Broken electronics buyback and recycling/refurbishment
Buy broken iPhone screens from repair shops at $2-3 per unit, test them for dead pixels using cheap testing units from China, then ship the working LCD assemblies to refurbishment facilities in Shenzhen where they are recycled into remanufactured screens sold for $6-7 each. This was the foot-in-the-door strategy for LCD Cycle -- offering repair shops money for waste they were throwing away, which built trust before upselling them new parts.
Startup Budget
$5K – $50K
Difficulty
Intermediate
Business Type
Hybrid
Location
Anywhere
Time Commitment
Full-time
Revenue Potential
$5000-50000/month
Skills Needed
Watch the Full Breakdown

Watch on YouTube — Chris Koerner
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