>One of the standard examples cited by TechForward is a $9 fee for registering a $300, 8-gigabyte iPod Touch. The promised buybacks -- assuming the device is judged to be in good condition -- are $130 at three months, $120 at six months, $90 at one year, $70 at 18 months and $60 at two years.

I'm pretty sure you can get a lot better price on eBay. Sure, you'd have to deal with possible scammers but the price would be worth it.

I tend to agree with you.

The problem with this business model is that consumer electronics is some of the easiest stuff to sell on eBay. The units are standardized, so they are easy to describe to potential customers -- when you eBay an iPod [1], the site even offers you canned descriptions and photos of iPods to include in your listing. And, if you keep the original boxes in your basement, consumer electronics is easy to pack up and ship.

iPods are an extremely liquid asset: I eBayed two of them a couple months back, and both of them sold within $10 or so of the price that I had predicted based on earlier sales figures. The trading volume is large, and the market value well known, so there's really very little risk that, for example, you'll put the thing online and it won't sell at all.

So paying TechForward amounts to a gamble that their promised buybacks are miscalculated in my favor. But that's unlikely, partly because they put a lot more effort into the prediction than I, partly because they presumably build in a factor of safety, and partly because, if they do guess wrong, they may well go out of business before I can collect my winnings. Once these guys declare bankruptcy my $9 is gone forever.

Attn TechForward, nickb just wrote your marketing copy for you:

"TechForward registration ... $9"

"Not having to deal with scammers on eBay ... priceless"

I disagree. This is a guaranteed sale. Ebay, you pay for the listing and then you have to hope someone buys it. The premise of using this service is a little different.

Too many steps in the value chain to make this work...