The green market is the distribution of refurbished, used, repaired, recycled, discontinued or new product

Product (business)

In general, the product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce ' lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced...

s that are in working condition. They are sold through broker

Broker

A broker is a party that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller, and gets a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal...

s and resellers, not through the original manufacturer. These goods are suitable for resale to customers as a lower cost alternative to buying new goods from standard distribution channels such as retail stores.

History of the term

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, manufactures that produced computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

, telecom and network

Computer network

A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....

ing equipment labeled this resale market the 'grey market'. Their goal was to create fear in customer

Customer

A customer is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services...

s of buying counterfeit or stolen products , goods in uncertain working condition or with doubtful warranties. This fear of the ‘grey market’ assured manufacturers that customers would buy directly from them and would buy new products rather than repairing old ones.

Ironically the green/grey market is absolutely necessary

Necessary

Necessary may refer to:help* Something that is a required condition for something else to be the case, see necessary and sufficient condition.* A necessary truth, something that cannot fail to be true, see logical possibility....

 for the maintenance of current systems that are in need of replacement parts that have been discontinued or the manufacture had gone out of business.

Ecologically

The negative effects of over producing new electronics products and disposing rather than repairing existing equipment, has been recognized as ecologically hazardous. Buying green market products to repair current systems is not only very cost effective, but is more environmentally responsible than continually replacing systems with new equipment.

Raw materials

Electronic equipment is made up of many precious materials including highly refined glass, gold, aluminum, silver, polymers, copper and brass. Electronic recycling companies have the ability to store, disassemble, separate and transport these materials to companies in the manufacturing sector that will purchase and reuse them. Otherwise they would end up in landfills polluting the soil and water with dangerous chemicals and non-biodegradable waste.

Many working products are sold by resellers who have the knowledge and capability to properly redistribute them via the green market. Often they are sold to customers on website market places.