Entrepreneurs Find Gold in Used Phones

More companies are jumping into the business of refurbishing and reselling the used cellphones and other electronic gadgets clogging Americans' drawers and closets. Within a few years, the used market could account for a fifth of all cellphone sales in the U.S., says Stephen Manning, chief executive of ReCellular Inc., one of the largest U.S.-based cellphone refurbishers. ReCellular resold or recycled 5.2 million cellphones last year, up from 2.1 million five years earlier. ReCellular sells about 60% of its phones in the U.S. and the rest mostly to dealers in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.