as you are cleaning out your coupon binders and boxes that our military families stationed overseas can use your expired coupons up to 6 months past their expiration date.
