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Need a broader point of view on my new idea ! ! !

By Atul Wadhwa on 28 Comments / 4995 views

Hi all Rodinhoods!!

This is Atul Wadhwa from Chandigarh. This is my second post here. (No matter didn’t get any reply on my first post, As they say, Karam kar, phal ki iccha mat kar). I am a regular reader of the magazine ‘Entrepreneur’ and came to know about Mr. Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal from there only. After that, i joined here around a month ago and since then regularly read the posts here, in fact everyday. I highly appreciate & respect all the members to share their experiences and valuable insights here. And especially, a whole-heartedly thanks to Mr. Alok for sharing his so many great experiences & guidance, which inspire so many people like me to take a step ahead.

Coming to the point, i want you to introduce to my case & observations as under:-

I was randomly browsing the classified websites i.e OLX.in & quikr.com to buy a used iphone. While browsing, I noticed on both the sites, there were 1-2 posts stating -(urgent need of money, iphone4S for just Rs. 15500/- and that too negotiable).I called up and found that they were actually interested to sell their stuff at this price. The market rate of this phone (used) in my area is around 20-21k (The prices are low because these are bought outside india and doesnt have any warranty). Considering the fact, an idea struck my mind.The idea is to buy from the people who are in urgent need of money. Even if they have posted on these sites, it still takes two to three days te get a deal done. My idea here is to fill up this gap of 2-3 days as we all know that when we urgently need money, waiting for 2-3 days is so so difficult. The stuff can be bought immediately and the payment can be made after 2-3 hours (being reserved for checking the performance of the product etc.). And later on, the product can be sold online the same way by earning a sweet margin. Along with selling online, an offline campaign can also be undertaken to actually get into the business. The items traded would only be tempting and fast moving such as mobile phones, ipads, tablets and other famous tech goods. And gradually, the scope and categories of goods can be enhanced.The main focus will be that the goods should be fast moving for smooth cash flow.

My queries regarding the case are as follows:-

1. Is this idea feasible enough?

2. Is it scalable? If yes, how much?

3. The initial capital requirement?

4. Should i start my own online website for the purpose from the very beginning or i can wait? And cost for the same?

5. Any other relevant information is welcomed.

So, the rodinhooders, what’s your take on this?

Need ur help all the respected members. Very eagerly waiting for your comments/suggestions. Please spare some time.

Thanks

Atul Wadhwa

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28 Comments

  1. Hi Replies at seriatim

    1. Idea does not seem feasible or scalable. chances of bad product, bad deals etc highly likely

    2. Not really scalable

    3. Capital will be required since you will be reqd to buy first before u can sell. How much will depend on how far the business go 

    4. Dont start own business. try out ebay. that is the only platform allowing selling old prodiucts 

    5. start small to check out the idea. i m personally not v excited 

    regds 

  2. Thank you so much Sanchita..

    Critics & frank replies are always highly welcomed. The reply really interrogated my mind.Thanks a lot once again.

    Regards

    Atul Wadhwa

  3. atul,

    pls get in touch with ankit & vinit – they already have ideas around second hand mobiles… you can comment on this thread:

    https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/all-it-took-was-one-rodinhoods-open-house-07-dec-2012

  4. You’re banking on assumption that there are always large no. of people in urgent need of money. That makes it a very shaky fulltime business. It is more suitable as a part time.

  5. I think the problem you are trying to solve is the exact reason why OLX.in or quickr exist, so I would not go about building a separate business for this.  

    After you’ve bought the item, you face exactly the same problem all ecom sites will have – get users to buy your goods.

    At best, a OLX.in should allow sellers to flag their sales as “Desperate” and OLX would promote those items in a “Flash Sale” section where buyers know they can get good deals if they buy in 24 hrs.

  6. Thank u so much asha !!

    I went through the above said link. It actually helped in broadening my viewpoint. The thing is those guys are based in big cities, whereas i originally belong to a city with a population of less than 2 lac. But, rather than repenting on this, i want to make it my strength. As i live there, i’ve noticed that the classes there do have paying capacity and are aware of the latest gadgets and they also crave to get one but still they are undeserved and to get a high-end gadget or smartphone, they do move to next big city no matter if they need to travel even more than 100 kms. My idea is to make those things available at their home town at their ease. Starting with my own city, gradually moving to neighboring city and so on. Frankly speaking Asha, i dont have any big uncles or efficient advisors/guide around here. This is the only platform where i can get valuable insights. I hope, i would get all the possible help here.

    Looking forward for your response.

    Thanks Once again.

    Regards

    Atul Wadhwa.   

  7. Thank you very much Jaisal for taking out some time.

    1. Its true that there are retailers in the local market who buy, refurbish and sell at a good margin. But in the cities of population less than 2 lac, the retailers mainly deal in small handsets or chinese mobiles. They are indulged in repairing the old small sets as there exists a large population in nearby villages who uses these kind of sets. And classes need to travel to big cities to get their high end gadget (used), which is not easily available in local market . I want to serve that class.

