Sell Your Old PC (or Other Devices) to Costco
You have an old PC in the closet? Here's a way to get rid of it: Sell it to Costco.
Costco, the big-box retailer, has contracted with Greensight to recondition or recycle your old, but still working, PC. They'll pick up the tab on shipping the PC to them and pay you for the computer. [Thanks to Brad from Atlanta for this amazingly good tip.]
It gets better: They'll also take notebooks, MP3 players, LCD monitors, camcorders, digital cameras, game consoles, and phones.
It's gets better yet: There's no trade-in value, but if you have an old CRT, printer, or fax machine, Greensight will recycle it for you and pay to ship the item to them.
The catch: You get "paid" with a Costco cash card. If you're not a Costco member, you can use the cash card towards the membership fee; members can use the card to buy merchandise.
I'm taking my wife out to lunch
The Details
Choose the device you want to trade in and answer their questions on an online form. Providing details about the device takes about five minutes. At the end of the process, Greensight will tell you how much the trade-in is worth.
Of course, there's a good chance you won't remember the exact components or CPU speed, so the amount may change once the machine is inspected. If you're not happy, the company will return the PC to you at no charge.
I have to tell you, you're not going to get rich. I priced a 1.2GHz Pentium III with a 40GB drive and 1GB of RAM and picked up $18. But hey, that pays for a lunch and I didn't have to schlep to a city-run electronics recycling center.
Greenlight promises they'll either recondition and sell the entire PC (or just hand-picked parts), or recycle the good parts into raw material. Nothing, they say, will end up in a landfill.
You can read through their FAQ for more details.
Talkback
Have something to say about recycling? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.
PC World's Marketplace
PC World's Free Whitepapers
tech news tech blogs community & forums laptop prices software reviews downloads
Hmm, I get free computers from the dump all the time and recondition them for friends and family. Maybe I'll take the shabbier ones to costco. I wonder if there's a limitation :P
Great tip Steve!
Around here they charge $3 per item at the dump to take used electronics... and it is a 20 mile drive to the dump to drop if off- no curbside pickup.
Even if you don't get a penny you are still money and especially time ahead.
If I ever take a computer to the dump I gotta remember to smash the hard drive with a hammer in case ZenMasta gets it! :-)
What a cool way to get some nominal amount of moola back from the boat-anchors in the closet!
Who doesn't have some old PC components laying around that are SO obsolete most charities won't take them?!?
This reminds me a lot of when Office Depot and Staples very wisely a few years back started offering $3 or a ream of paper for bringing in empty toner cartridges.
Definitely good "green" PR for Costco as well.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
And btw, I'm surprised to be hearing it here first, because I get promotional e-mails from Costco 1-2 times/week and haven't seen anything about this yet. This sounds like something they'll be plastering all over their stores and magazine in the coming weeks.
Best,
Joshua Feinberg