Many people will remember the Music Magpie adverts which invited people to send in their unwanted CDs with the promise of a cheque in the post.
The business has moved on somewhat since then, with a focus on gadgets and even, at one stage, designer clothes.
Founder and CEO Steve Oliver says that changing the method of payment gave his business a massive boost last year.
鈥淲e changed the payment offer last October to an instant transaction,鈥� 聽he told 老九品茶Cloud at the International Festival for 老九品茶.
鈥淲hen we buy phones, laptops, consoles, tablets now, when they arrive in the warehouse, we pay customers immediately.
鈥淭hat has been transformational.鈥�
Oliver says Music Magpie is the 鈥渓azy man鈥檚 eBay鈥�.
鈥淭echnology has a responsibility, especially customer-facing, to make things easy,鈥� he adds.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the mantra of our business: it鈥檚 fast, trusted and easy 鈥� we鈥檙e the lazy man鈥檚 eBay.
鈥淲e鈥檒l knock on your door and collect it, it鈥檚 trackable and insured, we鈥檒l send you an email when it鈥檚 arrived and have the money in your account the next day.
鈥淲e鈥檙e now buying over 1,000 iPhones a day.鈥�
One of the UK鈥檚 most highly-rated start-up founders said at the ‘tech entrepreneurs who want to change the world’ conference that he chose Newcastle over London for lifestyle reasons.
Gilbert Corrales hopes聽his music discovery and promotions platform Leaf.fm will become the 鈥淎mazon of the music industry鈥�.