Talking tech since 2003

“Will you take my Motorola Rokr?” That’s a real thing you could hear next week at a Best Buy near you, as customers bring in their smartphones — or phones they hope qualify as smartphones — for the retailer’s latest trade-in special. From Oct. 13-19, you can take any smartphone into Best Buy and exchange it for at least a $100 Best Buy gift card. The catch: you must then put that gift card toward the purchase of an iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c.

bestbuy-logoIf you’re looking to get the jump on everyone else, by the way, word has it that the promotion will open up unofficially on Oct. 11 for just the iPhone 5c. Your mileage may vary.

The promotion will likely have tons of Best Buy customers trying to redefine the meaning of “smartphone,” and it doesn’t appear that Best Buy has any kind of list published for which phones are and aren’t accepted. A commenter on tech blog Apple Insider said he believes Best Buy will only accept smartphones that it has in its system for its everyday trade-in program, so you could try checking this page out to see if your phone is listed. This is unconfirmed by Best Buy, though we’ve got an email in for clarification.

This might not be a bad promotion if you don’t have the time or patience to sell your old smartphone in a more profitable way, or if your phone is actually worth less than the $100 Best Buy will give you. And it’ll knock $100 off an iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c, bringing the entry-level models down to $99 and free, respectively.

By the way, this is Best Buy’s second promotion in a row involving the iPhone 5c — the company wrapped up a promotion last Sunday in which it sold the iPhone 5c with a $50 Best Buy gift card, effectively halving its price. Just something to keep an eye on.

Do you plan on heading to Best Buy to take advantage of this deal? Do you have a phone and you aren’t quite sure if it’s a smartphone or not? Drop us a line with your thoughts or questions below.

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