iphone trade in

No.

you can do apple recycle program kind of like trading in http://www.apple.com/recycling/

how does that work? Sounds like you need to actually send them the phone, and then they send you a credit? So you'll be without a phone for several days?

You can go to Gamestop or online sites to trade in for cash.

That's exactly how it works. You send the iPhone to the recycling company, and once they've verified that the iPhone is as you claimed it to be, they send you a gift card for the Apple Store.