Spending the whole of Christmas Day making sure great aunt Mildred doesn’t give in to the temptation of festive inebriation is one thing, but we reckon there are far better ways of making the most of family, namely pillaging them for old iPads, smartphones, old Kindles and whatever other unwanted electronics they’ve got lying around! We’re not suggesting outright theft, but more a coming together of resources for a common sell for cash good!

Most folks have at least a couple of handsets knocking around, so why not do your bit for less net-savvy family members and help them sell computers, smartphones and old cameras at great rates? Our rates are updated regularly to fit in with our ethos of not spending heaps of cash on adverts. When we can afford to cut costs and offer you and your favourite oldies a better deal, we do!

Recycling unwanted goods – sorting through them, anyway – is usually a soul-crushingly boring day’s work.  Make a good clear out part of your family fun time (the hours will go much faster with heaps of embarrassing outfits and photos to go through!)

There are thought to be around 20 million spare mobile phones floating around in stuff draws and spare bedroom wardrobes in the U.K. Even if only traded in for £5.00 each (the current rate of the Acer Be Touch 101) that’d net about £100 million for our U.K customers!

Want to sell for cash quickly? Our turnaround rate is typically less than forty-eight hours from online quote to the money in your bank.

Fake bits and bobs creep into life. Fake Ray-Bans from Bangkok, fake micro pigs that just never stop growing, maybe even the odd knock-off designer outfit (because who wants to actually ruin a Gucci purse or Evisu jeans on a backpacking trip!) trickles into our world. But when it comes to gadgets, we’re all in it for the real thing.

There are plenty of cheap versions of smartphones, but the likes of the Orange Rio II or Sydney never pretend to be anything other than low cost shadows of the Blackberry Curve and Samsung Galaxy II. Fake gadgets aren’t strictly big business in the U.K (even though we buy laptops and heaps of phones, our sell for cash service has yet to come across even a half-convincing fraud) but elsewhere in the world entire industries exist for one reason – gadget cloning.

“And tonight Matthew, the HDC A9100’s going to be…

… The Samsung Galaxy SII!”

Costing around half that of the Samsung Galaxy SII, the HDC interloper is a Chinese dual-SIM phone with 4.3-inch capacitive screen and dual camera,  powered by dual-core MT6573 processor and running on Android 2.3, it even has access to Google’s Android market. The device is easily spotted as a fake before reaching our sell for cash ranks because of the HDC logo in place of Samsung’s own. Aside from that it’s almost a carbon copy.

And that’s just one example. There’s a great list of popular mobile phone clones here http://ibnlive.in.com/photogallery/4886.html

We buy laptops, smartphones, tablets, cameras and gadgets from loads of top manufacturers, but we’re only interested in the real deal (so that fake “iPhone” from your backpacking trip won’t be finding a new home in our sell for cash nest!)

Do the Apples ever stop falling? Despite Apple’s fairly limited product spectrum of one smartphone, one tablet etc, etc, they never stay off the radar for long, releasing new odds and sods a couple of times annually (just enough to make us thirsty for more without having to wait so long we get bored and wander off somewhere!)

Our iPhone rumour roundup is still very he-said-she-said, but here are a few common points to think about when you sell iPads, laptops and magic beans through our sell for cash service.

• Release dates vary from June 2012 (at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference) to October 2012 (in time for my mother’s birthday and early Christmas present lists!) Our sell for cash rates are predicted to be even better this year, which means more cash for your festive upgrade,too!
• Liquid metal is predicted to be the next big thing for smartphones. According to a bunch of rumour websites, the new iPhone 5 (or iPhone the Fifth or whatever it’ll be called) could be housed in an alloy of titanium, nickel, copper, zirconium and a few other metals. The alloy apparently feels like glass, is scratch resistant (as opposed to saying “scratch resistant” but clearly carrying the battle scars of pockets and handbags) and super strong.
• David Hseih (DisplaySearch analyst) reckons Apple are leaning in the direction of in-cell display technology; great news for Japanese manufacturers and suppliers of the stuff! In-cell  tech basically means the new iPhone could be mega-thin to keep up with the likes of Samsung’s Note – a fantastic device with great specs and a far sleeker feel than the brick-like iPhone 4S.
• A 4” screen would put Apple back in the big boys’ screen class. We’re big fans of big screens, so an iPhone 5 with a tasty 4” screen might even tug on the heart strings of our HTC and Samsung Note devotees here in the office!
• Mac rumour website, InRumour.com, reckons the new iPhone could be waterproof. U.S company, Liquipel, posted a YouTube video of an iPhone 4 playing a video whilst submerged underwater. We don’t find this a very credible rumour in terms of standard Apple releases, but the company seems to be on the level for private commissions and stuff. You can watch the videos here http://www.liquipel.com/in-action/

We buy laptops, smartphones and all the gadget-y goodies from the Apple tree, so don’t forget to check back every time you want to sell iPads, iPhones, iPods and Macs!

