Quick Answer: No — neither Best Buy’s nor Amazon’s trade-in program lists computer monitors as an eligible category; both are built around phones, tablets, laptops, and game consoles instead. Best Buy will still take a monitor off your hands, but as recycling, not trade-in credit, for a $29.99 counter fee (free in California, reimbursed via a $30 gift card in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan). If the monitor still works, selling it directly on Swappa or Facebook Marketplace — which pay out roughly 75-95% of resale value — gets real cash a chain trade-in counter never will.
“Monitor trade-in” is a common enough search that it’s easy to assume the same programs that take an old iPhone or laptop in for store credit will take a monitor too. They don’t. This guide covers exactly what Best Buy and Amazon actually do with a used monitor, what the Best Buy recycling fee costs, and where to go instead if the panel still works and you want it to pay for part of the next one.
Why “monitor trade-in” doesn’t work the way you’d expect
Best Buy’s trade-in program is explicitly scoped to cell phones, tablets, laptops, and gaming consoles — those categories are what Best Buy’s own trade-in pages list as eligible, and a standalone computer monitor isn’t one of them. Amazon’s Trade-In Store works the same way from a different angle: its current eligible categories center on Amazon’s own devices (Kindle, Echo, Fire tablets, Ring), select smartphones, and game consoles. Neither program is a general electronics-for-credit exchange, and monitors fall outside both.
| Program | Accepts monitors? | What it does accept |
|---|---|---|
| Best Buy Trade-In | No | Phones, tablets, laptops, gaming consoles |
| Amazon Trade-In Store | No | Amazon devices, select smartphones, game consoles |
| Best Buy Recycling (in-store) | Yes — as recycling, not trade-in | Monitors up to 50", $29.99 fee, no credit issued |
That distinction matters: recycling and trade-in sound similar but work in opposite directions financially. Trade-in pays you store credit toward a replacement. Best Buy’s monitor recycling charges you a fee to take it off your hands.
What Best Buy actually offers: recycling, not credit
Drop a monitor at a Best Buy store’s recycling counter and the real terms are: $29.99 per monitor, for screens up to 50 inches, capped at 2 monitors per household per day. California stores don’t charge the fee at all. Shoppers in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan still pay the $29.99 up front but receive a $30 Best Buy gift card back — a near wash in those three states, but not free cash and not usable anywhere but Best Buy.
Pack it right before you ship or drop it off
Where to actually get cash for a used monitor
If the panel still powers on and displays an image cleanly, selling it directly beats recycling it — by a wide margin — on every platform except a true instant-cash-now need.
| Platform | Typical payout vs. resale value | Fees | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swappa | ~80-95% | Buyer-paid, verified listings | Slower — waits for a buyer |
| Facebook Marketplace | ~75-90% | None, local pickup | Slower — waits for a buyer |
| Decluttr / instant-quote services | ~50-70% | None, free shipping label | Fast — instant quote, prepaid payout |
The pattern across all three: the faster the cash, the lower the payout. Swappa’s verified-listing model and Facebook Marketplace’s zero-fee local sales both net closer to full resale value, but both require waiting for a buyer. An instant-quote service like Decluttr pays less — commonly 25-40% below what the same monitor would fetch on a marketplace — in exchange for a guaranteed, same-week payout and free shipping. What a given monitor is actually worth in any of these venues comes down to size, resolution, refresh rate, condition, and brand recognition — a recent high-refresh gaming panel from a known brand holds value far better than an older 1080p 60Hz office monitor.
ASUS VA24EHF
- Costs roughly what a low-end used monitor sells for anyway — sometimes simpler to recycle the old one at Best Buy and buy new than to list, photograph, and ship a panel worth under $50.
- See our full best monitor under $100 guide for more picks at this price if a plain 1080p IPS panel isn't quite the fit.
The bottom line
Neither Best Buy nor Amazon treats a computer monitor like a phone or laptop for trade-in purposes — both programs simply don’t list monitors as eligible. Best Buy’s actual monitor program is recycling, not trade-in: a $29.99 counter fee (waived in California, reimbursed via gift card in PA/WI/MI), not store credit toward a new one. If the old panel still works, it’s worth more sold directly — Swappa and Facebook Marketplace both return roughly 75-95% of resale value, well ahead of an instant-quote service’s 50-70%, if waiting for a buyer is an option. A genuinely broken or very old low-spec panel is the one case where Best Buy’s recycling counter, fee and all, is still the simpler move — though if the monitor is only broken rather than old and outdated, it’s worth checking our monitor repair guide first to see whether fixing it actually beats recycling and replacing it.
Replacing the old panel for an office rather than a single desk? Our monitor lease guide breaks down why leasing a replacement almost always costs more than just buying one outright, even for a business.
Already decided the old monitor isn’t worth saving? Our best refurbished monitor guide covers a cheaper way to buy the replacement than paying full price new. If the need is just temporary rather than a permanent swap, see our monitor rental guide instead — renting avoids the sell-or-recycle decision entirely for a short-term need. And before listing a used panel for sale, our how to clean a monitor screen guide covers the safe way to get it presentable without damaging the coating a buyer will inspect closely.