Gazelle, one of the most used smartphone buyers in the United States, has announced the end of its core exchange program, which allows phone owners to mail phones and other electronic devices in exchange for cash.
The news was announced and shared in an email that Gazelle sent to some customers on Wednesday The edgemeans that prospective Gazelle customers must receive a quote and start the exchange process by 31 January 2021 (to send in 30 days by phone) if they wish to use the program. The service will be officially discontinued on February 1, while active exchanges will be complied with, the company said.
This is not the end of Gazelle’s business. Gazelle’s parent company ecoATM, which has been in existence since 2006, operates kiosks that allow you to immediately get cash for a used device, and the Gazelle website is now used as a retailer to sell the devices at lower prices after it has been refurbished. . (The prisoner is that ecoATMs may not pay out as much as the traditional Gazelle enrollment program, which typically offered more than $ 300 or more for a previous year’s flagship such as the iPhone 11 Pro.)
Gazelle gives no reason for the decision, but there are some major trends in the U.S. mobile business that suggest the benefits of cash-in-exchange services are generally declining. For the first time, many more people are renting their smartphones than in recent years instead of buying it straight, a broad shift from the days when American entrepreneurs offered phones with lower prices in exchange for fixed two-year contracts.
It’s now easy to pay a modest monthly fee for a phone through a program like AT&T Next Up or Apple’s iPhone upgrade program, with the option to charge the device for a new one after a certain time exchange. Unless you decide to pay off your rented phone well in advance, you can not turn around and sell it to Gazelle – and you will not necessarily want to do it, because it does not make much financial sense.
In addition, Gazelle’s early business grew rapidly in the trade of iPhone with the sale of your phone to get the latest Apple product was a popular strategy for early adopters. Apple now has a robust own trade-in program (in addition to the rental program) that gives you the same result.