

The Deal Truck is Live - ed
http://thedealtruck.com/

======
ed
Hi guys, I built this experiment last week and announced it here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8117100](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8117100)

It was very well received, thank you! (What’s Deal Truck? Jump to the bottom
of this comment.)

\----------------

Hacker News has a history of sharing stats so I’ll join in the tradition.
(Early HN folk will remember great posts from @patio11, @balsalmic and Markus
from PoF.)

The post reached #3, attracting 9,950 uniques, 850 of which were in San
Francisco. This resulted in 68 new text message subscribers and 6 pickup
requests, almost exclusively furniture.

I rented a 17’ U-Haul truck and am currently on the streets of San Francisco.
I used Craigslist to find someone to help on the truck. I’m paying him $200
for the day.

Rental trucks are surprisingly cheap – I reserved a 17’ truck for $30 + $2/mi.
I'm a sucker, so paid $14 for $15k cargo insurance.

After years of native mobile development I’m using a vanilla web stack. Rails
4, Bootstrap 3, and Twilio. The app is built for mobile, thanks to responsive
layouts and text message alerts. Build time was a little over 1 week.

Happy to answer any questions as I get a break between pickups!

\----------------

What is Deal Truck?

I'm renting a truck to pick up anything you want to sell. Furniture,
appliances, etc. – anything of value that fits on a moving truck, as long as
it works, is in good condition, and isn’t something you'd typically donate.

At pickup, we photograph your items, put them on the truck, ask for minimum
selling prices, and notify SF folks of the deal. Highest bidder after 90 mins
gets the item delivered. We have 100’s of interested buyers in SF.

------
mephis1987
It works best for people when moving to a new place and need to fill their
place. Are you thinking about contacting or targeting a higher end segment of
craglist sellers, e.g
[http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/fuo/4615016521.html](http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/fuo/4615016521.html)

