[citation][nom]ryankuder[/nom]Hey, my name is Ryan and I'm the Marketing Director for ecoATM. I thought it might be helpful to answer a few of the questions here. First, I've got an iPhone 4 in pretty good condition (light scratches, works fine). Yesterday, an ecoATM offered $130 for it. So we pay real money. For some phones, there's just no market for them, so we can't offer very much, but we will by anything we recognize as a phone for at least $1. If we can't find a new home for it, we'll recycle it with one of our certified recycling partners. Also, you never mail your phone to us, so there's no waiting then getting your phone downgraded. We tell you what we'll pay while you're standing there. If you like it, we spit out cash. If not, we give you you're phone back. Regarding stolen phones. To buy a phone, you need to scan a valid ID to make sure it's you, we collect your thumbprint, and we provide reports to local authorities. If something is awry with your id (it's not you or it's expired or something), we won't finish the transaction. Because of all the regulations we need to follow and the technology we have to tie you to the phone you sold us, we're actually a really bad place to try to get rid of a stolen phone.To see if your phone works, after we do a scan to identify what kind of phone it is, we give you a cable you'll need to plug in to your phone. We then do a test of the electronics and the software to make sure it works. We use optics to identify and analyze the physical condition of the phone and they're pretty advanced. We can tell the difference between a thumbprint and a crack shaped like a thumbprint because we use different techniques to check those things. We don't need to weigh the phones.In any case, we do buy phones that are cracked or even phones that don't power up. You won't get full value for those kinds of phones, but we're happy to buy them.Hopefully this answers some of the questions you all had. I'll monitor the thread in case any other questions come up.Thanks!Ryan[/citation]
Sounds good and legit.
Hoping to see it around my local malls and at more locations.
Also, it would be great if this idea expands to all electronics, I know it's hard, but it would be awesome.
I'm sure there are many people out there like me who holds on to a lot of old stuff not knowing what to do, and don't want to just throw it into garbage.