In a report Gazelle put out covering a six-week period from Dec. 15 to Feb. 2, the company paid particular attention to iPad trade-ins, noting that four times as many AT&T iPads have been traded in as Verizon iPads, due to increased demand in secondary markets worldwide, where most carriers run on GSM technology. But it was after that time frame — after Feb. 9 — that iPad trade-ins really jumped.

“With the possibility of an iPad 2 price cut ahead or an iPad 8-inch model, our iPad prices are at their highest point,” the report notes.

The re-commerce site also saw a 50 percent increase overall in Android tablet cash-ins, as well as — interestingly enough — a 25 percent increase in trade-ins of the Amazon Kindle Fire, which just came to market in November.

Gazelle, which launched in 2007, claims around 300,000 customers and has handled more than 600,000 product trade-ins online. The company says it resells the products through retail and wholesale outlets, and recycles items without resale value.

The company appears to measure the success of current product models by weighing overall unit sales against the volume of trade-ins it sees for the previous models. For example, Gazelle notes that a 50 percent increase in total iPhone trades around the holidays — combined with the fact that the most-traded item was the iPhone 3GS — indicates that the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S were likely popular gift items as people looked to trade up.

Running a quick “test trade-in” on Gazelle tells us that for a 16 gigabyte Wi-Fi iPad 2 in “good” condition — with some visible signs of use — the site is currently offering $240 through check, PayPal, or an Amazon.com gift card. But take note, consumers looking to sell: On eBay, which last year got a boost from resales of iPad 2, the same iPad 2 model is currently fetching around $500.

The pitch is straightforward: The newsletter will bring you one cool and/or useful online site, service, app, etc., per day. The alpha versions I’ve seen suggest that subscribers try out the likes of Gazelle, Zeni Optical, and Hazelmail.

If the concept sounds familiar, it should. There are several popular Web sites, like Gawker Media’s Lifehacker, that tread similar thematic ground.

And there are many variants in newsletter industry. Very Short List, the newsletter started by IAC (IACI) and now owned by the Observer Media Group, offers up a cool book, movie, video, etc., per day; DailyCandy, now owned by Comcast (CMCSA), tells its subscribers about cool sample sales and boutiques; Thrillist*, the DailyCandy for dudes, informs dudes about cool restaurants, bars, etc.

One other commonality: This newsletter business, like many others, is getting a boost from Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group. The investment fund, which has invested in newsletters, including Daily Candy and Thrillist, owns a piece of Recognition Media, the New York company that produces the annual Webby awards, among other silly/serious events.

*Your story is coming, Ben. Patience!

[Image credit: polmuadi]

The Costco customer program works pretty much like the one that startup Gazelle has offered to everyone for about a year. Enter the make and model of your old gadget (say, a third-generation 8GB iPod Nano) into the Costco Gazelle Web site, and the company tells you how much cash they’ll give you for it ($47, as of Friday, July 17) if you put it in a box and mail it to them. Gazelle then resells your old gear on eBay (EBAY) and to wholesalers–or, if it’s really old, they’ll recycle it for the value of its tech innards.

Read the rest of this post on the original site