Ask HN: Simple little business - what should I call it? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Simple little business - what should I call it?

43 pointsAlexMuir109 comments

I'm normally OK at this, but I'm struggling here! Anyone got any original ideas?

I deliver empty boxes to people's homes, they fill them up with their unwanted goods (small electricals etc.), I then collect, list and sell everything on eBay and pay them the proceeds (less commission) straight into their Paypal.

I'd eventually like to be able to sell direct on my own site, avoiding ebay.

It ideally needs to be a common TLD as the customers are unlikely to be tech-savvy.

Update: I didn't expect much attention from this so I kept it brief. Here's some more info since people seem interested in the business itself.

I'm not started yet - I just used the present tense for brevity above. I'm going to test the market over the next couple of weeks with a sample dropoff to 100 houses. I founded a student storage business [www.thebigspace.co.uk] 7 years ago and so I've got a good grasp of the logistics of collecting and moving boxes. I also have lots of empty boxes and storage space. Any thoughts on the viability of the business are also welcome...

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UnPackage.com

With spelling of Un-Package in normal copy and also buying Un-Package.com to redirect. Probably get Un-Packages.com and UnPackages.com too until you're sure whether you want the verb or the noun as your main focus.

----begin sample copy----

Introducing Un-Packages -- a greener, easier, and more lucrative way to get rid of things you don't want. It's just as fun and easy as buying something online, but in reverse!

1. Put something in a box.

2. Put it outside.

3. Wait for pick-up.

4. Receive money a few days later.

5. Decide what you want to do with your extra money.

It's really that easy. Request an Un-Package today and have less clutter and more money tomorrow.

_______ end copy ______

EDIT/OFF-TOPIC: Incidentally, I enjoy coming up with names for things and have done it successfully for friends' websites and businesses in the past, but I've never made any money off of it.

I've flirted with charging for a service like this in the past, but I've never gone through with it. If anyone would like a few ideas, I'd be glad to spend a little time on it for either no charge or for an optional gratuity in return for a winner.

Furthermore, with the "package" concept, you can take it beyond your locale if and when the economics and logistics are right. I'd send you an unpackage tomorrow if you'd take it.

I'll take it if you're in the UK. You don't have to send it - I'll arrange a courier to collect it. Drop me an email: me@alexmuir.com

This does make me think that you could use the up front cost of sending the package to deter timewasters and filter for quality. If you send a courier for a box of stuff then how're you going to stop people putting excess rubbish out in your boxes and having it collected? You'll be like a high-class litter collector that saves people a trip to the skip (once).

If you get people to pay to send the box to you then you could refund that payment when any item sells? This would encourage people to send stuff that will actually sell.

The postage charge could still be made for your own collections and wouldn't have to be the full charge.

I'm torn here - the branding person in me loves unpackage [though sadly the .com isn't available]. The businessman says box2cash is going to appeal to the mass market and be memorable.

Copy - simply brilliant.

I'm biased, but here are my thoughts in response to your dilemma. Feel free to disregard this opinion, but I enjoy talking about these things.

Your target market as I understand it is not strictly the mass market as such. You are aiming for people with relatively valuable disposables. With slightly more subtle branding, you can include those people who reducing the amount of boxes you get with old magazines and assorted housewares in them.

Living in the States, box2cash.com would be anything but memorable to me. You see cash4gold, work4you, cash4you, ezcash and such regularly. They are almost always low-end pawnshops, title loan, or work-from-home MLM operations.

On the other hand, "unpackage" is kind of cute, not too big of a reach, and has an obvious story to it that sticks once you hear it.

I can much more easily imagining myself telling a friend to consider trying Un-Package than to go to box2cash.com.

More importantly, I can easily imagine my mother sharing the idea of Un-Package in a way that's on-point with your value proposition rather than in a way that sounds like a recycle bin. Instead of, "You put stuff in this box, and they come haul it away and give you money," she'd probably say, "It's an easy way to sell stuff you don't need anymore." You're in the commerce business rather than the hauling business. Valuable and high-end rather than another trash service with who-knows-who showing up.

Again, I'm biased. I think either one could work for you. :)

Edit: Just saw that some of these domains aren't currently available. Sorry about that.

I also agree that having a "number" in there isn't that good an idea.

I think the important things to focus on with a domain are that when you say it, people don't ask you to repeat it or spell it, that you can easily say it on a radio advertisement and people will be able to remember what it was to type it in when they get home and that there are no other words in it so that when it's read, they definitely say your company name in their mind (ExpertSexChange.com anyone?) I think it needs to say something about your product - but not necessarily everything.

