Playing video games used to be a fun excuse for sitting on the couch, relaxing and doing much of nothing. Then came along the Nintendo Wii, and its healthy counterpart, the Wii Fit, and video games were sedentary no more.

Losing fat, or lowering your body mass index (BMI) while exercising on the Wii Fit's balance board is supposed to be easy if you're less inclined to go outside or to the gym. Moving around on the small pad may not look like much of a workout, but anyone who has even tried the Nintendo Wii without the Fit, knows that Nintendo has figured out how to make it fun while keeping your heart rate up.

The board measures a user's weight and center of gravity in about 40 different activities such as hula hoop, yoga, snowboarding and pushups, and balance games, strength training and aerobics. The user's "fitness age" can be tracked.

The base system retails for $89.99, and you already have to have a Nintendo Wii to hook the Fit up to. But they can be difficult to find in stores. On the Monday after Thanksgiving, for example, the Wii game console was the most popular product sold on eBay -- 3,017 sold for an average price of $349, according to the New York Times. The Wii Fit was also popular, with 1,305 units sold for an average of $143.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently released a study regarding the power usage of consoles. During the course of the study it found that gamers who leave their consoles powered on all the time spend more than $100 a year to leave their game console idle.

At first glance this appeared to be a damning study, especially if the NRDC defined "on" as a console left in standby mode; however the actual definition of "on" for this study was leaving the console completely up and running.

The cost of leaving your console on all the time varies, but no matter which console you choose, never turning it off is costly. Leaving your PS3 on all the time will cost between $130 and $160 depending on which version you have, compared to under $15 if it is turned off when it's not being played. Similarly the Xbox 360 costs between $100 and $140 if left on all the time but under $14 if turned off when you're done. The Wii is the most power efficient; only costing $10 if left on all the time, compared to $3 if turned off when it isn't in use. Leaving it on is still wasting $7, however.

After doing a round of holiday cleaning at our apartment, I discovered a treasure trove of gadgets which still worked, but no longer met my needs. Thankfully I also found Gazelle.com, a company that buys old electronics for resale or recycle.

I tested out Gazelle.com with three items I had on hand; an old camera without a power adapter, a Dell PDA with all original wires and manuals, and a digital video camera with power cord. For my collection of slightly used gadgets I am being paid $124, more than I could likely get on eBay due to the lack of accessories.

Selling your stuff to Gazelle is simple:

1. Look up your item on the Gazelle site.
2. Answer a few questions about the quality and accessories.
3. Click "calculate" and see what Gazelle will offer you.
4. Send your items back to Gazelle with free shipping label.
   
5. Get paid via check, Paypal or Amazon gift card.
   

Currently Gazelle buys goods from 11 categories including; video games and consoles, GPS units, phones, movies, digital cameras, laptops and more. If the item you want to sell isn't already in the catalog you can request a customized quote, which is calculated within 24 hours.