Personal blogs have kind of a bad rep for being self-indulgent, whiney and basically alienating for any reader other than the writer. But modern blogging isn’t all about feelings and crap; there are heaps of super bloggers out there writing sensible, creative, informative stuff about what they know, want to know or don’t know. Folks like Justine Musk (fantasy author and all-round creative lady), the Sartorialist and Planet-Anarky.co.uk are all produced and managed by individuals who know their proverbial.

When you want to sell laptops, tablets and gadgets, we’re pretty much a one-stop shop. You visit us because we buy laptops, tablets and gadgets AND because we’re on the level with stuff like gadget reviews, eco living advice and general curious info.

Here are five reasons you should think about joining the blogger ranks and throwing in your text or image-based ten cents!

1. Most people are experts in something. Which is kind of another way of saying nobody is an expert or a special snowflake or whatever, but you get the point. There are heaps of unique ideas, interests and perspectives out there, so what’s stopping you saying your piece on that old iPad? Bit shy? Write under a pseudonym.
2. You might be able to help someone. Browsing blogs and forums is a sure-fire way to find advice on everything from how to sell iPads to the best way to rub out those stains on your bathroom tiles with homemade remedies.
3. Enriching the creative word is a worthy blog aspiration. We’re in pretty tough economic and cultural times. But from some of the most horrid periods in history we’ve got things like the poetry of Wilfred Owen (WW1), the great age of mystery novels (Agatha Christie, Raymond Chander – the Great Depression) and the Renaissance (the growth and controversy of natural science, political unrest across Europe etc) A bad economy isn’t necessarily a precursor to great cultural leaps, but hardship can certainly breed creativity.
4. It’s free and you never know where it could take you. The Sartorialist, Justine Musk, Perez Hilton, Mashable, the Huffington Post, Kottke, Dooce, Xu Jinglei, Tavi Gevinson and loads more folks have found fame, respect and sometimes the odd fortune via their free blogging talents.
5. It can be cathartic. Blogs are pretty much limitless when it comes to the potential for recording images, thoughts, grievances, advice, videos – whatever! They can be superb places to vent, create and develop ideas outside of the chaos of the mind. Just remember to check privacy settings and update/manage regularly.

Blogging is one of those things (like doing that whole sell my mobile dance) that is what you make of it. You visit us to sell mobiles and stuff because we offer superb rates; you blog regularly, sensibly and creatively to build a following, develop your areas of interest and hopefully make the world a little better.

From the diary of one of our most ardent tech fans and marketing folks. The simple installation of new power lines may as well have ripped open a black hole to the last century, leaving no old iPads, old Kindles or even a Nokia 8210 trade-in on the go!

“7:50AM: Withdrawal symptoms. The power’s been off for about twenty-five minutes and my old Dell Inspiron 1525 has given up the ghost. Should have replaced the bloody battery a year ago when those little ‘Soon your battery will need replacing’ warnings started to pop up. Should have remembered to charge my phone and iPad last night. Never mind. Only twenty hours ‘til the power comes back on. Might go do the dishes.”

“10:00AM: Changed the bedding, fed the cat, cleaned the bath (disgusting!), emptied a year’s worth of vacuum cleaner grime into the wheelie bin (well, half in, half flittering away on the wind), done the dishes, cleaned the juicer, tried to turn my laptop on five times. Bored. Maybe if I stare out of the window something might be interesting”

…ten minutes later…

“I saw three things – a dog peeing on my car, a horse pooping at the end of the drive and a bird taking a toilet break straight down my duvet cover on the washing line. Brilliant.”

“13:04PM: I need to know what’s happening in the world. My fingers keep tapping out keyboard shortcuts like morse code on the kitchen counter. There MUST be plenty of things to do but I’m feeling faintly overcome by the need to read Listverse, Cracked, i09, the Guardian, my emails, Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, Ecoprenaurist, FML, Failblog, Tribal Writer, Huffington Post U.K and my local RSPCA ads (because I put all that effort into building a chicken coop for what are currently imaginary chickens!) THAT’S MY USUAL MORNING ROUTINE AND I’M SKULL-CRUSHINGLY BORED!”

“13:07PM: Go through old Christmas presents and see what I could sell for cash? Not that bored, yet!”

Long blog entries tend to bore people, so let’s just say the day went on in a similar vein until power was unexpectedly restored at 6:30PM. Any lessons learned or nuggets of advice to dole out?

• Clear out the spare room for old iPads, old Kindles, laptops etc as soon as possible, that way it won’t be all you’re left with on power-free days! (Plus our sell for cash rates are really great!)
• Charge your phone and tablet. Walking to the payphone at the end of the street to make a phone call (so 1990s!) feels weird. Plus the phone box will likely smell of pee.
• Taking a tech-free day every now and then is probably good for the soul, or something. We’re still in the horrid withdrawal stage, but there’s been the odd twinkling of a defining moment somewhere in the Matrix.
• Animals will poop anywhere.