Asus has launched a new trade-in program that, in some cases, pays handsomely for certain older generation graphics cards. A GeForce GT 730, for example, qualifies for as much as £125 (~$160) when buying a new card.
That is substantially more than you are like to get by hawking the card on eBay. A look at the most recent completed listings for a GT 730 shows sellers getting as little as £18 in the UK and $16.50 in the US. There are some outliers, but most seem to fetch in the neighborhood of £20-30 in the UK and around $25-35 in the US.
The caveat is that Asus is only offering its "Christmas in July" trade-in program in the UK at the moment. It's not clear if or when it will expand to the US.
To participate in the program, you have to purchase a qualifying GPU between July 1 and August 31, 2019. You will then need to provide a bunch of details to Asus, including the date and place of purchase, invoice number, serial number, and a few other things.
The amount you are eligible to receive depends both on the card you are trading in, and which one you purchased to replace it with. Buying a higher-end GPU like an RTX 2080 Ti nets you more for your old card than an RTX 2060.
Pricing is fair across the board, relative to MSRPs, but the scarcity of more recent cards and subsequent second-hand markups means the trade-in program is not always worth it. For older cards, however, you can sometimes make out like a bandit, compared to eBay. Here are some examples:
- GeForce GT 730 to a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti—£125
- GeForce GTX 760 to a GeForce RTX 2060—£65
- GeForce GTX 1050 to a GeForce RTX 2060—£105
Trade-in values range from £35 to £270, depending on the combo. Asus also foots the bill for shipping your old card to the company, which is nice.
You can play around with different combinations on the Qualifying Products page linked above. Also be sure to check out the terms and conditions for a list of qualifying retailers and other pertinent details.
