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Gadget trade-in service opens

Jacob Nthoiwa
By Jacob Nthoiwa, ITWeb journalist.
Johannesburg, 19 May 2011

Gadget trade-in service opens

Asda, a UK supermarket, has unveiled a trade-in service for second-hand gadgets, which pledges to not be beaten on price by five leading recycling businesses, writes The Guardian UK.

The Asda Tech trade-in accepts mobile phones, GPSes, digital cameras, MP3 players and portable games consoles, and from June customers will be able to trade in larger electronic goods such as laptops, tablets and games consoles. Freepost Jiffy envelopes will be available in-store from the same date.

The service is backed by a promise that Asda will not be beaten on price by Mazuma, Envirofone, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Boots.

According to the company, citing Omnibus research, there are 11 million unused digital cameras, nine million old PCs, more than five million old laptops, a million redundant GPSes and 12 million outdated game consoles in UK homes, states PC Pro.

“We reckon that the average UK home has hundreds of pounds worth of old gadgets that could be traded in for cash,” says Asda electronics services manager Phil Stout.

There are more mobile phones in the UK than people, for example, so there is a lot of cash out there waiting to be released, he says.

According to ThinkQ, Asda says gadgets it can fix will be sent to other parts of the world like China, Africa, Pakistan and India.

Anything beyond repair will have precious metals like gold and silver removed, and the plastic parts will be melted down to make stuff like traffic cones.

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