Here's my next burst:

stuffsoldonline.com

youpackwesell.com (possibly reads as you pack weasal? :)

for that matter ... packweasel.com - although weasel has a bad connotations ...

sellchimp.com

sellmyelephant.com

sellmygorilla.com

(I like animal ones because the logo draws itself and they're fun by default!)

packsellpay.com (this is obviously a direct description of the transaction)

yougotthestuff.com

packagerider.com

packedintight.com

packedandsold.com (this doesn't read particularly well)

actually i would just like to note there that in terms of being easy to read, say and spell packadoodle.com should really get another look-in.

takethissellthis.com

takeandsellthis.com

takesellpay.com

annnd i'm spent.

I might be interested in such a service, but I can't find your contact information. Could you provide an email address or drop me a line: abiczo at gmail com Thanks.

Thanks. Emailing you now.

I upvoted my favorite TLD on the page (clutterbin.com)

However, I'm curious about your business model.

1. How much revenue are you bringing in?

2. What is the commission structure like?

3. How many customers do you have?

4. Where is your business located (generally, of course)?

5. Does this business model scale well?

Thanks in advance, I know I'm prying but it seems very interesting. I've chatted with a friend of mine who tried the 'eBay drop-off center' business but it was difficult because people would drop off their junk and it took a lot of time to sort, research, post, and ship the items. If you've discovered a better way of making money from this process, I'd love to hear more about it.

I'm not started yet - I just used the present tense for brevity above. I'm going to test the market over the next couple of weeks with a sample dropoff. I founded a student storage business [http://www.thebigspace.co.uk] 7 years ago and so I've got a good grasp of the logistics of collecting and moving boxes. I also have lots of empty boxes.

1. Zero so far.

2. I'm going to start at 15% after selling costs (ebay fees and shipping)

3. I'll start by dropping boxes to 100 houses and see what I get back - if it works at that scale then I think it should scale up.

4. UK.

5. I hope so. I suspect it will because I can bulk up similar things and then ship them to the markets where they'll sell well. Eg. Old phones still fetch good money in Africa. XBox and Playstation games sell well in Eastern Europe. Likewise, DVDs are still in demand.

I think the advantage over the dropshop model is:

1. Much more appealing for householders: I've got loads of stuff that just depreciating year by year. By the time I've found a box, boxed it up, found a dropshop, driven it there, and filled in the forms I could have sold it myself. This way you just pick the box up at your front door, walk round the house and fill it, write your email address on the box, and leave it back at the door.

2. Scalability: I can do this nationally by shipping inbound boxes for $7.50. I can also use a rep system, whereby local people (think Avon ladies) take on their area on a part time basis.

3. Low overhead: No premises. Centralised facility for sorting through things - ideally with the facility to simply enter a model number and condition for common items to generate a standard listing, without the need to write anything or photograph things.

Drop me an email if you want - me@alexmuir.com

This sounds partly similar to businesses who clear out deceased people's houses. Perhaps you can learn from them?

Those boys are all about the old furniture. They want real wood and the odd china figurine - they're also very old school. But it's an interesting business - I'd be up for house clearances too.

In the U.S. estate sale providers make a killing and have first dibs on gold, silver and other precious, historical items.

Thanks for the thorough responses.

With regard to advantages on the dropshop model:

1. I agree that it's more appealing for householders. Especially if you can get some traction with stay-at-home moms or dads. I suggest some advertising with the popular 'mommy blogs'.

2. I think scalability is going to be the largest hurdle. You will have to be selective on what you will take or people will just give you trash. Often times people would rather donate it than deal with selling it on eBay. I volunteer at a local thrift store and have seen this first hand. Try to figure out what's the very least that a box needs to sell for to make it worth your while. The rep idea is a good one: college or high school students would be perfect for this and would work for minimum wage, where as 'Avon ladies' would actually be looking to meet a higher standard of living.

3. Your overhead isn't going to be renting a warehouse (that would be a great problem to have) but the shipping and handling costs. I think streamlining the sorting and research part of your operation will be crucial.

Best of luck! You should start a blog for this project. I'm always very curious to read about people's ideas and the actual execution steps. Even if it doesn't work out as expected, it will be a great learning process and could help someone else in your shoes.

Take 30%. Seriously.

At least, if not more.

And, put a minimum on it. They pay you $10 per box (for example) up front, and when it sells you pay back the difference.

You don't want to get burned by people giving you junk that won't sell for anything.

clutterbin.com

Think about what you're doing for people and maybe you'll get more ideas.

