When most people get a new cell phone contract, what do they do with the old cell phone? In most cases it becomes a toy for a child or a baby to play with. If that’s not the case, they may end up in the trash. It is a shame that they are not aware of the financial potential for their no longer wanted phones. On the other hand, this becomes your golden opportunity! You can make money by selling things like used Verizon cell phones.

How can you get started making money with used and refurbished cell phones? The simplest way to begin this task is to speak with family and friends to see if they've got any of their old cell phones put up in boxes or in a drawer. Ask them if you can have them (make sure they wipe off all personal information). The second thing you can do is to place an ad in a newspaper or online, asking for used cell phone donations. If there are any phones less than a certain age (three years is sufficient), offer the owner $10. Lastly, check on websites and local outlets of cell phone retailers to find out what kinds of deals they might have on refurbished cell phones.

Now that you have a large inventory of phones, you can begin to research and price them. Some phones will of course be worth much more than others, and accurately pricing your phones will go a long way towards making your business successful. The easiest way to identify any given phone is to find the serial number, which is generally somewhere on the back of the phone under the battery spot. With so many phones looking nearly identical, but potentially having vastly different capabilities, properly identifying each phone will allow you to accurately judge their worth.

Now that you know what each phone you have it worth, it is time to sell your inventory. There are two recommendations for quickly getting rid of your inventory and still making a decent profit. First take all the phones that were worth less than you paid for them and put them in one basket. On paper figure out the total cost of what you paid for all the phones in your total inventory. Now go online and find a website that will buy back used cell phones and sell the phones that are worth less than what you paid for the best rate you could find. Once you have sent those phones off subtract the total of what you did get back from them from the total balance of what you paid for the whole inventory.

Whatever you have left, make yourself an eBay seller's account. Sell your used and refurbished cell phones for approximately 80 percent of what other sellers are selling theirs for. While some sellers tend to have good luck selling their phones at a high price, remember you're just starting out. They have established themselves as reputable cell phone retailer. Build up your feedback rating first before you up your prices. Once your initial cell phone batch has been sold, count your profits and begin the process again.