musicMagpie is a British owned

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buying and selling refurbished electronics and second-hand computer games, consoles, books, films and music.

History

musicMagpie was founded in Stockport in 2007 by Steve Oliver and Walter Gleeson, both with previous experience of the music industry. The company was originally based in Oliver's garage, buying only CDs. Records show that from February 2017, the company employed 1000 people, and received 5 million ratings on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

, becoming the most popular seller on that platform. By 2018 the company had sold an estimated £125 million of used items, primarily through

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and

Business model

Prices are checked through an

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...

which determines an item's popularity on all competitors' websites. Due to its low prices for items such as CDs, the service is often used by individuals selling in bulk. Customers can enter an items’ barcode or name into musicMagpie's website to receive an instant quotation. Customers can then send their goods to the company free of charge by various methods. Once the goods are received, if they meet quality requirements, the seller is paid. The principle behind its purchase and sale

is to keep a minimum stock in the company's warehouse, and continuously buy and sell the same item while listing it on multiple platforms. Depending on an artist's new release, advertisements and other relevant factors, the company tends to increase the stock if expecting to get bigger sales from a specific product. DVDs are typically purchased for 1 penny and books for 20 pence, and then resold for an average of £1 or £2. Customers can purchase used items through a separate part of the website.

Poundland deal

The company has a deal with UK budget retailer

Poundland Poundland is a British variety store chain founded in 1990. It once sold most items at the single price of £1, including clearance items and proprietary brands. The first pilot store opened in December 1990 following numerous rejections by ...

, where it supplies them with used CDs,

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s and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

s, which are sold for one pound as part of Poundland's ''Replay'' range.

References

{{reflist Companies based in Stockport Retail companies established in 2007 Music retailers English brands Online retailers Online retailers of the United Kingdom Non-store retailing Bookshops of the United Kingdom Book selling websites

History

Business model

Poundland deal

See also

References