Money for your mobile
Discussion
Hi
We have all seen the adverts on the television and in the press from companies such as Envirophone (I think that is what they are called). They offer you cash for you old, unwanted mobile phone.
Does anyone know exactly what they do with the handsets; I am guessing there is a good market for them in other Countries?
I have an idea.....
I personally own a couple of old handsets that I have never got round to sending off. It should be simple; pop your handest in a bag and send it off. Like millions of people I have never done it due to 'never getting round to it'.
If on the other hand someone knocked on the door and asked 'have you got any old mobile phones you would like to sell?' I would sell it to that person there and then for cash; even if it was for less than I thought I would get by sending it off to one of the companies advertised.
The handsets could then be sold to an exporter.
Does this sound like it makes sense/viable??
Any thoughts would be much appreciated
We have all seen the adverts on the television and in the press from companies such as Envirophone (I think that is what they are called). They offer you cash for you old, unwanted mobile phone.
Does anyone know exactly what they do with the handsets; I am guessing there is a good market for them in other Countries?
I have an idea.....
I personally own a couple of old handsets that I have never got round to sending off. It should be simple; pop your handest in a bag and send it off. Like millions of people I have never done it due to 'never getting round to it'.
If on the other hand someone knocked on the door and asked 'have you got any old mobile phones you would like to sell?' I would sell it to that person there and then for cash; even if it was for less than I thought I would get by sending it off to one of the companies advertised.
The handsets could then be sold to an exporter.
Does this sound like it makes sense/viable??
Any thoughts would be much appreciated
Not really going to scale though is it.
Expensive way of getting customers, would be hard to look initially trustworthy and will probably take people a bit of time to collect up all their old mobile phones (so you could be waiting a while at the door for them).
Those companies will also have the contacts to sell the phones onto, and will be giving them large quantities of phones to sell.
Expensive way of getting customers, would be hard to look initially trustworthy and will probably take people a bit of time to collect up all their old mobile phones (so you could be waiting a while at the door for them).
Those companies will also have the contacts to sell the phones onto, and will be giving them large quantities of phones to sell.
Fair points.
Instead of waiting for them to 'find' their old handests an envelope could be posted through a letterbox a few days before collection was made in a particular area. This way the person would be expecting you back for collection on a certain day/time. (A bit like the charity clothes bag)
The handsets could then be sold straight to one of the big companies like Envirophone.
Instead of waiting for them to 'find' their old handests an envelope could be posted through a letterbox a few days before collection was made in a particular area. This way the person would be expecting you back for collection on a certain day/time. (A bit like the charity clothes bag)
The handsets could then be sold straight to one of the big companies like Envirophone.
Hi Trooper,
It wouldn't work at all practically as well as conceptutally.
How will you stop the person knocking at the doors running away with the stacks of cash you are going to equip them with each day? Take one street for instance,oh.. a bit like mine with 160 houses on it! and perhaps by some stroke of luck the first 20 houses all say yes! here have my X handset and I'll accept £50 for it and assuming they're all 1-2 year old, mid range handsets feature wise. That person would need £1000 cash in their pocket. You just know people will sign up to the company, go out on the first day with a grand cash and you'd either never see them again or they'll phone the next day and say they don't want to do it anymore - getting your cash back will be a nightmare!
Same if you do the leave a note and come around later to collect thing, what if the person isn't in? waste of time, and you'd still have to pay the employee their time.
I think you'll probably be thinking 'im ooot' now as well
Cheers, Dennis!
It wouldn't work at all practically as well as conceptutally.
How will you stop the person knocking at the doors running away with the stacks of cash you are going to equip them with each day? Take one street for instance,oh.. a bit like mine with 160 houses on it! and perhaps by some stroke of luck the first 20 houses all say yes! here have my X handset and I'll accept £50 for it and assuming they're all 1-2 year old, mid range handsets feature wise. That person would need £1000 cash in their pocket. You just know people will sign up to the company, go out on the first day with a grand cash and you'd either never see them again or they'll phone the next day and say they don't want to do it anymore - getting your cash back will be a nightmare!
Same if you do the leave a note and come around later to collect thing, what if the person isn't in? waste of time, and you'd still have to pay the employee their time.
I think you'll probably be thinking 'im ooot' now as well
Cheers, Dennis!
Mozilla, EnviroPhone and the like earn their money in two ways.
The first is selling on the good, working sets to developing countries and those countries that do not operate a "free phone with contract" type operation - which is actually a very large number of countries where people have to buy their contract then go and by a phone (China I think is one such country)
The second is recycling. Handsets contain a lot of valuable material including gold, platinum, titanium, etc. On a per-handset basis, the value is not a great deal but with enough units, it makes the extraction of these material much more viable.
