L.A. Company Announces Gadget Buyback

Are you one of those people who must have all the newest gadgets? You have to run to the store the night before something comes out so you can get it as soon as it hits the shelves? Then after a few months, you suffer from “Man, was that a stupid purchase” syndrome. Like when you bought minidiscs thinking they were going to be huge!? Or that HD DVD player that you bought because let’s face it, Blu-Ray just won’t be cheap enough and will lose the format war? Well, now a couple of companies are hoping to help people like us. TechForward Incorporated is a Los Angeles based company that is offering a “guaranteed buyback” plan for gadgets. They actually call it “a wide-ranging service line to help retailers, product manufacturers, and consumers overcome obstacles to more frequent upgrade purchasing of popular consumer electronics product categories.”



Right now, most of the companies working in partnership with TechForward are smaller businesses in California, but they are working with our favorite on-line retailer, amazon.com. Look here for a list of participating organizations. Don’t worry if you don’t know of any of these retailers though because you don’t have to buy from them to take advantage of the buy back. If you go to TechForward’s website at www.techforward.com, you can purchase a buyback plan for something that you have already purchased or for something that you plan to purchase from somewhere else. Simply pay the buyback fee and TechForward will ship you a box for you to send your product back to them. Some good news is that they pay all shipping fees so you don’t have to worry about spending even more money. Then, depending on when you send it back, you will get a certain monetary reimbursement. Of course, the earlier you send the product to TechForward, the more money you get. Right now the buyback rewards aren’t as high as you might earn by selling your items on ebay; however, ebay is always a little risky, since you don’t know if anyone will buy your stuff. TechForward’s buyback money is cash that you know you’ll get back to spend on something else. They say that the products must be in good condition to get money back, but that’s just to ensure the “guaranteed” refund. If your product is deemed to be in excellent condition, you get an bonus 10%. If it’s in poor condition, you get hit with a penalty. And if it’s scrap, they’ll recycle it, but you don’t get any money back…just the promise that it will be recycled environmentally. Now before you go collecting all of your old electronics from around the house, I want to point out that although TechForward’s buyback list is pretty substantial, not every electronic product that you own or want to own will be eligible for the plan.

Verdict

I’m a little disappointed in the “buyback” refund amounts right now but hopefully as the trend catches on the numbers will get higher. I can compare to the prices on ebay, but I don’t know how that all works out in the end as far as fees, etc. Does anyone have any information about selling gadgets on ebay? I normally stick to garage sales for my stuff. If anyone has actually participated in TechForward’s buyback plan please leave a comment below. I’m interested in knowing how easy and reliable the process is.