You're helping people by making it easy to clean up their unwanted clutter and then magically, they get money and peace of mind because they're not surrounded by stuff they don't want :-)

This is the best suggestion so far, as other suggestions (like 'box') are neutral (emotionally), whereas 'clutter' lets the customer know that what you're doing is HELPING them remove things that are negative (emotionally speaking) in their house.

If you added in a positive effect to this (think along the lines of cash4gold), so clutter4cash or something (it has some rhyming to it too, which has been proven to improve recall of product names), then you're onto something. [EDIT: or is that 'cash4clutter'?? I never know which way around the before/after should be!] [EDIT 2: PPS - great idea for a service!]

This is not a serious suggestion, but you could do a play-on-words for "Put your junk in my trunk"...

It's UK based. Both 'junk' and 'trunk' are rarely used words in the UK.

Yeah, put your junk in my trunk would be a very sensible name here, and wouldn't raise any eyebrows at all! I guess junk is tits?

Genitals

>put your junk in my trunk would be a very sensible name here

Was that irony? Sounds like a euphemism for anal sex to me (UK).

I don't love this to be honest. I don't want to be seen as an alternative to the bin - if it's ready for the bin I'm not going to be able to sell it. I want people to feel comfortable putting an old laptop in there, perhaps a 19" TFT screen etc. For me clutter and bin are two negative words.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Maybe it's good for people looking to get rid of clutter, but what person is going to want to go and buy some clutter?

Many, many people. The old phrase "One man's trash is another man's treasure" really does apply. Check the craigslist "FREE" section or look at something like freecycle to get an idea of people jumping on the chance to own something someone else will toss in the trash. Granted, those are free exchanges, but it's not that large of a leap to see people paying for things as well.

I agree, but if you're trying to get someone to buy something from you, you don't tell them to take a look at some clutter.

freecycle sounds happy, the products are free, you're doing good by recycling. clutterbin sounds like a bunch of clutter thrown randomly in to a bin that you have to wade through.

Agreed. I submitted an alternative initially with this exact idea as an introduction, but I deleted it to let my submission read more easily.

I think "clutterbox" sounds better (perhaps because of its similarity to "chatterbox") and has better associations (perhaps it's a UK/US thing, but to me "bin" strongly suggests throwing stuff away permanently, which suggests a mere disposal service). In the UK there seem to be a company called Clutterbox (providing resources for primary-school teachers) and a product of the same name (a garden shed!), whereas Clutterbin seems not to be in commercial use anywhere.

Interesting, I've recently been doing something similar with friends and family but with a charitable twist...

They donate their unused electronics (iPhone, Blackberry, iPods, etc) to me and I give them away to people who need them in exchange for community service hours.

The goal is to get people involved with the community as well as recycle used electronics that would otherwise sit in a drawer for years and eventually wind up in a landfill.

So far I've used craigslist to give away an original 5gb iPod, iPhone 3g and 15" Macbook Pro battery in exchange for ~40 hours worth of community service (Habitat for Humanity and soup kitchens).

I've been tossing around the idea of turning this into a non profit so that donations can be tax deductible. It would be nice to have a monetary incentive to donate used electronics in addition to the feel-good karma incentive.

Right now I'm wrapping up a few projects and hope to dig into this idea a little deeper in the next week or so (come up with a name, look into what it takes to become a 501(c)(3), list some more items that have been donated, etc). When I do that, I'm definitely going to refer back to this thread for some ideas!

dude, that's a great idea. I've never sold anything on ebay because I can't be bothered with the setup and management. You're providing ebay outsourcing. that's awesome. Where do I sign up? I have a box of crap right next to me waiting for your address. (I'm in the UK)

Amazing - I literally had this idea just before lunch. I've dropped you an email with the details.

For anyone else in the UK, I'm happy to order a courier to collect your box from you. Shipping (£6 I think) will be deducted from the proceeds of sale. For now drop me an email - me@alexmuir.com.

At this rate I'll have an IPO on Monday.

FromYourDoor.com (a play on "to your door")

ByeByeBox.net (unfortunately .com is taken, but it's only parked)

I like ByeByeBox. FromYourDoor would be a great one for a taxi company.

I really like this idea. I'm curious on how you avoid the scenario of people thinking you're underselling how much you made on eBay? Or do you not see that as an issue because it's really unwanted stuff anyway, so any money made is a profit? That and you could potentially link them to the auction listing(s) for their items to see the progress.

Maybe have policies that all auctions are $1 starts with no reserve and they get what they get?

