By Conrad Melancon

It seems as though once a year I write an article which addresses the questions many people ask when they contact me – “Is there really any money to be made in collecting and selling cell phones?” The answer I always give is a resounding YES! 

Not quite sure about the opportunity? Think this is a business which takes a lot of start-up capital? Is this hard to do? These are good questions so I’ll take a little time to hopefully set your mind at ease by running through the numbers.

There are now more than 250 million cell phones in use throughout the U.S. today. Users upgrade their old cell phone, on the average, every 18 months. This means that almost 14 million cell phones are retired every month in this country alone. As of the writing of this article it is estimated that less than 5% of these phones are collected for reuse and recycling. What do these numbers mean to you? Basically, that this business has a tremendous upside – opportunity is everywhere you look!

Just think about it, if each of those cell phones retired every year have an average sale value of $10 – that’s $140 million which is just lying around gathering, not interest, but dust. Remember, this is the number for just one month. However, the sad fact is that most people replace their phone and do nothing with their old one. This means that millions of perfectly good cell phones are piling up in drawers and closets throughout America every month.

If you are an eco-entrepreneur, the college student, or the stay at home mom looking to make some extra money, we can show you how to capitalize on this phenomenon.

As a first step to getting started I encourage you to download and read our e-book For Cell by Owner – The Cell Phone Recycling Guide. Next, give us a call (ask for Andrew Hinkle – CellForCash.com Program Manager) if you have any questions or need additional ideas on how to get started in your area. There may already be a collection effort underway near where you live that you can use to springboard your efforts.