So I’ve already posted articles about what to do if your Kindle is ever lost or stolen, along with how to fix a frozen or unresponsive Kindle or a Kindle with wireless issues. But what do you do with a Kindle that is totally broken and nonfunctional?
You might be surprised to find out that you can actually sell a broken Kindle and get good money for it. Another option to dispose of a broken Kindle is to send it in for recycling. Or if your Kindle still works and you just don’t use it anymore you can use Amazon’s trade-in program to get money back in the form of an Amazon Gift Card.
First and foremost, all Kindles, even refurbished units, come with a 1 year warranty. So if your broken Kindle is less than one year old make sure to contact Amazon support to see if you qualify to get a new one.
Sell Broken Kindles on eBay
If your Kindle is broken and you don’t want to deal with fixing it, you can sell it for parts on eBay.
I was shocked to see how much broken Kindles sell for on eBay, especially E Ink Kindles. In the past week a Kindle Paperwhite with a cracked screen sold for $46, a Kindle Keyboard that won’t hold a charge sold for $35, and a broken Kindle Fire HD sold for $28.
How to Recycle Broken Kindles
If you aren’t into selling stuff on eBay, you can send your broken Kindle in to have it recycled with Amazon’s Take Back Program. You’ll get a prepaid UPS shipping label so recycling doesn’t cost anything; you just have to pack the Kindle up and drop it off at a UPS facility. Here’s the page at Amazon with directions for recycling:
There’s also this separate page for recycling Kindle products in Europe.
They mention on the recycling website that all units are sent to a secure facility where the device will undergo “secure data destruction”.
On an odd side note, I’m linking to the page at Amazon instead of the recycling website because they have the most unusual disclaimer that I’ve ever seen. It basically says that they don’t want anyone linking to any page of their website without prior written consent. As far as running a website goes it doesn’t get any weirder than that. If they don’t want a backlink that bad, I’ll abide.
If your Kindle is in good working condition, you can make a tax-deductible contribution of it to http://ebooksfortroops.org . We will ship it to a U.S. service member d r employed overseas.
Good alternative. I forgot about that option.
To support troops who are killing people in wars abroad?? No, thanks.
How ignorant are you?
I accidentally squished my Kindle keyboard. Now the top of the screen has black lines, like ink is smeared.
Is there anything that can be done to fix it?
They sell replacement screens on eBay for like $40, but you’re better off just getting a new Kindle for the price. The current basic Kindle sells for $69 and sometimes goes on sale for $49.
Hi,
I would like to give my old kindle to a friend. But I want my books removed without losing them from my archives permanently.can you tell me how to do this?
Thanks
Just factory reset it. It’s impossible to permanently delete ebooks from your account on a Kindle; you have to manually do so from Amazon’s website.
I have a few Knidles that are broken condition. I bought them broken to fix but wasn’t able to fix
I want to sell them but i want to make sure that the cc Information can not be Recovered.
can the cc information be recovered?
Models Paperwhite 1 & 2 Gen. & D01200
Normally you can go to the Manage Your Content and Devices section at Amazon and deregister them from there, but if they weren’t registered to your account in the first place then obviously that won’t work, so I don’t know aside from calling them. There isn’t any direct credit card info on them anyway; it just links to an Amazon account. If you want a new Kindle, Amazon has a trade-in promo going on right now where you can get a $20 bonus credit toward the purchase of a new Kindle, even for non-working Kindle trades.
My sons kindle has charged for a week. Still would not turn on. He took it apart and I can smell smoke. Where can I safely recycle it? I am nervous to put it in the mail or garbage. Please help.