That's the plan - we'll link their boxes with ebay listings so they can follow it themselves if they want. It's totally transparent.

I had a friend that did exactly this in France starting in 2007. I didn't hear about it anymore a year later, so I'd say his venture ended, but I really am not sure. I can't remember the name and google doesn't find anything anymore, as anything touching eBay is SEO'd to high heaven.

I'd definitely be interested in talking to your friend. Feel free to pass on my email - me@alexmuir.com.

Reminds me of cash4gold. I think a better business model would be to pay them directly for the box. The drawback is that you have to become good at evaluating the market value of what's inside the boxes.

You could probably just pay them a standard amount for their "junk". Most people have no idea of the value of things that they are trying to get rid of.

>Most people have no idea of the value of things that they are trying to get rid of.

Until they check ebay before getting rid of it.

"You don't even need to check how much it's worth just $NAME.com and you're done!"

(suggestion in the mail).

It's a trust issue. This way, our interests are aligned, and people aren't going to think 'Hey, this might be worth something - I'll hang onto it'. I'm going to get the best price for their stuff, and they can see it. Cash4gold pay as little as they can get away with - I don't want to be 'exposed' in the scams section of the paper.

Cash4gold is not a scam and they make a shit load of money.

The trust issue in my opinion will lie in you walking away with people's stuff with no real incentive in getting the best price out of it since every sale is profit for you. Also, what will you do when an item doesn't sell after some time? Do you ship it back to its owner?

Just think carefully about your business model because profit-sharing might not be the best way to go.

Cash4Gold is a terrible investment. you can nearly always get a better price at your local pawn broker (or hell, eBay.) They may not technically be a scam, but they are still perceived as such and have a terrible reputation amongst customers.

Cash4gold is a scam in the sense that they prey on uninformed people, and make it difficult to get items you do not wish to sell back.

I'm with Arrington on this.

"Making obscene profits may make you jealous, but it isn’t evil. There’s a reason so many people are using the Cash4Gold service – it’s easy and convenient. They don’t make promises on their website that they don’t keep, and they aren’t tricking or scamming people. They are simply buying low and selling high, and that’s capitalism at its finest."[1]

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/04/there-is-a-difference-betwe....

Hi Alex Here are my ideas. I apologize for mixing up the good ones with the stupid ones.

TossitAndProfit

BoxitAndHawkit

FillPhilsBox

RustyDustyMustyAndBling

CashForYourStash

OneMansTrash

AnotherMansTreasure

SloughOffYourToffStuff

WrapYourCrap

HunkOfPlunkForYourFunkyJunk

KnickKnackBricABrac

BarmyGitsKaboodles

FackYerTackle

LesMoore

JackDawse

LowellWatt

SellDeezTingsMon

TallyMansBananas

MoolaNoFoola

DoshForTosh

TankitAndBankit

What a list! SloughOffYourToffStuff - I used to live in Slough, that made me chuckle. TossitAndProfit - as a marketing tool like CompareTheMeerkat would work very well.

>TossitAndProfit

You're going to use a mock porn site to promote your gig?

There isn't enough porn in marketing.

I have the URL usedly.com that I would be willing to donate...

Cheers - very good of you. For now I'm going to just work on the fundamentals before going for a permanent brand. It's easy to get tied down on a name, but if I can't make it profitable it's not going anywhere.

Off the name topic, but I've been looking for this for months!

I imagine the business margins (at least starting off) would resemble a pawn shop or consignment shop. Have you looked into those?

I hope it works. Tell me if you launch (in the states)!

www.packyes.com www.boxbyme.com www.packadoodle.com www.boxyboxing.com www.boxinthehand.com www.boxmule.com

Some belting ones in there. Well done.

Packadoodle is fun. You'd want to make sure to buy a few likely misspellings.

I really like this one - it's not really fun but I'm not sure it hugely relates to what I'm doing.

EmptyCloset

I also want to suggest http://www.needanym.com/ for collecting potential names for projects/companies/sites in a structured way for free.

www.box-away.com is available.

If you want to avoid the hyphen, you can go with

www.MagicBoxAway.com, or use colored boxes, and go for www.BlueBoxAway.com (or GreenBoxAway, or YellowBoxAway, etc.)

Coloured cardboard boxes cost a surprising amount extra (almost double). BrownBoxAway doesn't have the same ring to it. MagicBoxAway is pretty good though.

