Market growing for used iPods
Media device manufacturers such as Apple may have competition on their hands from unlikely sources: iPod refurbishers. Companies like Small Dog Electronics, for example, is offering up to a $100 trade-in on your old iPod to go toward an iPod product they sell. Also amazing is the fact that this company also has some iPods with media on them (for regular iPods: music deemed legal for use by the artists; for the Video iPod: seasons of shows that may be of interest to you). Something to consider if you don’t want to dish out full-price for the Video iPod or any other new iPod product.
“There is an emerging market for older iPods,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says. “Apple discontinues successful products that people feel some sort of connection to. They’re the retro-cool thing.” Internet auction site eBay has literally thousands of iPod and iPod-related products for sale. The site is considered a leading resource for those seeking an inexpensive way to join the iPod revolution. So is Web site Craigslist. With 28 million iPods sold worldwide, the potential for iPod refurbishment and sales has created a cottage industry of sorts. Small Dog Electronics, for instance, is an established Apple reseller that has for years sold refurbished Macintosh computers and other accessories. The company now sells around 500 used and refurbished iPods per month from its Web-based store at significant discounts. A refurbished third-generation, 30GB iPod that cost $400 in 2003 now runs for about $210, for example. The company offers up to $100 off the price of a new iPod to anyone trading in a used one. According to CEO Don Mayer, the pace of such replacements is expected to increase as iPod sales continue to grow.
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