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Samsung offering new Galaxy customers up to $300 for old handsets

Samsung offering new Galaxy customers up to $300 for old handsets

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Samsung is offering new Galaxy S III, S II and Note customers up to $300 for trading in old handsets — but not every offer is that attractive.

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Gallery Photo: Samsung Galaxy S III for AT&T pictures
Gallery Photo: Samsung Galaxy S III for AT&T pictures

Samsung is offering new Galaxy S III, Galaxy S II, and Galaxy Note customers up to $300 cashback in exchange for trading in old handsets. Dubbed Samsung Upgrade, the deal is currently available via the company's US Facebook page, where users are able to get an automatic quote for devices from every major manufacturer before submitting proof of purchase to Samsung. After receiving and verifying the old handset, Samsung will send out a check for its agreed value.

Requesting quotes for a number of common smartphones, we were somewhat disappointed. A Galaxy S II will net $140, while an 8GB iPhone 4 will generate cashback of just $115. The Motorola Droid Bionic comes in at a measly $85 and the HTC Desire S provides just $30. The only device we could find that netted the full $300 was the GSM version of the iPhone 4S with 64GB of internal storage — that's $549 less than it costs to buy the device unlocked from Apple, with the same handset currently attracting eBay bids of well over $400. Samsung's quote form includes check boxes for water damage and broken screens, both of which drastically and predictably reduce the value of any handset.