In either case, the margins are not that great and is dependant upon regular incoming feedstock (old phones) and onward distribution routes. As such, your idea is unlikely to make you much money.
The first is selling on the good, working sets to developing countries and those countries that do not operate a "free phone with contract" type operation - which is actually a very large number of countries where people have to buy their contract then go and by a phone (China I think is one such country)
The second is recycling. Handsets contain a lot of valuable material including gold, platinum, titanium, etc. On a per-handset basis, the value is not a great deal but with enough units, it makes the extraction of these material much more viable.
In either case, the margins are not that great and is dependant upon regular incoming feedstock (old phones) and onward distribution routes. As such, your idea is unlikely to make you much money.
Simpo Two said:
My view is - why sell it for £X to a middleman, who's obviously going to sell it for much more? If it's worth £X+Y stick it on eBay and spin the wheel of fortune.
Because people are lazy.I have loads of old phones in a drawer here.
I like the OP's idea, but I'm not sure there's enough margin to make it viable.
Mattt said:
Simpo Two said:
My view is - why sell it for £X to a middleman, who's obviously going to sell it for much more? If it's worth £X+Y stick it on eBay and spin the wheel of fortune.
Because people are lazy.I have loads of old phones in a drawer here.
I like the OP's idea, but I'm not sure there's enough margin to make it viable.
People are lazy.
As I originally said I was planning on sending my old phone to one of these companies; that was 12 months ago.
I was quoted £120 for the phone then; today it was valued at £86.
I think that if i walked from door to door in one morning I could buy a fair few phones. For argument sake lets say 15 phones. Before beginning the venture I would have researched exactly what price these companies offer for each phone. I would then offer to buy the handest from the person for £15 less. 15 x 15 = £225
Not bad for a few hours work?
Maybe I have over estimated how many phones I could get; I know I have a few in one drawer.....
The recycling outfits pay you once they receive and check your phone. If not working or not up to standard then either no money or reduced offer. Your model loads all the risk the other way. You'll also need a mobile database. Why not set up like a Sky or cash for gold outfit and have a table in a shopping centre?
Simpo Two said:
edc said:
Why not set up like a Sky or cash for gold outfit and have a table in a shopping centre?
I suspect the rent would blow the margin! (and people won't have their old phones with them so you lose impulse trade) Simpo Two said:
edc said:
Why not set up like a Sky or cash for gold outfit and have a table in a shopping centre?
I suspect the rent would blow the margin! (and people won't have their old phones with them so you lose impulse trade) IMO the return your phone in an envelope businesses work on high turnover of phones, and laziness. But why not just stick your old phones on ebay because they will almost always end up earning you more than sending to a phone company, and for 20 minutes extra effort.
Simpo Two said:
My view is - why sell it for £X to a middleman, who's obviously going to sell it for much more? If it's worth £X+Y stick it on eBay and spin the wheel of fortune.
By the time you've paid ebay and paypal, and added on the cost of recorded postage to Nigeria there's not a huge difference 
TROOPER88 said:
Hi
We have all seen the adverts on the television and in the press from companies such as Envirophone (I think that is what they are called). They offer you cash for you old, unwanted mobile phone.
Does anyone know exactly what they do with the handsets; I am guessing there is a good market for them in other Countries?
I have an idea.....
I personally own a couple of old handsets that I have never got round to sending off. It should be simple; pop your handest in a bag and send it off. Like millions of people I have never done it due to 'never getting round to it'.
If on the other hand someone knocked on the door and asked 'have you got any old mobile phones you would like to sell?' I would sell it to that person there and then for cash; even if it was for less than I thought I would get by sending it off to one of the companies advertised.
The handsets could then be sold to an exporter.
Does this sound like it makes sense/viable??
Any thoughts would be much appreciated
1. (already said) your door to door buyers would be robbed blind by 9.01amWe have all seen the adverts on the television and in the press from companies such as Envirophone (I think that is what they are called). They offer you cash for you old, unwanted mobile phone.
Does anyone know exactly what they do with the handsets; I am guessing there is a good market for them in other Countries?
I have an idea.....
I personally own a couple of old handsets that I have never got round to sending off. It should be simple; pop your handest in a bag and send it off. Like millions of people I have never done it due to 'never getting round to it'.
If on the other hand someone knocked on the door and asked 'have you got any old mobile phones you would like to sell?' I would sell it to that person there and then for cash; even if it was for less than I thought I would get by sending it off to one of the companies advertised.
The handsets could then be sold to an exporter.
Does this sound like it makes sense/viable??
