

Show HN: I built a local/fast marketplace for used gadgets, games - earlyriser
https://kloomo.com

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Legend
Looks very nice! Neatly executed. Here are a couple of quick
observations/suggestions. I am not a UX designer so most of these are from my
personal perspective.

\- When I click on PS3/XBox 360/Wii, the page scrolls down and that's fine.
However, it would be great to put a "Top" button somewhere to take the user
back or ideally, make the "item" band containing Tablets, PS3, XBox 360...
stick to the top.

\- That brings me to my second point: This type of design is not scalable
unless you are planning on supporting only Tablets, PS3s... See what I am
saying?

\- When I first visit your site, I would love to see you auto-detect my
location instead of waiting for me to select one. See here for an example:
[http://html5demos.com/geo](http://html5demos.com/geo)

\- Too much space is wasted for each item cell. You can easily have two
categories next to each other if the space permits. Think of making it
resposive, for instance.

\- What is the intuition behind the purchase/selling mechanism? Are you
designing around some auction schemes? When I want to sell something, it does
not ask me for a price. When I want to buy something, it is asking me for a
price. So this seems closer to an auction mechanism than any other regular
kind of a purchase. Why not explore mechanisms where you can let the seller
specify a minimum amount he is willing to accept? This way you can eliminate
spammy customers who are trying to purchase an iPad for $1 :)

That's all for now. Keep up the great work!

~~~
earlyriser
Wow, that's a big comment with great insights. I know it's not perfect, but as
the phrase says "if you're not embarrassed by the 1st version, you've launched
too late". I want to add some of the UI improvements you mention.

I didn't let the seller specify a minimum amount he's willing to accept
because a)the listing could stay 1 year and the price will be dropping b) she
just need to scan the 1st offers, ordered by offered amount.

Yes, it will be some spammy customer trying to buy iPads for $1, but every
offer cost a credit, I hope that will discourage most of them.

Again, thanks for all your comments.

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mikemikemike
Looks like a fun product to build. When I see this type of marketplace I
always wonder how you get a user base... why will people pay to list products
here if there aren't many buyers in their city yet, and why would buyers pay
to shop here if there aren't many sellers in their city yet? Why not use
craigslist for free? I'm just genuinely curious how others tackle the
chicken/egg problem.

~~~
earlyriser
This is a good question that I've asked to myself so many times.

The chicken/egg problem is not solved at this point because I'm just starting,
but my plan is to attract videogame sellers in some big cities at the
beginning. The nice thing with videogame sellers is that they are also buyers:
I have Assassin's Creed & I want GTA V, for example. Then the first step is to
bring some critical mass and grow the inventory.

This is a very different kind of marketplace, built by someone like me. I have
some games in my mental wishlist but I'm not in a rush to buy them, also I'm a
money saver, then the option to make offers and repost them until I got a deal
is pretty convenient.

The same goes for selling, I'm not an active seller, what I want is just to
click the items I have and I want to sell and wait for a good offer that could
come tomorrow on in 5 months.

Those are qualities that other marketplaces (Ebay, Craigslist) don't have.
Sure, Kloomo is more expensive (for $1) than Craigslist, but I want to believe
it's more convenient in some ways (long listing period, easy listings). And
compared to Ebay, it's a lot cheaper for a seller.

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adamclerk
I'd love to see a typeahead especially for games. Then you import a more
robust catalog.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_3_games](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_3_games)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_xbox_360_games](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_xbox_360_games)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wii_games](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wii_games)

have you considered more 'black hat' strategies for adoption?

[http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-
do...](http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-dollar-
company/)

craiglist is quite the hub for used games where I live.

~~~
earlyriser
I was thinking about an input field with a filter function, but a typeahead is
also good.

The focus is just quality and best-sellers. Not sure about bringing more games
that less people had and less people want, I prefer to have the 20% that
drives to 80% of sales.

I've been reading all those stories and I'll be working in something like that
but more white hat :)

------
Zikes
Looks good!

Minor fix: there are two generations of the Nexus 7 tablet, 2012 and 2013. [1]

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Nexus#Nexus_7](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Nexus#Nexus_7)

~~~
earlyriser
You're right. I'll be adding it today.

