ABI Research estimates that tablet shipments will reach 145 million in 2013. Since tablets can easily be re-set to factory default, packed and are cheap to ship, one would expect the trading in used tablets to explode in the next few years as users trade in the old for the new.
Assuming that the 2013 crop of tablets will change hand one time in their life at $100, the gross merchandise value (GMV) generated by this activity is $14.5 billion. That is only for a one year crop.
The beneficiaries of this trading activities are eBay ($EBAY) and Amazon.com ($AMZN) marketplaces. That is only one of the millions of products they both sell.
By my calculations that could mean 3-5% additional revenues with fat margin for EBAY and AMZN just from this one product. No wonder they are rocketing to all time highs. What do you think?
Written by Michael Bigger. Follow me on Twitter and StockTwits.