Ebay reselling service for college students

[biz123]

What do you guys think of offering college students a service which sells their stuff on ebay for them? College students are busy and it's a hassle to list it, package it, and send it.

I know this has already been done, but does anyone have specific examples of this working on a college campus?

What I'd do is come to the customer's residence to take the goods, send the cash by mail so that they'd receive it the next day (I don't want to have $500 on me while in some crackhead's apartment), and finally sell it on ebay. I'd have perhaps a 25% charge.

I believe this can work, no doubt about it. I work at a pawnshop where people drop off everything from ipods to PS3's to Blu-Rays. These people obviously know that they can go and sell their stuff on ebay, but they love the fact that they can just drop off whatever they have and get immediate cash. And what does the pawnshop do with the stuff? It sells it on ebay for the most part. My boss, using this method, makes as much as a lawyer. And I'm not kidding. He's also 21 years old. He's somewhat my inspiration for becoming an entrepreneur. He has some of the most amazing people skills, and that comes with experience. I'm hoping to obtain the same kills with a business like this.

I'd essentially be doing the same thing as the pawnshop. In fact, it might be even more convenient for the customer because I'd stop by to pick up the goods.


Edit:

Turns out I was onto something with the home-pickup:

eBay Drop-Off Service Shuts Stores in UK, Goes to Home Pick-up Model

[TheBigIdea]

it's definitely a great idea. all about getting some leverage over the prices.

let's take an example of a used iphone.

advantages:
as the pawn shop expert , u can determine how much u want to buy the dropped off item from . depends on condition of the iphone, scratches, software, blabla (u get the idea). the point is to buy as low as possible, u keeping your customer happy.

challenges
well, firstly, the rent of the pawnshop, i'm guessing several hundred a month? or close to a thousand.

after u spend much time haggling over the buy price, now u've got to sell the thing on ebay. it definitely takes time and resources.

Let's say u get to sell the iphone on ebay with a profit of 80 dollars ( very generous amount ), you need to start thinking of how to scale it up to 1000 iphones (or other devices) ..... u need a structure in place ( of a buy sell system, hire workers to package for you - i don't think u can do it all by yourself )

and you need to be fast moving, to turn the money around fast. once the iphone comes in, u already have the item placed on ebay, running on 7 days for eg.

and you need to really have an eye on what will sell on ebay and what won't. sticking with branded items would be a starter's guide, but once u step into antiques and stuff, it's hard (but u can gain good experience from that)

so you're basically everything in the whole biz line, from customers at the pawnshop to customers at ebay, which is pretty neat, plus you get to learn the whole economics of ebay.

best of luck dude! PM/AIM me if you need a plan

[biz123]

it's definitely a great idea. all about getting some leverage over the prices.

let's take an example of a used iphone.

advantages:
as the pawn shop expert , u can determine how much u want to buy the dropped off item from . depends on condition of the iphone, scratches, software, blabla (u get the idea). the point is to buy as low as possible, u keeping your customer happy.

challenges
well, firstly, the rent of the pawnshop, i'm guessing several hundred a month? or close to a thousand.

after u spend much time haggling over the buy price, now u've got to sell the thing on ebay. it definitely takes time and resources.

Let's say u get to sell the iphone on ebay with a profit of 80 dollars ( very generous amount ), you need to start thinking of how to scale it up to 1000 iphones (or other devices) ..... u need a structure in place ( of a buy sell system, hire workers to package for you - i don't think u can do it all by yourself )

and you need to be fast moving, to turn the money around fast. once the iphone comes in, u already have the item placed on ebay, running on 7 days for eg.

and you need to really have an eye on what will sell on ebay and what won't. sticking with branded items would be a starter's guide, but once u step into antiques and stuff, it's hard (but u can gain good experience from that)

so you're basically everything in the whole biz line, from customers at the pawnshop to customers at ebay, which is pretty neat, plus you get to learn the whole economics of ebay.

best of luck dude! PM/AIM me if you need a plan

Thank you for the reply. For now I won't need any central headquarters/pawnshop, I can just work in my house. When things get bigger I can set up an office somewhere. One of the key benefits of this is that I won't have to pay store rent. Whether this succeeds or fails depends on...

marketing: getting the word out, perhaps using the student newspaper and flyers

efficiency: like you said, it has to be fast

getting good deals: at my boss's pawnshop people are glad to receive 50% of what it's worth, so I think that I can charge anywhere from 20%-50% of the final value.

making the workers happy: I don't want them to feel like they are robots. I can do something like giving them 10% of the profits. I can make them interact with the customers instead of spending the whole day shipping things.