    2. the items traded would only be tempting and fast moving. For example, in my area, there is huge demand of Iphone4 these days. The sets are less in number and the buyers are more. And to acquire a product, in big cities, there are ample no. of sellers.

    3. Initially, I am thinking of focusing more on offline mode than online because of less penetration of internet. And there is populace, who feels comfortably dealing physically.

    If you can draw some inferences from my these points, it could help me a lot to decide further.

    Hoping for a reply.

    Thanks

    Atul Wadhwa

  8. Hi mahesh!!!

    Thank you so much for replying.

    But mahesh, i’ve decided only to trade in tempting and fast moving goods. I need to use olx and quikr more to buy and less to sell. For selling, i want to mainly rely on offline mode and to the classes in the underserved smaller cities where people rarely use olx or quikr to buy or sell.

    Thanks a lot once again.

    Regards

    Atul Wadhwa

  9. Hi Swapnil !!

    Thank you so much for your feedback.

    Considering your point, i thought that the idea can be extended.In the following way. As we all know, there are people with high disposable income who very frequently change their gadgets and in most of d cases, it becomes their habit.the extravagants. And such people can contact us to get better price as the local shopkeeper generally pays much lower than actual market price and the sellers are equally aware of that. And there are people, who accumulate money for six months to own some specific gadget and they dont find one at their home town at fair price.

    Could you please show me some more light on this??

    Thanks & regards

    Atul Wadhwa

  10. I don’t think this is idea is feasible. But why not try it out.
    – Leave the website & other technical stuff behind.
    – Browse OLX and buy few mobiles (from those who need urgent cash).
    – Start selling it locally in Chandigarh.
    – See how much real money you make & then decide on What NEXT.

    ” I guess Chandigarh is enough big city 🙂 “

  11. If someone is able to sell and get cash within 2-3 days its still a good deal. In my personal experience I could sell on OLX within 24 hrs (next day after posting), and it was possible as the buyer was within the same city and agreed to meet next day. But we cant expect this can happen for all goods/items even if they are fast-moving. Even in current circumstances it is possible to sell quickly and encash but it all depends on the demand for the product. A transaction can happen in 2-3 hrs even on these websites (but thats an ideal scenario). 

    Assuming you are trying to just sell fast moving stuff – it will still take atleast a day for transaction to close. The main question is “How will you manage to ensure that people can physically check the product and performance within 2-3 hrs?” This also means the buyer has to physically see and check the product which is subject to logistical delays or availability (which is not in your hands). Having a physical point of presence in a city may help but people may not make themselves available on time. 

    I also share the same points mentioned by Jaisal Rathee about issues like cost of collecting, storing and delivering the items. In OLX and other classifieds sites they just provide a platform to connect – the website is not actually involved in the physical transaction. The actual transaction is left to the buyers/sellers themselves to execute. Technology can facilitate the contact, make the product visible, but the final response depends on the demand for the product. Lets say that iphone 5 becomes a little cheaper, then the demand for iphone 4S will drop dramatically. 

    One way of encouraging quick close of transactions is via bidding which websites like ebay and other indian portals are doing. Other than this you cannot speed-up a transaction unless there is a good demand. 

  12. Hi  Atul, 

    Please check the price of unlocked handset online, in the country where the seller claims to buy it from. 

    It is unlikely that people who import phones from outside India face money crisis. There may be two possibilities: 

    1) no such phone exist and you are sold a dummy phone after being showed the original phone. 

    2) In case of iPhone 3, 4, 4s people from USA and UK used to report their phone as stolen, get a new phone from insurance and smuggle this “stolen” phone into India. 

    My suggestion is to avoid dealing with awfully cheap, second hand electronic goods because these might be stolen, first copy which look identical. If you buy stuff like furniture from the “desperate sales” its still a scalable idea. 

    Cheers,

    Aashish

  13. Hi

    What you are trying to do is a form of arbitrage, an age old biz.
    However please keep in mind that it succeeds only with those products which have an intrinsic value which is stable or appreciating.
    So you can purchase from distress sellers and then resale them at market price later, but the items should be stuff like gold, shares, property or even a rado watch would do, if you can ascertain it is original. Sometimes, paintings, antiques will also do. But second hand electronics is a no no.
    Dr bhatia

  14. I think the idea is good..Needs some refinements.

    Ask yourself this..

    You want to be a middleman in the transaction or a platform website?

    Why not think about other problems in selling 2nd hand goods? Maybe you could solve them too… some crude ideas would be ‘establishing genuineness of a 2nd hand product, helping people refurbish 2nd hand products so they get better price or just buyer gets a better product..

  15. Hey Atul,

    I like the idea. I guess you have discovered something that you wanna exploit. I think that’s a brilliant start. Because many startups are a cheap knockoff of what’s out there doing well already. So, kudos to you for using your own observation and insight to come up with an idea.

    Now, you’ll have to take your hunch to the next level. You will have to validate it and do it cheap. So, what’s the least expensive way to validate your idea? Just setup a landing page, Facebook page, just kickstart and see how the ball rolls. If you gather a lot of interest for just your landing page and FB explaining exactly what your product will do, I think you’d have more reasons to start building the product. 

