November 18, 2008 On the web: Fixing (or selling) your gadgets Play video

(NECN: Ted McEnroe) - Staring at a broken cellphone? Surfing a stuck web? Ready to iPunt your iPod? Well, take heart, you aren't alone. The latest survey from the Pew Internet and American Life Project finds 44% of internet users have dealt with service problems in the past year, as of 39 percent of computer users, 29 percent of cellphone users, 26 percent of Blackberry (and other PDA) addicts, and 15 percent of MP3 users.

Eventually - most people got their geektoys going again, although most needed help - but there were two interesting findings. First - the survey participants said online help was basically useless, fixing just two percent of problems. And second - 1 in 7 users, or 15 percent, threw in the towel and never got their gadget fixed!

If your gadget doesn't break its way into retirement, though, what do you do with it? Well, there are a number of ways to dispose of them properly, and even make a little money in the process. Sean Aune of Mashable put together a list of 11 places to sell your old gadgets, from trade-in sites at retailers to compnaies like Boston-based Second Rotation. Their website, gazelle.com, lets you enter information about your gadget and gives you a price for it. The company says an average user makes $115 off that stuff in their closets/gadget

Click here to watch the story NECN's Peter Howe did about Gazelle.com earlier this year.

So fix it, save it, sell it - just make sure when you dispose of it, you're doing it properly.