eBay sees its iPad listings increase ten-fold over last year

Apple set March 7 as the date for its big iPad announcement. Eager customers are looking to sell their older iPads in anticipation of buying the latest model. Instead of dealing with Craigslist spammers and deadbeat auction buyers, many people are turning to eBay's InstantSale program to get quick cash for their tablet.

Within hours of the iPad 3 event announcement, eBay told CNET it logged more than 125,000 trade-in offers, 97 percent of which were iPad models. This is a ten-fold increase in the number of offers made during the same month in 2011. InstantSale is a service that lets people trade in their devices for cash. It works similar to Gazelle, another well-known device recycling company.

eBay's most popular trade-in tablet is the first iPad, with both the 3G and WiFi version sitting in the number one and number two spot. This isn't surprising as many iPad 1 owners passed on the iPad 2, while they waited for the rumored retina display of the iPad 3. The original iPad is also getting older and owners may start to run into compatibility problems.

I have the 16 GB original iPad and, though it handles most apps with ease, there are an increasing number that require the faster hardware or camera of the newer iPad models. I'm planning on buying the iPad 3 and haven't sold my older iPad yet. I'm going to keep it and use it as educational tablet for my kids. If you have an older iPad, what are you going to do with it?

[Via CNET]