Ask HN: Simple little business - what should I call it?
I deliver empty boxes to people's homes, they fill them up with their unwanted goods (small electricals etc.), I then collect, list and sell everything on eBay and pay them the proceeds (less commission) straight into their Paypal.
I'd eventually like to be able to sell direct on my own site, avoiding ebay.
It ideally needs to be a common TLD as the customers are unlikely to be tech-savvy.
Update: I didn't expect much attention from this so I kept it brief. Here's some more info since people seem interested in the business itself.
I'm not started yet - I just used the present tense for brevity above. I'm going to test the market over the next couple of weeks with a sample dropoff to 100 houses. I founded a student storage business [www.thebigspace.co.uk] 7 years ago and so I've got a good grasp of the logistics of collecting and moving boxes. I also have lots of empty boxes and storage space. Any thoughts on the viability of the business are also welcome...
115 comments
[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 203 ms ] threadIf you want to avoid the hyphen, you can go with
www.MagicBoxAway.com, or use colored boxes, and go for www.BlueBoxAway.com (or GreenBoxAway, or YellowBoxAway, etc.)
[1]: http://www.staples.co.uk/office-supplies/shipping-cartons-ma...
Think about what you're doing for people and maybe you'll get more ideas.
You're helping people by making it easy to clean up their unwanted clutter and then magically, they get money and peace of mind because they're not surrounded by stuff they don't want :-)
If you added in a positive effect to this (think along the lines of cash4gold), so clutter4cash or something (it has some rhyming to it too, which has been proven to improve recall of product names), then you're onto something. [EDIT: or is that 'cash4clutter'?? I never know which way around the before/after should be!] [EDIT 2: PPS - great idea for a service!]
Was that irony? Sounds like a euphemism for anal sex to me (UK).
cash-out-easy.co.uk easy-out-cash.co.uk
freecycle sounds happy, the products are free, you're doing good by recycling. clutterbin sounds like a bunch of clutter thrown randomly in to a bin that you have to wade through.
Your business idea, as I understand it, is mostly about people getting rid of unused stuff, and paid for it, but without freezing their feet off in a fleamarket. I'd rather focus on that positive experience, because that is something online casinos don't have.
ByeByeBox.net (unfortunately .com is taken, but it's only parked)
However, I'm curious about your business model.
1. How much revenue are you bringing in?
2. What is the commission structure like?
3. How many customers do you have?
4. Where is your business located (generally, of course)?
5. Does this business model scale well?
Thanks in advance, I know I'm prying but it seems very interesting. I've chatted with a friend of mine who tried the 'eBay drop-off center' business but it was difficult because people would drop off their junk and it took a lot of time to sort, research, post, and ship the items. If you've discovered a better way of making money from this process, I'd love to hear more about it.
1. Zero so far.
2. I'm going to start at 15% after selling costs (ebay fees and shipping)
3. I'll start by dropping boxes to 100 houses and see what I get back - if it works at that scale then I think it should scale up.
4. UK.
5. I hope so. I suspect it will because I can bulk up similar things and then ship them to the markets where they'll sell well. Eg. Old phones still fetch good money in Africa. XBox and Playstation games sell well in Eastern Europe. Likewise, DVDs are still in demand.
I think the advantage over the dropshop model is:
1. Much more appealing for householders: I've got loads of stuff that just depreciating year by year. By the time I've found a box, boxed it up, found a dropshop, driven it there, and filled in the forms I could have sold it myself. This way you just pick the box up at your front door, walk round the house and fill it, write your email address on the box, and leave it back at the door.
2. Scalability: I can do this nationally by shipping inbound boxes for $7.50. I can also use a rep system, whereby local people (think Avon ladies) take on their area on a part time basis.
3. Low overhead: No premises. Centralised facility for sorting through things - ideally with the facility to simply enter a model number and condition for common items to generate a standard listing, without the need to write anything or photograph things.
Drop me an email if you want - me@alexmuir.com
With regard to advantages on the dropshop model:
1. I agree that it's more appealing for householders. Especially if you can get some traction with stay-at-home moms or dads. I suggest some advertising with the popular 'mommy blogs'.
2. I think scalability is going to be the largest hurdle. You will have to be selective on what you will take or people will just give you trash. Often times people would rather donate it than deal with selling it on eBay. I volunteer at a local thrift store and have seen this first hand. Try to figure out what's the very least that a box needs to sell for to make it worth your while. The rep idea is a good one: college or high school students would be perfect for this and would work for minimum wage, where as 'Avon ladies' would actually be looking to meet a higher standard of living.
3. Your overhead isn't going to be renting a warehouse (that would be a great problem to have) but the shipping and handling costs. I think streamlining the sorting and research part of your operation will be crucial.
Best of luck! You should start a blog for this project. I'm always very curious to read about people's ideas and the actual execution steps. Even if it doesn't work out as expected, it will be a great learning process and could help someone else in your shoes.
You don't want to get burned by people giving you junk that won't sell for anything.
Until they check ebay before getting rid of it.
"You don't even need to check how much it's worth just $NAME.com and you're done!"
(suggestion in the mail).
The trust issue in my opinion will lie in you walking away with people's stuff with no real incentive in getting the best price out of it since every sale is profit for you. Also, what will you do when an item doesn't sell after some time? Do you ship it back to its owner?
Just think carefully about your business model because profit-sharing might not be the best way to go.
"Making obscene profits may make you jealous, but it isn’t evil. There’s a reason so many people are using the Cash4Gold service – it’s easy and convenient. They don’t make promises on their website that they don’t keep, and they aren’t tricking or scamming people. They are simply buying low and selling high, and that’s capitalism at its finest."[1]
[1] http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/04/there-is-a-difference-betwe....
Maybe have policies that all auctions are $1 starts with no reserve and they get what they get?