Skip to main content

How to use the Amazon trade-in program

Did you know you can trade-in products like smartphones and tablets to Amazon and get store credit? The Amazon Trade-in program has been around for some time, but if you haven’t heard about it before, here’s how to use it.

Through the program, you can trade in a slew of different items — but perhaps the most important these days is the smartphone. If you’re in the market for a new phone, Amazon will buy your old phone from you to help offset the cost. Interested in the new Samsung Galaxy Note 8? Amazon could pay you up to $170 for a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, which could go straight to helping you buy your new phone.

But how does the trade-in program work? Here are the steps to follow:

  1. Submit a trade-in: Head to the Amazon trade-in store and find the items you’re looking to trade-in. To do that, first select the category (cellphones, tablets, etc.), then click on the right item.
  2. Ship your trade-in: The next step is to ship out your product. Within 7 days of submitting the trade-in, you’ll be issued a shipping label, which you can use to ship out the product to Amazon. Make sure to include the packing slip inside the box so Amazon knows the item is from you.
  3. Get paid: When Amazon gets the product and confirms its condition, your account will receive credit that can then be used to buy anything on the Amazon store.

In between shipping the item and getting paid, you can actually track the status of the trade-in. This is done by heading to the trade-in account and clicking on Review the status of your trade-in item. It may take a few days for the payment to be credited to your account, so don’t worry if after shipping you don’t immediately get paid.

Apart from the Galaxy S7 Edge, there are a number of phones you can trade-in for Amazon store credit. Perhaps the most notable is the black iPhone 7 Plus, which could net you a whopping $370 for use on your Amazon account. Again, phones aren’t the only items you can trade in — you can even trade in your old textbooks, DVDs, video games, and so on.

Editors' Recommendations

Christian de Looper
Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…
The best phones for kids in 2023
phones for kids

Kids are people too, and often those little people are clamoring for the best smartphone tech money can buy, complete with the latest talk, text, games, apps, photos, and video conferencing features their parents are willing to buy for them. The good news is that you don't have to mortgage your home to purchase a decent smartphone for your kid. With their (sometimes) smaller hands and more limited needs — and the reality that kids tend to lose or destroy delicate things more frequently than adults — there are plenty of choices for powerful handsets that are ideal for kids.

Whether they're in the next room studying, yakking with or texting friends, walking the dog at the park, or gearing up to go back to school, their smartphone helps you to monitor their activities and keep them out of trouble. Double down on this by pairing their new phone with one of the best parental control apps or, for Android devices, Google's Family Link. Here are our top picks for the best phones for kids ranging in age from about elementary school to teen.

Read more
Trading in your iPhone with Apple? You’ll get less than yesterday
An iPhone 14 Pro Max with the display turned on. We see the Home Screen and Pixel Pals running in the Dynamic Island.

For the second time in two months, Apple has reduced the trade-in values of many of its iPhones and other products.

Spotted by MacRumors, the adjustments are pretty significant for some of its handsets.

Read more
How much is the iPhone 14? Here’s exactly what it costs
The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14.

Apple's newest iteration of the iPhone has been available for purchase for a while, but some people are just now looking into picking it up. The iPhone 14 is the most advanced smartphone Apple has ever made and, thanks to the Dynamic Island of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, it stands out as unique when compared to the rest of Apple's smartphone lineup.

Because there are four discrete devices in the iPhone 14 line, and within each phone there are multiple hardware options, understanding how much each iPhone costs can be a little bit of a challenge. It's a good thing that Apple is offering so many different options for people to purchase the phone that best suits their needs, but as a result, there's a little bit of confusion about the different versions.

Read more