Amazon is gearing up for the Christmas season by allowing customers to get instant vouchers for trading their unwanted possessions.
The U.S. retail giant has long-offered a trade-in option in exchange for gift card credit, but now — with Christmas just 40 days away — its new ‘Instant Payment’ service lets you get your money right away… before you’ve even sent the item over. That down for its previous policy of 10 days.
There’s a small catch: The instant payment service is initially live for video games and related accessories only. But it is very easy to use.
Simply submit details of the item/items that you wish to return, after which gift card credit is immediately dispatched. You then have seven days to mail the item to Amazon, via a UPS location, using a printable, prepaid shipping label that is provided on the Amazon website.
Amazon stressed that trade-in values vary based on the condition of the item in question, but some rough prices for popular gaming products are as follows:
- Nintendo Wii U Console: up to $150
- Sony PlayStation 4 500GB Console: up to $170
- Microsoft Xbox One 500GB: up to $115
- FIFA 17: up to $25
- Paper Mario Color Splash: up to $30
- Gears of War 4: up to $26
The initiative will be welcomed by many customers as the costly present-buying season approaches, but don’t bank on being able to spend your trade-in cash on the hottest thing in gaming now: an NES Classic. The much-sought-after Nintendo console is, well, much sought after… with its first batch selling out on Amazon last week in a matter of seconds. Luckily Amazon has plenty of other items on display.
More details on Amazon Instant Payment are here.