Selling Broken Cell Phones on eBay

I have a definite plan for my online business. And like all businesses I need some cash money to bring my plan to fruition. I am not talking thousands of dollars here. The majority of what I will be doing will involve free resources. But I finally had a reality check some time ago that it really does take money to make money. 

Content Mills Came and Went

I did have some success building my business for free with writing for content mills like eHow, Yahoo Voices, and others in 2009. But those places and Google are subject to change their minds at any time, and they did. I went from making several hundred dollars a month to only earning an Adsense payout ($100) every three months. And I have been there every since.

Hello eBay (Again) 

So, I am not going back to content sites for the purpose of trying to make some quick money. Instead, I am going to sell some of my old "stuff" on eBay. I am starting with a broken Droid 2 cell phone. It met its demise when it was dropped on concrete and it wasn't in a case. I have checked completed listings and found out that they can sell for upwards of $32 on average, less if the screen is broken. (I am so glad mine isn't.) Not bad for an item that is clearly labeled as "broken", "not working", or "for parts only". The pic is a screen shot I took from my eBay app for my iPad. I just typed "broken droid 2" into the search box. The green price tags are completed listings that sold.

When I decided to make money online again I was planning on just selling on eBay. I actually got my start there in 2003 with a Christian book store. As I was researching what it is like to sell on eBay today I found out that Amazon can also be profitable. Then I dug a little deeper and discovered that selling ebooks, affiliate marketing, using public domain content for blogging, Ebay and Amazon arbitrage, and other options all have profit potential if I am willing to work at them. And I will be utilizing several of those in my business model.

Should I?

But again, I need some start up capital. So, off I go to take some photographs of my phone. And then I will glean from how the successful auctions were worded. I am strongly considering starting the bidding at just $0.99 to possibly start a bidding war. But I don't know if I'm bold enough to go that route. I do know for sure that I am offering free shipping. Because the sellers who made that choice sold their items for a higher price than the ones with $9.99 shipping. I will just ship it in a USPS, small, flat rate envelope.

A lot of my belongings are in storage t the moment. But when I get my hands on it I will also be auctioning off my Wii console that was struck by lightning (sort of) a year ago. I am now glad that my Honey told me not to throw it away. Because I see that I can probably get around $20 for it on eBay. That's not bad for something that is now completely worthless to me.