You have probably heard something about Best Buy's new Buy Back Program, seeing as they spent a bajillion dollars advertising for it with Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne during the Super Bowl. But you'll probably want to steer clear of it, according to a study by Digital Trends.
The program essentially allows you to pay a fee when you purchase a device in order to guarantee that Best Buy will buy it back from you at some point. So if you want Best Buy to take your phone off your hands after a year, give them $60 and they'll do it. Sounds reasonable enough.
But after a year, Best Buy will only give you 30 percent of the purchase price of the phone. Subtract that $60 fee off of it, and you're looking at making about $215 less for your iPhone 3GS than going rates on eBay. And close looks at other gadgets don't look much better. Not to mention the fact that Best Buy pays in gift cards rather than cash, which is less than optimal.
So if you want to sell a used device, it seems smarter to stick to the normal channels: eBay and CraigsList. Leave Best Buy out of it.
Via Digital Trends
