Amazon has expanded its trade-in program to allow customers to send in their used electronics for gift cards that can be used on the ecommerce site.

The retail giant will eat the shipping costs in the deal, letting users price out the value of their products — including cell phones, tablets and digital cameras — on the Amazon trade-in site, assign a condition (“like new, “ “good,” or “acceptable,”) and print off a shipping label.

Assuming Amazon agrees with the customer’s assessment of the product’s condition, the company says it will credit their account “generally in less than 48 hours” after receiving it.

The move puts Amazon in competition with Gazelle, which has paid out more than $25 million in cash to customers for used electronics since launching in 2008. At first glance, it would appear that Amazon is offering slightly more ($178 to $158 for a good condition iPhone 3GS 16GB, $271 to $260 for a Motorola Xoom tablet), though Gazelle is offering cash to Amazon’s gift cards.

Prior to today, Amazon’s trade-in program already included video games, DVDs and textbooks.

Image courtesy of Flickr, blmurch