I first saw this business on Dragons' Den (the UK inspiration for 'The Shark Tank' in America). The guy seeking investment actually won the largest investment ever awarded on the show.
You can see his pitch here:
The idea is simple. You go round your house finding stuff you no longer want. You then type in the barcodes of the items into the website. And the site tells you how much cash they will offer for your items.
They then give you a free postage label to print off for you to put onto the box that your old books, DVDs, games and CDs are in.
You then post them to the company - or drop them off at a number of drop off sites around town. Here in the UK - most high streets now have shops and newsagents which can be used as drop-off points for a service like this (and as a collection point for deliveries from amazon).
I am sure the customer doesn't make alot of money out of all this. But - it is an interesting business idea. It is like a combination of Ebay and a different business idea which I have mentioned before - see below:
http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-25166.html [people with scanners - linked to amazon - going around secondhand bookshops buying underpriced books]
Anyway - I am sure this sort of business idea will pop up in America soon. And overall it will be interesting to see how it develops in the future.
It is interesting that the entrepeneur behind it got a record investment on Dragon's Den since it is one of the few worthwhile ideas I have seen on the show. The idea is a simple one. But it seems as if the people behind the site have figured out the best way of executing the idea. And most success in business is 1% inspiration and 99% execution.
Here is the link to the site:
http://zapper.co.uk/
And here is a video promo explaining how the site works. It features a YouTube video blogger who seems to have a channel aimed at university students.
I guess with a site like this. You are trading the extra cash you might have made on Ebay - for the convenience of the guaranteed prices and the service they provide.
You can see his pitch here:
The idea is simple. You go round your house finding stuff you no longer want. You then type in the barcodes of the items into the website. And the site tells you how much cash they will offer for your items.
They then give you a free postage label to print off for you to put onto the box that your old books, DVDs, games and CDs are in.
You then post them to the company - or drop them off at a number of drop off sites around town. Here in the UK - most high streets now have shops and newsagents which can be used as drop-off points for a service like this (and as a collection point for deliveries from amazon).
I am sure the customer doesn't make alot of money out of all this. But - it is an interesting business idea. It is like a combination of Ebay and a different business idea which I have mentioned before - see below:
http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-25166.html [people with scanners - linked to amazon - going around secondhand bookshops buying underpriced books]
Anyway - I am sure this sort of business idea will pop up in America soon. And overall it will be interesting to see how it develops in the future.
It is interesting that the entrepeneur behind it got a record investment on Dragon's Den since it is one of the few worthwhile ideas I have seen on the show. The idea is a simple one. But it seems as if the people behind the site have figured out the best way of executing the idea. And most success in business is 1% inspiration and 99% execution.
Here is the link to the site:
http://zapper.co.uk/
And here is a video promo explaining how the site works. It features a YouTube video blogger who seems to have a channel aimed at university students.
I guess with a site like this. You are trading the extra cash you might have made on Ebay - for the convenience of the guaranteed prices and the service they provide.