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 ca

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.