Gazelle

What: Gazelle is one of the early entrants in the market to buy used electronics and appears to have set many of the industry standards 

Expected pay: NA

HuslScore: $$$

Commissions & fees: Not applicable

Where: Nationwide

Requirements: A smart phone made by Apple, Google or Samsung or other Apple products 

Want to buy or sell with Gazelle?

Click here!(Gazelle is a SideHusl.com affiliate. This does not impact our review. But if you click on this link, SideHusl may earn a small referral fee.)

Gazelle Review:

Gazelle is one of the early entrants in the used electronics game and appears to have set many of the industry standards. You click on what you want to sell; report its condition; and get a quote online. Gazelle specializes in phones and Apple products, but also buys and sells Google and Samsung smart phones. 

If you agree to sell, the site will send you packaging materials and postage to pack up your, say, iPhone, and send it in.  The site promises to pay the agreed amount within a week. However, there’s an inspection when the item arrives and Gazelle can adjust its offer. Don’t like the deal? They’ll ship your phone back at no cost to you.

In years past, Gazelle’s customers maintained that the site often paid more than its offer because it rated your product more highly than you did. No longer. Recently, consumers have complained that the site cuts offers dramatically when you send in the phone, often for tiny nicks and scratches. You can sign up to buy or sell on Gazelle here.

Recommendations

We down-graded Gazelle in October of 2020 from a good option to a merely average one as the result of recent consumer complaints. We believe you’re likely to get a better price for your phone at TheWhizCells and ItsWorthMore. You may also want to comparison shop at Flipsy.

What their users say: (from Trust Pilot)

“This is a lot like selling a used car, where you see ads all over the place that make you think you’ll get a decent price. But right before you seal the deal they come back with “bad news” and dock you outrageous amounts for tiny blemishes. Once they have your item, they are hoping you will just give in and take their drastically reduced offer. The whole deal was a bunch of wasted time. I wish I could post photos of the tiny blemish that Gazelle found on the bottom corner of the phone that they used to justify their decision to give me only $19 (vs. $59).”

“I sent an unblemished item in it’s original box with unused lightning cable and wall adapter. After being notified via e-mail that the offer changed from $334 to $23 due to it being Xfinity carrier and not unlocked with scratches — there were zero blemishes — I declined and requested it be returned to me.”

“Bait and Switch. Take multiple photos of your phone, every inch. Take a video of your phone. They found scratches on my phone and adjusted my payment down. Unfortunately I only took two pictures of phone in box (before shipping) and couldn’t get a close up of the area to dispute the scratches they found were not there prior to me shipping.”

“They gave an initial offer of $83 for Pixel 3xl with a cracked screen (it would have been $200+ with a good screen). The low offer was solely because of the cracked screen. I sent the phone in and they adjusted the offer to $5. What a ripoff!”

(From Site Jabber)

“I decided to go with Gazelle after CNET gave them a good rating. They initially gave me a fair price for my iPad Pro. This iPad was always 100% covered and had a tempered glass screen cover too. When gazelle received it, they said “too many scratches for our price” and dropped the price by more than 50%. I tried calling them twice (on hold for over an hour) and emailed them 3 times to ask about this policy. Nothing, nada, no response. So I asked for my iPad back. When I got it, I asked 2 independent stores and they could not find any scratches on it. Classic bait and switch. Poor customer service Gazelle. I went with Declutter. They got my ipad and the next day deposited the monies into my account. And it was for 100% of the amount that they initially gave me prior to shipping.”

“Sent them a Samsung S6 Edge 128 GB phone with a quote of $80. They emailed me back and said it was a 32GB phone and offered $20, which I declined. They sent back the 128 GB phone, so I lost nothing but I will NEVER do business with this company again.”

*Updated 4/15/2022