Home | Cash in your electricals – or donate them

Sell second hand electronics – or donate them

Not sure what to do with your old electricals? Before recycling, consider cashing in or donating them. Broadcaster Kate Thornton gets advice from personal finance expert Paul Lewis.

Second hand electronics and electricals

See how much money you could make

In these uncertain times, we could all do with a little extra cash.

£125 for a games console

Game over? Many unused electrical and electronic products are hot property on the second hand market.

£165 for a laptop

There are an estimated 31 million laptops sitting unused in UK homes – the chances are you have one tucked away somewhere.

£110 for a mobile phone

Millions of us have at least two old phones tucked away in a drawer. Check out our guide to deleting your data and you’ll be good to go.

How to delete your data

Home truths

Your unused electricals could be worth £620

TV presenter Kate Thornton consults personal money expert Paul Lewis and is amazed to learn the second hand value of the electricals she has stashed away at home.

Are you ready to turn your electricals into cash?

Get ready to sell second hand electronics

Three simple steps

With a little preparation you could be quids in

Sort

Separate your unwanted electricals into 3 piles: sell, donate, or recycle. It makes the rest so much easier.

Prepare

Before bagging up your old items to donate, sell, or recycle make sure you remove batteries, bulbs and memory cards, and delete data from smart devices and IT. See our guide.

Prepare your items for recycling

Cash in

Check out peer-to-peer market places – where you get to keep most of the sale price. Or, if you’re replacing a product, some retailers buy back your old one.

Where can you sell electronics online?

Here are just a few of the sites where you can turn your unwanted electricals into cash. For a little extra effort, you’re likely to get most value from a peer-to-peer market place, but if you’re buying new products check if the retailer has a trade-in programmes.

Ebay

Gumtree

Zapper

Fat Llama

Reverb

facebook-social-media-communication-network

Facebook Marketplace

Shpock

Preloved

Mazuma

Expert view: the value in your second hand electronics

The BBC’s personal money guru, Paul Lewis, with advice on turning your old electricals into cash – or donating them so that someone else can make use of them. He’s also got some great tips on how to cope financially during these tough economic times.

Read Paul’s advice on selling old electricals

12 million unused kettles could be donated or recycled - graphic

Did you know?

12 million kettles are not making tea

How unBritish – and a lot of precious resources going to waste.

If your love for your old kettle has cooled off, why not sell, donate or recycle it?

Where to donate or recycle

On average there’s at least one idle laptop in every UK home

– that’s 31 million across the country that could be put to good use.

Wake up to the joys of selling, donating or recycle anything with a plug, battery or cable.