The Best Apps for Selling Your Old Android Devices

Whether you upgrade your Android phone every year or every other year, chances are, you have a lot of old smartphones and tablets lying around collecting dust. There are many things you can do with an old Android device: donate it, recycle it, or even repurpose it as a dedicated GPS device or alarm clock. In many cases, though, you can earn some cash by selling it, and you can easily do so with an ever increasing number of mobile apps.

There are familiar services for selling your stuff, such as Amazon, Craigslist, and eBay. Amazon and eBay have companion apps that you can use to post and track your sales. Craigslist doesn't have an official app, but some third party developers, such as Mokriya, have created their own apps. Gazelle, one of the more well-known websites for buying and selling used electronics does not have a companion app.

A huge crop of apps has emerged that are dedicated to helping you sell your clothing, electronics, and other unwanted items. Some are meant for local sales, where you meet the buyer in person, while others work similarly to eBay, where you can ship your electronics to buyers around the country. Here are five apps you can use to sell your old Android smartphones and tablets.

A quick note before I dive in: Don't be fooled by Gone; while you can technically download it from the Google Play store, after a few screens about selling your stuff, you get a screen that says "we're coming to Android soon" and asks for your email address and zip code.

That's lame.

Carousell

Carousell is an app for that you can use for both local "meet-up" sales or for shipping items across the country. You can sign up with Facebook, Google, or with your email address. No matter which you choose, you must provide a username. Next, you have to select your city, which was a more tedious process than I expected.

First, you choose your country, then (if in the U.S.), your state, and then scan through a long list of cities. (New York State has a LOT of cities.) You can also add a profile photo. Once you've done that, you can browse sales and join groups (based on region or similar likes).

To sell an item, you can either take a picture of it or choose an existing photo that's already on your device. You can then crop the image, rotate it, and use several editing options to adjust brightness, saturation, contrast, sharpening, and vignetting (basically making the edges of the image darker than the center). Then the app asks to access your location and then you add a description, category, price, and select meet-up or delivery. You can also share your listing directly to Twitter or Facebook.

A number of items are not allowed to be sold through Carousell, such as alcohol, drugs, adult content, weapons, and more. The app offers some tips to help you write your listing, but it's pretty standard stuff, such as adding color and measurements and accurately describing the item. You can choose your preferred meeting place from a list generated by your GPS-based location. After you sell it or if you choose not to sell, you can edit the listing and then either delete it or mark it as sold.

LetGo

When you launch LetGo, your camera is automatically activated (similar to Snapchat) and you can immediately start listing the things you want to sell. You start by taking a picture or using an existing one stored on your device, and then add a price or mark it as negotiable. Next, you're prompted to sign up via Facebook, Google, or by email. You can then leave the listing as is or add a description and select a category. If you don't add a title, LetGo will automatically generate one based on your photo (this was accurate in my test). LetGo said my listing would be posted within 10 minutes; it appeared about a minute after I submitted it, which was nice. Unlike Carousell, you can't edit photos in the app, and buyers must be local; no shipping. You can share your listing on Facebook directly from the app.

Buyers can send questions to sellers and make offers through the built-in chat function. LetGo helpfully provides a handful of pre-written questions, such as where should we meet up, is the price negotiable, and other common queries. You can even create a commercial for your listing using a few templates including 80's action and pharma, though I'm not sure how useful that is. You can't delete listings, but only mark them as sold.

OfferUp

When you start up OfferUp on your smartphone, it asks if it can access your location, and then shows you popular listings near you. Press the camera icon, or choose "post new offer" from the drop-down menu on the left, and then you're prompted to log in with Facebook or sign up with your email address. Next, you have to agree to OfferUp's terms of service and privacy policy, which was updated in January of this year. Then you get a pop up with some tips on selling, such as uploading quality photos, including a detailed description, and a somewhat odd screen saying that the app is family oriented and to refrain from listing guns and drugs.

Next, you can take a photo or choose one from your gallery, then add a title, category, and optional description. Finally, you set a price, and mark whether it's firm, and select its condition from a sliding scale, from new to used to "for parts." By default, a check box is selected to share your listing on Facebook. You can set your location using the GPS on your device or by inputting a zip code. Once your listing is up, interested buyers can make you an offer or ask questions directly through the app. To remove a listing, you can either archive it or mark it as sold. If you successfully sell something through the app, you can then give the buyer a rating.

Shpock boot sale & classifieds

Shpock, short for "Shop in your Pocket," isn't an app for selling boots as its name may suggest. It actually refers to the concept of selling things out of the trunk (or boot) of your car. Once you sign up you're called a Shpockie. You can either log in via Facebook or by email and SMS. If you choose the latter, you have to input an email address, password, and your full name. A profile image is required. Then you have to verify your account by text message. I was expecting to receive a verification code of some sort, but instead, the text contained a confirmation link, which I appreciated. To sell, you just need to provide a photo, title, description, category, and price. You can optionally share you listing on Facebook.

Once a listing is live, you can pay to promote it for one, three, 10, or 30 days. However, neither the app nor the website makes clear exactly what type of promotion you get. I couldn't get the promotion feature to work in my testing; all I got was an error about in-app purchases. After your listing goes up, you can edit it, delist it, or mark it as sold elsewhere. If you choose to delist, you have to choose a reason (other is an option), with the option to explain why.

What's My Phone Worth?(From Flipsy.com)

The What's My Phone Worth? app from Flipsy.com isn't meant for directly selling your old devices, but it's a great place to start. As its name states, this app helps you figure out how much your device is worth. The first time you fire up the app, it detects what kind of device you have and lists its worth as both a trade-in or a private sale. You can select from four conditions: like new, good, poor, or broken. Depending on the model, you can change the color and the built-in memory. In my case, the app got everything right except the color, and for some reason, the Samsung Galaxy S6 in white pearl is worth more than the same model in black sapphire. You can also scroll down and choose another phone if the app got it wrong or if you want to check the value of another device. While you can't sell your device directly through the app, there are links to offers from other stores, and if you sign up for a Flipsy account, you can sell your stuff on its marketplace.

Best Practices

While these apps make it much easier to sell your old electronics, you still need to be wary of scammers. Always use a payment service that offers purchase protection, such as PayPal or WePay, for remote transactions. Apps like Venmo don't have this protection and are meant for use only with people you know and trust. Don't accept checks from anyone you don't know; in person, cash is best. If you're dealing with a local buyer, meet at a public place; don't give out your address. Use a Google Voice number for contact with your buyer so you don't have to give your number out.