------
earlyriser
Hello folks, thanks a lot for all your comments. Here's a freebie for the HN
users. If you want to list all/or a good part of your games, just send me a
msg romama( a t ) gmail and I'll give you 50 credits.

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sourc3
I like the idea a lot! I was trying to sign up but when I noticed the password
as clear text that could be read by people around me in big fonts[1], it
deterred me from going forward. Others may think similarly. Otherwise, the
site is pretty cool, best of luck.

[1] [http://tinypic.com/r/29mow12/5](http://tinypic.com/r/29mow12/5)

~~~
earlyriser
This has been fixed. Now the password field is obscuring the characters. Sorry
about that.

The thought about making it in just clear text was to make easier to detect a
typo on the registration page. This wasn't the case of the login page,
obscured since the beginning.

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neilni
I know it is not meant for computers, but I have seen many of people selling
Apple computers online since the models are pretty standardized. It could make
the list too long, but I think it would be a good addition it.

~~~
earlyriser
You're absolutely right. I'm planning to add Apple laptops because it seems to
be what people want and they have a big market segment. However I don't think
I'll be adding other brands because they're too diluted and I'm still unsure
about Apple desktops because it's not as easy to bring to a public place for
an exchange.

------
corry
Super minor thing I noticed: in your city drop-down list, you have
"Kansas_city" instead of 'Kansas City' \- looks like the string isn't being
parsed properly like the others!

~~~
earlyriser
Thanks a lot! Fixed

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rstellar
This looks awesome; I think most folks who shopped these items on CL have
envisioned this. Nice execution, I hope it blows up.

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malditojavi
Might I have know something else about how did you build your credit system?
Im interested in it for a uni project.

~~~
earlyriser
Sure, just send me an email if you want.

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mikeevans
Looks nice, but I wish I didn't have to sign up to see what was available.

~~~
earlyriser
That's by design because buyers can make an offer on something that is not
already available and when a listing for that item appears, the offer will be
visible for the buyer.

But I'm taking notes on all the stuff people don't like. I want to show it in
someway that doesn't discourage buyers to make offers for not available items.

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sebkomianos
Thumbs up for the design/ux, a good idea nicely executed I think!

~~~
earlyriser
Thanks a lot. I wanted to make the listings/offers as faster as possible.

~~~
sebkomianos
If you add European cities too, I can be your first user in Berlin or anywhere
in Greece.

~~~
earlyriser
I'll take that in consideration. And yes I want to go international once that
the USA cities are consolidated.

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adamclerk
Can we get Boise added to the list of cities?

~~~
earlyriser
Sure. I added it for you :)

~~~
smgoller
Someplace mid-peninsula in the bay area would be nice too, like Mountain View,
Palo Alto or similar.

~~~
earlyriser
I added Mountain View. Thanks for the tip.

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IanDrake
What does "5 second listing" mean?

~~~
earlyriser
A listing take 5 seconds. Just 2 clicks (no description, no photo upload).
English isn't my 1st language, is there a better way to express that?

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Geee
One-click listing™

~~~
earlyriser
Two-click listing? 2-click listing?

~~~
Geee
I don't know, that was partially a joke :) 2-Click listing would be fine if
you don't want to lie.

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xscape321
Very nice execution

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man_bear_pig
ok. question is not about ui/mobile/web anything. it's how will you break
chicken and egg. what's the creative marketing scheme to get that done?
usually it involves cracking one side first vs. the other. in the used / deep
discount space that typically means supply where supply siders are also users
on the demand side. in b2c it means demand first.

i know local commerce like no one's business.

~~~
earlyriser
My idea is to bring the buyers first. Doing thing that doesn't scale the first
weeks like inviting gamers personally and give free credits to grow the
inventory. But I'd love to hear what do you suggest.

~~~
jlees
I like your idea of letting buyers express interest in things that aren't
actually for sale yet, which helps sellers gauge what demand there is. But you
do need to follow up quickly with sellers or the buyers will end up going
elsewhere. Perhaps you could add something unique e.g. paying with Bitcoin?

~~~
smgoller
CoinBase might be a good integration point for Biitcoin support.

