If you bought an iPad 3 back in March, you might feel a bit slighted today. Yesterday at a launch event in California, Apple announced their latest tablets, the iPad Mini and the iPad 4. So you’re probably wondering how you can trade in your iPad 3 to get the latest from Apple. Don’t worry you’re not alone. In fact, MarketWatch reported this afternoon that resale sites Gazelle.com and NextWorth.com saw spikes of 700% and 1,000% in iPad 3 resales respectively. The article notes “Half of that increase occurred in the hours just before the announcement – and the most common model put up for sale was the ‘new iPad’ released just six months ago.” In September, Greg Gomer reported on the same phenomenon with the iPhone 4 and impending iPhone 5 release.

For those who bought a third generation iPad within the last 30 days, Apple will be crediting them with a free upgrade. Both the iPad Mini and iPad 4 will be available for preorder this Friday Oct. 26, and will ship and be retail available on Nov. 2.

I checked out Gazelle, NextWorth, and similar site YouRenew to see how much iPad 3 users can get in exchange for the seemingly obsolete tablet. To make sure all results were consistent, I plugged in a 32GB third generation iPad with WiFi connectivity in “good” condition.

How to trade in your iPad

Gazelle:
Current Offer: $250
Payment: Amazon, Check or Paypal
Shipping: Gazelle pays for shipping.

Nextworth:
Current Offer: $300
Payment: PayPal, Target Gift Card or a Check in the mail
Shipping: Nextworth pays for shipping.

Notes: NextWorth not only provides free shipping, but also has partners nationwide that allow for in-store exchanges. This option allows you to not only avoid shipping and waiting for a check, but also to not only sell, but exchange as well. This way you can upgrade in one stop instead of having to overlap the new and old items.

YouRenew:
Current Offer: $199
Payment: PayPal or Check by Mail
Shipping: YouRenew pays for shipping

These are some pretty decent prices seeing as how the iPad Mini is only going for $326. It’s like you’re not paying anything at all. In some cases even, according to MarketWatch, “Consumers can fetch up to $495 for an old iPads. In other words, they can swap the used tablet for the mini and walk away with over $160.”

For anyone who plans on using the sites or trading in your iPads, we want to know how your experience is. Are you going to use any of these sites? Have you already traded in your tablet? If so, how was the process? Let us know how everything went in the comments section below.