Company picks up and sells your unwanted stuff for you
Suggested by 
Eric Niehaus
about 4 years ago
Problem: I have $15k worth of "stuff" that I:
(a) no longer want
(b) would like to convert to cash, i.e. don't want to just give away
(c) don't want to take the time/energy to list, move, or sell
Solution: Company picks up and sells your stuff for you.
Business Model. Company keeps 30% of what it sells.
Note. I 100% would let a company have $5k of the $15k value if it meant that within 30-60 days I got $10k without doing anything and my place was now cleaner/had less junk.
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Channels.
- social media ads targeted in affluent, transient areas
- ads in (luxury) apartments where people likely have lots of extra stuff they'll want to get rid of when they move, which they'll do often
- branded trucks that drive around to pick up the stuff
Process. Process would be something like:
- On website, book appointment + list the stuff we'll sell for you
- Or, eventually, drop your stuff off at a nearby location
- We'd batch appointments by time/location for efficiency
- Pick up your stuff
- Take that stuff to a facility
- Evaluate your stuff
- List your stuff
- Sell your stuff
- Send you 70% of the money
Expansion. There are tens of billions of dollars of returned product every year that just sit there since those companies are built for handling/reselling that product. We could buy and sell that, en masse.
- people have tons of extra stuff, spurred by the prevalence of online shopping, including tons of stuff they could return but haven't or didn't because the deadline passed.
- people are increasingly willing to have companies "do stuff" for them, e.g. food delivery (Uber Eats), home tasks (Task Rabbit), etc. People are also used to companies helping them make the most of underutilized assets, e.g. Airbnb, Uber.
- prevalence of online shopping lets us sell these goods to a mass market, and as a large organization — compared to an individual — we can get really good at maximizing sale price and speed.
Existing Company
I've thought about this as someone who sells my 1-year old tech on eBay all the time to buy new tech. It takes way too much time, and I always have to deal with scammers, etc... before finding a buyer. Def agree with the problem from a consumer standpoint.
Have you looked at https://www.grover.com/? They are doing something adjacent by providing subscriptions to your electronics instead of making you buy it. They could be a channel partner where you trade stuff in to get a discount from the subscription. I'd be curious about Grover's numbers also - it seems their uptake in the US has been slow.
@ Cass Mental Health
Clutter showed that you can build a big business based on the pain point of not wanting more space in your house and having less unused stuff around. Clutter could also be a great channel partner to scale and sell to in the end. They know exactly what items someone has not used in the last 1-2 years, and could then offer the consumer to invoke this service to sell it.
Product and Engineering leader
We personally have this need. Maybe the following info is valuable.
We are based in London, UK.
We have a load of stuff in a storage unit about a mile down the road, which we pay for. We've tried selling some with mixed success. Some types of items tend to go very very fast. Others like furniture haven't been that popular.
The process of listing is a pain in general. It's compounded by having to list on different marketplaces.
Buyers are flaky. Sometimes want to see before committing. Pulling stuff out the back of a packed storage unit for a time waster is a pain. So we just don't do it unless a buyer is committed.
Some buyers don't have a way to transport larger items so they request delivery. We aren't that motivated to do that mainly because of the time waster risk. Sometimes it's because the item is low value (£5 - £10).
Some of our stuff is probably not desirable. We accept that (eventually :grin:). But might be suitable to donate to charity. But unless it's clothing we don't know where to donate.
Example items: a standing piano, old school TV stand with glass top, Ikea glass dining table and four chairs, drinking glasses, books etc.
CEO | Founder | Managing Partner @ Platform Venture Studio
We always look for the "goldilocks" zone for competition - not too few, not too many. If there are no competitors, it's a red flag. If there are well-funded competitors who have made significant progress, it will be hard to catch them.
Per Crunchbase (https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/remoov/company_financials), Remoovit hasn't raised that much so it might not be too late, if you can find a strong differentiator.