Should You Donate or Sell Your Diabetic Supplies?

Sometimes selling is the wrong answer, and we will say so.

The short answer

Donate if the dating is nearly gone, if the boxes have been opened, or if they are store brands worth very little. Sell if you have new, sealed, in-date name-brand strips, CGM sensors or pump supplies — that lot can be worth real money, and it is worth one phone call before you give it away.

Where donations go in metro Atlanta

Free clinics and federally qualified health centers across the metro accept unopened, in-date diabetic supplies and distribute them to uninsured patients. Diabetes education programs at the major hospital systems often take them as well. Call before you drive — capacity varies and some sites only take specific brands.

The honest math

Four boxes of ReliOn is worth very little, and you will spend more than that in time and fuel arranging a sale. Six boxes of OneTouch plus three Dexcom sensors is a different matter entirely. If you are in the first situation, donate. If you are in the second, it is worth a phone call.

A middle route

Split the lot. Sell the sensors and name-brand strips, donate the store brands and the short-dated boxes. We will sort it with you and hand back the donate pile with a note on where to take it — that is a normal outcome of one of our visits, not an unusual one.

What the record shows

Everything below is quoted or drawn from a primary source, linked so you can check it yourself rather than take our word for it. Full list on our sources and regulations page.

• “Approximately 953,887 people in Georgia, or 11.4% of the adult population, have diagnosed diabetes.”

  A further 2,674,000 Georgians — 33.7% of adults — have prediabetes, and diagnosed diabetes costs an estimated $11 billion in Georgia each year.

  — American Diabetes Association, The Burden of Diabetes in Georgia, 2023.

• “In 2022, diabetes and its related complications accounted for $413 billion in total (direct and indirect) medical costs and lost wages in the United States.”

  — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, $413 Billion in Diabetes Costs, 2022.

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