Sorry, Second Rotation, for calling you a leftover, and I do so only in the sense that I didn't follow up soon after the show.

Second Rotation has figured out a way to profit from buying used cell phones, computers, cameras, gaming consoles, GPSs, and other electronic gizmos that are sitting in your drawer, unused. (If you've already sent them to the landfill, too late.)

The drill is quite simple: You get an estimate online of what it's worth, you send it to them (they pay shipping) if you're interested, and then they send you a check after checking it out. They then find secondary markets for the items, keeping them out of the landfill, not to mention your drawer.

According to a stat cited in this story on CNet's news.com, there are more than a billion retired cell phones alone in the U.S., and fewer than 1 percent of them get recycled.

BTW, the CNet story, which reports from street bazaars the world over that will repair or recondition your phone in ingenuitive ways, is worth a read. These things aren't at all the throwaway devices we think of them as; they're just another definition of Western profligacy that we could change if we just got willing.

At least with Second Rotation,  there's added motivation to do it.