    You might find my Quora post on a similar subject useful to create your own milestones once you kickstart your journey. 

    Good luck and do continue sharing your learning! It will be so for the rest of us too. 🙂 

  16. Hi puneet. Thanx a lot for your feedback n sorry for replying late.was away for sm days.

    Could you please help me in understanding and implication of our idea in a city having population of less than 2 lac bt surrounded with a lot of villages comprising of rich enuf farmers & landlords and their extravagant sons(my target group) as i originally belong to this kinda city. In fact, i m in chandigarh for only a month or two and finally i need to move to my native place.

    Please throw some light keeping in  view this scenario.

    Waiting for your reply.

    Regards

    Atul Wadhwa

  17. Hi Shridhar ! ! !   Thanx a lot for your valuable feedback n sorry for replying late.was away for sm days.

    I wud defntly think upon the inferences made by you.

    Thanx a lot once again.

    Regards

    Atul Wadhwa

  18. Hi aashish!!!

    thanx for ur feedback. I humbly want to tell you here that from punjab, a lot of people have gone overseas and are now staying der permanently. They keep on sending genuine gadgets in punjab to their relatives as gifts.In dis case, its nt like dey face financial crisis. Dey jz want to encash their product aftr 2-3 months. In many cases, in villages, dey dnt even know the true worth of the product and dispose it at a very low price. And no matter, how much the price is in the foriegn market of this gadget. It is not dat easy for evryone to get it frm there..

    I request you to please reconsider taking this scenario in mind.

    Waiting for your response.

    Regards

    Atul Wadhwa

  19. Thank u very much Dr. Bhatia for your valuable suggestions.

    But here in punjab, therez a huge market for high end secnd hand gadgets. youth here is very extravagant. Anyways, thanks once again for giving idea for diversifying the categories of goods.

    Regards

    Atul Wadhwa

  20. Thank u very much neil for your feedback and encouragement.

    In fact, It broadened my viewpoint. N yes, wud defntly try to watch the shows recommended by you.

    Thanx once again.

    Regards

    Atul Wadhwa

  21. Hi Rahul !!!

    Thanx a lot for your feedback. But i did not exactly get how to establish the genuineness of any product.Could you please throw some more light on this.

    Waiting for your reply.

    Regards

    Atul Wadhwa

  22. Hi Krishna ! ! !

    thank you very much for replying and encouraging me to start off. I really want to start with a little amount. and i found this can be started with as low as Rs. 20,000/- Wud experiment and research first before wholly jumping into it. If it would turn up good, then wud scale gradually n wud diversify the portfolio.

    I have gone through your quora post. You are a great writer sir. very filtered insights. Wud love to be your mentee. Hope u enroll me. Have also gone thru Yo!Potato. Only one word. Amazing!!!!!

    Thank u once again.

    Regards

    Atul Wadhwa 

  23. Hello Atul,

    Reading the replies here I figured there was this problem of cheap seconds being passed off as originals on sites. You could be the person to be go to if I want to buy genuine good conditioned second hand devices. You need to figure out a way that only genuine products are being sold by u. How do you make out whats a genuine product in a good condition of being used..Thats what you need to find out..

    Why not just get into second hand device market where you buy and sell seconds. Sounds of huge potential as in India life of a cell phone is just 12-months.  Sounds huge potential to me!

  24. hey,
    nice idea! However, not much capital will be required in providing this service, hardly 8 to 10 lakhs, that too since you will have to showcase a number of phones, ipods, etc. Also to get more response start creating awareness about your service through social sites (esp make such a presentation that will attract youths, since the targeted audience in this service will be youngsters). Since the trend of online shopping is getting higher every other day, i would suggest you to get a website designed for it and think about the opportunity cost that could be lost by setting up an offline store, since in that market there are many others doing this. It doesnt take long for an oppurtunity to get missed, so go for it. ¡c)

  25. I’lll second this.  Even before you think of selling online see if you can find buyers in direct face to face sales.  Then I would follow Sanchita’s recommendation, our resident eBay Goddess :), of trying to sell on ebay first before setting up your own website.

  26. atul, 

    you’ve got yourself quite an overwhelming response here. do keep us posted on what happens eventually – what you actually start. am sure everyone would love to know where you go from here….

  27. Check out the Life Changing Seminar by Sandeep Maheshwari on YouTube. It might help you understand where you are and why people are responding like how they are……

  28. Hi Atul, 

    while I was readying your post, First thing which came into my mind is OLX, E-bay etc they are already doing the same thing.. So instead of buying from you, customer can directly visit such site and buy. 

    What you can do, you can add value to your products.

    Buy that product after doing all checks and do full service at your end & repair if required, make that as good as new like change the cover or screen of mobile and than again sell that on your site. Its like Maruti True-value and other big companies are doing with Cars. For this you need to hire a technical guy. 

    Customer should be 100% sure that even if he/she is buying old products but Its value for money product. and some expert checked it before handing over to me. 

    Thanks 

    Alok 

    Let’s Make Life Simple. 

     

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