Second Rotation will find a life for your old gadgets on eBay

How many of us have the equivalent of a consumer electronics museum cluttering up our home?

Second Rotation, which launched its Web site on Monday, buys back old consumer electronics and sells them on eBay for you. If you're diligent, there are ways to recycle that cell phone or iPod gathering dust in your closet. But this sounds like a convenient way to recycle and get money for your stuff at the same time.

(Credit: Second Rotation)

The process is designed to be very simple: You sign up on the Web site, find what price you can get for your unused gear, and then print out a DHL shipping slip and send it away. You get paid by check or PayPal transaction.

Behind the scenes, Second Rotation is mashing up data from eBay to check current prices. It makes money by buying your goods a bit cheaper than what it thinks it can sell them for on eBay, according to company Chief Operating Officer Israel Ganot.

Right now, Second Rotation lists about 2,500 items and intends to expand to about 5,000 items in the coming months. The categories are cell phones, digital cameras, digital music players, camcorders and GPS devices.

"The premise of the business is that in the last two years the pace of innovation and upgrades is getting faster and faster," said Ganot. "We're trying to plug into the faster pace and help move things from one place to another."

People could sell these items themselves but the idea behind Second Rotation is to make it really easy for casual sellers.

The company also intends to let people recycle consumer electronics that don't have any resale value. Rather than sell them on eBay, it will salvage parts and potentially work with recyclers, Ganot said.

In the next few weeks, Second Rotation will announce partnerships with retailers where they will let customers turn in their old gear when they buy something new.

[motogirlsf]

RIP OFF !!!

What a rip off! Are you guys kidding me? $10 for a Garmin GPS that sells on eBay for $600+. They offered $22 for my like-new Sony digicam that sold on eBay for $150. What about this makes sense for the consumer? I'd go back to see what they might pay for a "parts" camera, but their site is down.

[eharrison33]

International

Second Rotation just announced they are expanding internationally; the company just added game consoles as well

[Steddie369]

Bad....just bad.

My recent experience with this company was very poor. I sent in a 8100 RIM Pearl Blackberry that had hardly been used. It was in fine working order and had no visible problem in any way. I received the verification email after they got the phone telling me that they wanted to give me $0 instead of the $123 I was estimated. I understand they may have some strange standard we do not understand, but at least they could have responded to the email and voice mail I left them almost four days ago. I just wanted an answer. I canceled my order and now at this point I feel they are scamming some people. I hope I get my phone back so I sell it to a more reputable group, but I also feel the chances of this are slim. Oh well live and learn. I hope everyone that thinks about using this service reads these comments and at least considers the comments before going all the way.

[dhunter383]

No Hassle - 4 Days - Free

@Edward/Cordelia, (we have you down as Cordelia, if this is not the case, please let me know) - or, on this blog, now "Steddie369," apologies for any difficulties. According to our inspectors, on 2007-10-22, the reason your Pearl was marked down to $0/unsaleable was that when they inspected it, they found that the trackball that is its central input device did not work at all in the left direction. As such, we could not legitimately resell it to another person, so offered to either recycle it for you, or return it, free of charge, (i.e. we pay for shipping from you, and if you disagree with our assessment, no matter the reason, we pay for shipping back out to you).

As of today, 2007-10-26, (4 days after you were informed of the disparity, and chose to have it returned), it is awaiting pickup by one of our shipping companies to be sent back to you. You should have it by end of day next Tues. If next Wed morning comes and you don't have it, please contact me directly - dylan [at] secondrotation [dot] com.

Thanks,

Dylan

[dhunter383]

No Hassle - 4 Days - Free

@Edward/Cordelia, (we have you down as Cordelia, if this is not the case, please let me know) and on this blog, "Steddie 369." Apologies for any difficulties. According to our inspectors, on 2007-10-22, the reason your Pearl was marked down to $0/unsaleable was that when they inspected it, they found that the trackball that is its central input device did not work at all in the left direction. As such, we could not legitimately resell it to another person, so offered to either recycle it for you, or return it, free of charge, (i.e. we pay for shipping from you, and if you disagree with our assessment, no matter the reason, we pay for shipping back out to you).

As of today, 2007-10-26, (4 days after you were informed of the disparity, and chose to have it returned), it is awaiting pickup by one of our shipping companies to be sent back to you. You should have it by end of day next Tues. If next Wed morning comes and you don't have it, please contact me directly - dylan [at] secondrotation [dot] com.

Thanks,

Dylan

[deevoevo]

Beware of Second Rotation Scam

I read about 2nd Rotation over the Christmas holidays and thought it sounded like a great idea. My employer was set to upgrade my cell phone and I decided to sell my Treo 700w to 2nd Rotation, gaining a small amount of cash and feeling good about not throwing away a great smartphone. I filled out the questionnaire and according to their standards, my Treo was in excellent condition and their price would be $104. I carefully packed everything: my Treo 700w in a brand new case, 2 car chargers, 2 AC adapters, a USB sych cable, original manuals and software and the original box....all in like new condition. I didn't have to include the second charger and adapter but felt it was the right thing to do. I packaged everything carefully and padded it with air packets inside the shipping box. I shipped it and waited. 13 days passed before I heard a word from them and suddenly on the same day they notified me they had received my package, they also inspected it. According to them, the Treo was in "fair" condition because it had a crack in the upper corner. Fair condition is described on their website as "the item functions perfectly but has major scratches or dents". I was stunned. I immediately declined the offer and requested the return of my Treo and all the accessories. The offer based on excellent condition was for $104 and the "fair" offer was for $77. Some might argue that I should have taken the offer even though it was not accurate, but I felt scammed and did not want to play their game. I waited and waited for its return. Finally almost 3 weeks later with no word from them, I started conversing with them using their online chat. They claimed a backlog of declined offers had created a delay in shipping and they apologized but had no idea when they would ship my product back to me, even though their stated policy is returns are made within 19 days. I was insistent and finally received a phone call telling me an inventory manager would locate my Treo and ship it that day. Two days later still no word or product. I went online and utilized their chat once again. This time I was told they couldn't find my Treo. They said they would call me when they found it. I insisted on staying online and finally (20 minutes later) the online chat guy said he received word they had just "found" it in the warehouse. They promised to ship it overnight to me along with all the accessories I had included. I received the package today, minus one car charger and one AC adapter. Oh yes, my like new Treo now has a hairline scratch on it's upper corner which wasn't there when I shipped it. But EVEN IF it had been there, it was certainly in no less than GOOD condition and probably still EXCELLENT condition. The facts speak for themselves. I believe they scam consumers into sending them their items and then offer them the least amount they think they can get away with, hoping the consumer will take the low ball offer and they'll sell it for a premium price. When I didn't play their game, they conveniently lost my Treo for over 3 weeks and I don't think I would have gotten it back if I hadn't been so insistent. Even at that, they kept one car charger and one AC adapter which belonged to me. I have written their customer service department and related my experience and not one person from their company has contacted me with an apology or any attempt to make things right with me. I intend to contact consumer online fraud agencies and the Massachusetts Attorney General because it appears they are engaging in a consumer scam. My advice is to sell your items on Ebay, give them away, or take them to your local recycling center rather than making these guys rich. Their free publicity makes them all sound like green do-gooders when in fact they are hosing the public.

[deevoevo]

10 day return policy

Sorry, I just reread my post and realized I said their stated policy is to return declined offers within 19 days...that's a typo. Their stated policy is to return declined offers within 10 days. I finally got mine back 23 days after I declined their low ball offer and only after I doggedly pursued its return. Consumer beware.