Any thoughts would be much appreciated
2. how would your buyer check whether or not the phone was stolen/cloned?
3. how would your buyer know what to pay for the phone? A huge proportion of phones that are nestling in the kitchen drawers of the country are most likely worth little more than a fiver on a foreign market. The reason they haven't been traded in is because they're next to worthless.
4. how would you check that your buyer has come back with the right number of phones and the right amount of cash?
Greg66 said:
TROOPER88 said:
Hi
We have all seen the adverts on the television and in the press from companies such as Envirophone (I think that is what they are called). They offer you cash for you old, unwanted mobile phone.
Does anyone know exactly what they do with the handsets; I am guessing there is a good market for them in other Countries?
I have an idea.....
I personally own a couple of old handsets that I have never got round to sending off. It should be simple; pop your handest in a bag and send it off. Like millions of people I have never done it due to 'never getting round to it'.
If on the other hand someone knocked on the door and asked 'have you got any old mobile phones you would like to sell?' I would sell it to that person there and then for cash; even if it was for less than I thought I would get by sending it off to one of the companies advertised.
The handsets could then be sold to an exporter.
Does this sound like it makes sense/viable??
Any thoughts would be much appreciated
1. (already said) your door to door buyers would be robbed blind by 9.01amWe have all seen the adverts on the television and in the press from companies such as Envirophone (I think that is what they are called). They offer you cash for you old, unwanted mobile phone.
Does anyone know exactly what they do with the handsets; I am guessing there is a good market for them in other Countries?
I have an idea.....
I personally own a couple of old handsets that I have never got round to sending off. It should be simple; pop your handest in a bag and send it off. Like millions of people I have never done it due to 'never getting round to it'.
If on the other hand someone knocked on the door and asked 'have you got any old mobile phones you would like to sell?' I would sell it to that person there and then for cash; even if it was for less than I thought I would get by sending it off to one of the companies advertised.
The handsets could then be sold to an exporter.
Does this sound like it makes sense/viable??
Any thoughts would be much appreciated
2. how would your buyer check whether or not the phone was stolen/cloned?
3. how would your buyer know what to pay for the phone? A huge proportion of phones that are nestling in the kitchen drawers of the country are most likely worth little more than a fiver on a foreign market. The reason they haven't been traded in is because they're next to worthless.
4. how would you check that your buyer has come back with the right number of phones and the right amount of cash?
2) IEMI number
3) A list of all makes and models
4) It would be me personally knocking on teh door
TROOPER88 said:
Greg66 said:
TROOPER88 said:
Hi
We have all seen the adverts on the television and in the press from companies such as Envirophone (I think that is what they are called). They offer you cash for you old, unwanted mobile phone.
Does anyone know exactly what they do with the handsets; I am guessing there is a good market for them in other Countries?
I have an idea.....
I personally own a couple of old handsets that I have never got round to sending off. It should be simple; pop your handest in a bag and send it off. Like millions of people I have never done it due to 'never getting round to it'.
If on the other hand someone knocked on the door and asked 'have you got any old mobile phones you would like to sell?' I would sell it to that person there and then for cash; even if it was for less than I thought I would get by sending it off to one of the companies advertised.
The handsets could then be sold to an exporter.
Does this sound like it makes sense/viable??
Any thoughts would be much appreciated
1. (already said) your door to door buyers would be robbed blind by 9.01amWe have all seen the adverts on the television and in the press from companies such as Envirophone (I think that is what they are called). They offer you cash for you old, unwanted mobile phone.
Does anyone know exactly what they do with the handsets; I am guessing there is a good market for them in other Countries?
I have an idea.....
I personally own a couple of old handsets that I have never got round to sending off. It should be simple; pop your handest in a bag and send it off. Like millions of people I have never done it due to 'never getting round to it'.
If on the other hand someone knocked on the door and asked 'have you got any old mobile phones you would like to sell?' I would sell it to that person there and then for cash; even if it was for less than I thought I would get by sending it off to one of the companies advertised.
The handsets could then be sold to an exporter.
Does this sound like it makes sense/viable??
Any thoughts would be much appreciated
2. how would your buyer check whether or not the phone was stolen/cloned?
3. how would your buyer know what to pay for the phone? A huge proportion of phones that are nestling in the kitchen drawers of the country are most likely worth little more than a fiver on a foreign market. The reason they haven't been traded in is because they're next to worthless.
4. how would you check that your buyer has come back with the right number of phones and the right amount of cash?
2) IEMI number
3) A list of all makes and models
4) It would be me personally knocking on teh door
2) & 3) if you have mobile access to these databases, fine.
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