Apple fanatics in San Jose and elsewhere are anxiously awaiting the expected launch in early March of the newest version of the iPad tablet computer, presumably to be called the iPad 3.
Those yearning for the new gadget may be wondering how to sell their existing iPad or any other electronic gear they have to put money towards buying the new iPad. The answer may be Glyde.com, a Web site from a company in Palo Alto, Calif., an online marketplace that brings together buyers and sellers of gadgets and other products in what its CEO calls a “low friction” environment.
Glyde.com’s slogan is, “Selling your stuff is as easy as throwing it away.”
“It lets sellers list their products in an easy to use, low friction environment and buyers have a great buying environment,” said CEO Drew Lieberman.
Glyde sells gently used smartphones, tablets, e-readers and other gadgets as well as video games, music CDs, DVDs and hard cover books. The site first went live a little over two years ago but only began dealing in electronic devices in November 2011, he said.
During a visit to Glyde’s offices a few weeks ago, Lu’Chen Foster, director of marketing, gave me a demonstration of how the process works. She started as a seller seeking an online appraisal of a hypothetical iPhone 4 with 16 gigabytes (GB) of memory. She answered a few other questions such as the condition of the phone -- whether it has more than the usual amount of wear and tear -- whether there is any engraving on it (that can diminish the resale value by as much as 30 percent -- unless, I guess, the buyer and seller happen to have the same initials) and whether the charging and sync cables are included. Then the site gave her a suggested selling price of $251.50.
Foster then put the phone up on the site to wait for shoppers to act. The site has a feature that lets the seller lower the price gradually if the product sits too long without being sold. She set the floor at $238.75.
A new feature added today, Feb. 16, called Speed Sale, makes it even easier for a seller to unload their gadget for quick cash. With Speed Sale, Glyde buys the phone from the seller and then resells it at its leisure. Glyde essentially pays the wholesale price for the phone; in Foster’s example, the Speed Sale price for that iPhone 4 was $205.
For buyers, they can peruse the various screens on the Glyde site looking at merchandise, which the company says is a total $150 million inventory. When buyers find something they want, they pay for it with a credit or debit card. Glyde then sends a shipping box to the seller’s home with a preprinted UPS label bearing the buyer’s address. The seller puts the device in the box, slaps on the label and sends the package on its way.
Glyde urges sellers to “wipe” their device of all personal data before shipping. It’s for their own security. It’s also a courtesy to the buyer -- the equivalent of moving all your stuff out of your apartment when you move so the new tenant has a nice clean space to move into.
Glyde makes its money by charging the seller a fee that is 10 percent of the selling price of the item. If Foster sold her iPhone for her asking price of $251.50, she would have to pay Glyde $25.15. The buyer pays for the device and agrees to pay Glyde the cost of shipping the item.
For people who sell a device, the money paid them can build up in an online Glyde account, which can then be used to buy other merchandise on the site.
The beauty of Glyde, Foster explained, is that a buyer can replace their smartphone or tablet without having to start another new two-year contract with their carrier or without having to pay the non-subsidized price for the device, which is often very steep. All the buyer has to do is take the SIM card out of their old phone and put it in their new one. But the new phone has to be supported by the same carrier as the old one. You can’t buy a phone that was used on the Verizon network and use it on AT&T’s network, for example.
CEO Lieberman says the Glyde experience should be much smoother for buyer and seller than selling through Craigslist where you’re not sure what you’re getting, or on eBay where you have to check back frequently to monitor the bids on a given product.
But Glyde does have some eBay in its DNA, he said. The founder of Glyde, Simon Rothman, was also the founder of eBay Motors. Glyde was launched with $25 million in venture capital, lead by the VC firm Charles River Ventures.
Lieberman says business picks up when a new Apple product comes out so shoppers can expect to see an uptick in the number of iPad 2s going up on the site. Glyde shares some advice on how to buy or sell iPad 2s. In addition, the Web site DealNews offers five tips on how to get the best price for an iPad 2 to help pay for the iPad 3.