Yes, but they look so sleek. Seriously, people will judge the trustworthiness of your company by the appearance of your boxes and the quality of your branding. I don't know the costs of the cardboard boxes you're looking at, but I suspect that the price difference might be worth it. Add a simple logo and you'll be golden. ...I like the 'redboxaway' because the color is the brightest, and because red and box are the same number of letters it leads itself to more logo options. There is a possible name clash with a popular video rental business though.

To give an idea of price for boxes (a random fact, but maybe useful). A double-walled cardboard box measuring 18" x 12" x 12", with a logo and text in one colour, costs around 90p when ordering 1,500 at a time. They are suprisingly expensive. And that's with me collecting from the factory.

90p ~~ $180... For a single box?! I can get them cheaper at Staples, though not in bulk. Who's your supplier?

£0.90 = $1.41. You sure they're cheaper in staples? Here's Staples prices in the UK [1] - £3.99 for a box of the wrong size, but roughly the same volume. And ours are printed for £0.90.

[1]: http://www.staples.co.uk/office-supplies/shipping-cartons-ma...

I'm sorry, I saw the 'p' and thought Pound not Pence. Excuse my ignorance of British currency notation.

alexcart.com - it's available, go get it.

lol, cheers. I'm not sure I want the whole thing built around my own name though! And, somewhat unbelievably, a good number of people seem to be able to spell my name wrong.

I'm sure Craig Newmark thought in the same way. It's just that people's names are memorable and given the way you are starting, the personal touch might be valuable. Remember, names can always change...

alexcart is 8 characters, that's pretty good...

If you put your name on it, it forces you to make it work. It puts you on the line. Puts you out in front. Keeps it real. Keeps you from hiding behind branding paraphernalia.

I am interested in your business idea, but by the time you get it off the ground, I'll have thrown most of my shit away, since I'm moving. :/

If you're in the UK he said, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1820423, you can send it now (or maybe tomorrow, it's late). Not soon enough?

Nope, Dallas, TX. :(

A little late to the conversation here, but I have a domain that I think would be a pretty good fit. I originally registered for a very different purpose. I don't expect to renew it in 2011.

TheProfitPalette.com

Clearly, you've received a lot of feedback with a lot of good ideas. If you want this domain because it is just that good (haha) then let me know.

Best wishes for your success.

Thanks, good of you to offer. I'm sticking with box2cash.com for now, at least until I can test the concept.

Nice idea, how about: MoneyForOldRope.co.uk

TheListBox.com

ListByBox.com

I wish droplister.com or something similar was available (your business is like dropshipping, but in reverse).

Good luck, its a great idea!

This is absolutely genius. Please expand to Belgium pronto. I'd have no problem with a commission as high as 30%.

According to nxdom these .coms are available: ridya, selldr, payrid, clutterz, easyrids.

Like the idea. Here are a couple names that came to mind

hoardsale, hoardbox, tidycrate, shipsold, sendsold, auctionboxx

Have you tried wordoid.com? (not as a name, but as a source of names).

ThrowAwayRecycler.com sounds like a good one. If you dont like it you can also try CashForYourJunk.com but some people might get the wrong idea.

Follow my progress on Twitter: @box2cash (I'm not dead set on this name at all, I just need something to go at)

I'm in lockdown over the weekend working on this.

I've got a blog up to track my progress. It's at http://www.box2cash.com/blog

brownboxauctions.com discardedgoods.com brownboxgoodies.com

Checked and all are available as of 2010-10-22 9am PST.

On a side note, my younger bro was considering doing a student storage business. I'd like to hear any feedback suggestion you may have regarding it, if at all possible.

EasyAuction

DoorToSold

Easy Auction is long gone sadly.

How about richrubbish.com?

simplelittlebusiness.com

Desiderata. Desiradata.

byebuybox.com and buybyebox.com are available.

byebyebox.com

HockBox.com

CleanHouseForMoney

cash4box.com

box2cash.com

Sounds dangerously close to casino spam to me.

Not sure I follow you, can you elaborate?

The word "cash" is the most descriptive word ("box" is a rather generic term) in those names. Apart from that, the names sound completely generic. They remind me of get-rich-quick schemes and of shady online casinos, which are all purely about putting money somewhere.

Your business idea, as I understand it, is mostly about people getting rid of unused stuff, and paid for it, but without freezing their feet off in a fleamarket. I'd rather focus on that positive experience, because that is something online casinos don't have.

trashtocash.ly

unclutter

A similar service - http://www.gazelle.com/

Auctionbox ?

the .com is gone sadly.

I like box and away. Anything with auction available?

BSaleBGone

CaptainShiznit.com

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