Sony savings: Your old gadgets net you a World Cup trade-in discount
Sony is offering a discount on all sorts of gadgetry when you trade in your ageing kit. Find out how your old telly -- or even a dog-eared paperback -- could net you Sony savings
Sony is offering discounts on new Sony kit when you trade in your clapped-out old gadgets and gizmos -- even a dog-eared old paperback book. You can score anything from £5 to £150 off everything from headphones to Bravia high-definition TVs between now and the end of the World Cup. If we could trade in John Terry for a newer model, that'd be lovely.
The kit you're swapping doesn't have to be Sony-branded. It doesn't even have to work -- according to Sony, the size of your discount will depend on the traded-in product's original price, but how much you save will ultimately be decided by the retailer. As well as the potential for a bargain, buying in-store does have the instant gratification of taking your new toy home straight away.
The offer runs from this Thursday, 29 April until 11 July, the day of the World Cup final. Trade-in is available at Sony Centres, Comet, Curry's, John Lewis, Tesco Extra and Sony-approved independent retailers. The range of possible discounts is below:
- Blu-ray players and DVD recorders: £30-£50
- Bravia TVs: £50-£150
- Cybershot cameras: £15 - £30
- Handycam camcorders: £60
- Headphones: £5-£30
- Home cinema: £30-£50
- Reader Pocket Edition: £20
- Walkman: £15-£25
The retailers dispose of your products rather than Sony. Your old banger of a gadget may be recycled in accordance with WEEE guidelines, or resold if it's in decent nick.
How do these discounts stack up against simply buying online?
We tried a few examples.
A high-end Sony Bravia EX703 TV can be bought new from Amazon for £1,600. We rang a random Sony Centre shop (in Milton Keynes) and they quoted us £1,700. If you have a gadget lying around the house that earns you the full £150 discount, that's a £50 saving buying in-store and no waiting around for a delivery.
A Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V camera with GPS costs £295 on Pixmania. An Edinburgh Sony Centre quoted us £330, meaning the discount is pretty much the same as the online price -- although the friendly Scots chap also told us the HX5 is "like hen's teeth".
A Sony Reader Pocket Edition costs £170 on Amazon, or £180 in-store in Harrogate. You'll get the £20 discount, however, and save a tenner just by bringing in a book -- an actual paper one, with pages.
We can't predict how bargain-tastic the deal will be as so much is down to the discretion of the store, and getting a decent chunk of change knocked off will probably depend on trading in a half-decent bit of kit. If you're in the market though, it's worth checking out -- and let us know how you got on in the comments.