Get new laptop, then recycle the old one?

July 21, 2011 6:58 AM

Can I purchase a laptop from the Apple store, then use the Apple Recycling Program to recycle my old Apple laptop, get the gift card, and apply it to my purchase?

I'm asking because it would clearly be more convenient if I could do this in this order. I've used the recycling program before, and it was a breeze.

posted by King Bee to shopping (5 answers total)

You can't use a gift card retroactively. So, no.
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:03 AM on July 21, 2011

Well...if it takes less than 14 days to get the gift card (the website just says "short time"), you could buy the laptop, get the gift card, return the laptop, and buy it again...
posted by litnerd at 7:13 AM on July 21, 2011

You might want to scope out ebay/craigslist to better determine the value of your old laptop. Apple's recycling program is obviously convenient, but you may be able to get substantially more cash by selling your machine.

Another option might be to purchase the laptop from the store, recycle the old one, and then use the gift card to buy AppleCare or any software/accessories that you need.
posted by zachlipton at 8:08 AM on July 21, 2011

I would not, at all, ever, advise using any retail give-us-your-item-and-we-give-you-credit ploy, at all, ever, unless the entire Internet is down for more than a month. I would wager the odds of getting a profoundly-greater amount of money in exchange for a standard citizen-to-citizen sale of any such item than from such a retail strategy, to be in the neighborhood of 100% of the time. By the way.
posted by Quarter Pincher at 4:34 PM on July 21, 2011

Yeah, I've used the various retail recycling programs (Apple's and someone else's, I forget who now) to give me a baseline value to which I added $200 for the Craigslist posting. I ended up selling it to a friend of mine for $100 over the resale outfit's quote without any Craigslist BS. Easy!

That said, there are other, non-Apple options that will give you a check and not a gift card. MeMail me and I'll see if I can dig up the name of the vendor I was going to use.
posted by Kyol at 10:31 PM on July 21, 2011