This is an interesting business idea as it has a bit of a recycle flavor to it. But you are not saving items from going into landfills, you are saving wasted dollars instead.
This item is gift cards. You will be recycling something precious that some people don't need but others would love to have.
Selling gift cards on eBay would be a way to help other people get some money for their cards and you would keep a profit too.
You could buy gift certificates/gift cards from local people at a much lower price than their actual value, and then start selling on eBay all the different cards you have purchased.
Or you could offer a service where you sell the cards for others who don't want to sell on eBay themselves for a small fee.
Gift cards and gift certificates have become very popular gifts.
However, not everyone who receives these as a gift actually needs/uses them. For these people, the gift cards/certificates are unwanted and totally useless.
If these people can get some money (even 10% of the value of the gift cards) for these unwanted gifts, it would be a better deal for them then just throwing away the gift certificates (or letting them expire).
So how would you find these people who don’t want their gift cards or certificates?
You can advertise in the classifieds section of your local newspaper, penny shopper and trading post etc. Remember that you are looking to buy unused (but still valid) gift certificates/gift cards.
And you can always post flyers around your town with contact information. Colleges would be an especially good place to do this as college students probably get gift certificates as presents but would prefer the cash instead.
Note: There will be tons of these unneeded/unwanted Gift Cards right after Christmas.
With this business idea you could
build a website
with a list of prices you will pay for different merchant certificates. So people seeing your ads or flyers could go to your website and find out how much cash they would receive for their card.
You can prepare this price list by doing your research on eBay. You can publish this price list on your website and provide a reference to the same in your advertisement
This would save you a lot of time having to negotiate with people on the phone.
As far as the buying/selling price goes, you can start with determining the price by looking for the same or similar gift-certificate/gift-card auctions on eBay. You can keep your buying price at 30-40% lower than the selling price on eBay.
Make sure you know how to sell on eBay with professionalism and have built up a good feedback rating.
This is an item that people have to trust you to provide and could be open to scams, so you need to prove that you are trustworthy.
You can collect the gift certificate/card by either visiting the person who is selling it or by asking that person to mail it to your address.
If receiving by mail, promise to send them the check/payment within a decent time frame (say within 3 days of you receiving the gift certificate).
If you are providing the selling service instead send them the auction number of the listing so they can see how much their card sells for, and then let them know how soon you will send payment (minus your selling fee,) after the auction ends.
Also, let all your friends and family know that you are buying gift certificates/cards. Sometimes, word of mouth helps spread the news faster.
This is a fairly easy business idea to start, but you will need to have some start up capital if you buy the certificates to sell yourself.
If you go this route, as with any selling on eBay business you are going to need some capital to acquire your inventory, along with covering advertising costs and shipping supplies.
Now if you have a lot of contacts and friends who have gift certificates they don’t want, you could offer to buy them and ask them to wait for payment until after you have made some sales on eBay.
This way you could build up some capital to fund your purchase of more inventory.
You would want to start these auctions at the price you need to receive for the gift card to make sure you profit.
And be sure to keep your shipping cost low as you will be able to mail gift cards for very little, and auction buyers will know this.
Do your research to make sure you will have enough profit, because you will have to be able to offer the cards at less than their market value in order to attract buyers to your auctions, but still receive a price that guarantees you a profit after your costs of acquiring the card and your eBay fees.
