Selling a cell phone without eBay: SecondRotation strikes out

SecondRotation is a classy looking site for selling devices -- cell phones, PDAs, digital cameras. One can get a better price on eBay (though I prefer to avoid them) or Craigslist, this site has the advantage of simplicity and convenience.

I may give it a try.

Update 2/26/2008: Didn't work.

I sent them my RAZR, but they neglected to include directions on ESN termination. This is well known to people who trade in phones, but not to the rest of us. Even though our Sprint relationship had ended, and even though the phone no longer works, the "ESN is still active". They sent an email offering to recycle the phone, the link to respond didn't work (programming error on their site). I was able to find the form to request the phone be sent back to me, then I'll see if I can get Sprint to remove the ESN lock.

How annoying. If Second Rotation really does return everything I won't ding them, but they really could have done a better job providing guidance on ESN unlocking.

Update 3/23/2008: After some prodding, SecondRotation returned the Motorola RAZR. It wasn't locked and I sold it on Craiglist. It has occurred to me what a great scam it would be to offer to buy phones, then claim they were locked, then offer to dispose of them for free. I am going to assume, however, that the phone was either transiently locked or that SecondRotation made a simple mistake. In the future though I'll use SR as a way to help price items I want to sell, but Craigslist is a much better option.