Mobixa & The Junk Drawer

Helping mobile phone owners realize the value of their old phones

Background: The iPhone was the first mobile phone with substantial resale value. Before the iPhone, when people upgraded their devices, they usually dumped them into a junk drawer and forgot about them. iPhones were also quite a bit more expensive than Nokias and Razrs, so people insured them, and when they broke, insurance companies like Asurion needed a steady supply of refurbished units.

Problem: A mobile phone handset refurbisher couldn’t source enough used iPhones to meet demand. They were buying so many used iPhones on eBay that they were moving the market and inflating their costs.

Solution: Mobixa came to me with this problem, with the idea of "reverse ecommerce," wanting to set up a site where people could sell their old phones. It was an easy technological problem, but a very difficult go-to-market problem. I helped them think bigger than just buying handsets, and realize that their biggest competitor was the junk drawer. After interviewing hundreds of mobile phone users, we discovered that most were unaware that used iPhones had substantial value, and many were still under contract and couldn’t upgrade until later, so marketing was often ineffective. We built and launched the Mobixa Advisor, a tool that helped people value their handset today and receive updates on its value over time, then be reminded to trade in and upgrade once their contract was up. We increased buybacks by 300% in 90 days.