

Listia (YC S09) Is An Awesome Way To Give And Get Free Stuff - moses1400
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/05/listia-is-an-awesome-way-to-give-and-get-free-stuff/

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adamhowell
I must be missing something, why are so many people seemingly willing to ship
anywhere in the U.S.?

You're giving away a DVD and on top of that you're going to pay for the
shipping?

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diN0bot
this confuses me, too. plus, you have to go to a post office.

on the other hand, if someone saw something he really wanted it might seem
worthwhile to do extra work in exchange.

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wizardhead
A couple questions...Why would i buy more points when i can re-register and
get points for free? And what if i made referrals to myself to accumulate
points?

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jamesfong
I think this is the coolest thing on there ...

"Signed copy of On Lisp" <http://www.listia.com/auction/207>

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modsearch
this is out of print and very rare :-)

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cpach
I guess the Viaweb polo is pretty rare too :)

<http://www.listia.com/auction/209>

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rms
On Lisp is more in demand though... it goes for more than $100 on eBay.

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100k
Congrats on the extremely positive writeup. You got the full Arrington!

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lzhou
Listia is extremely fun. Just paging through some of the auctions, you see the
goofiest stuff. Ex: PG's dracula cape (I think worth at least 10 credits...).
<http://www.listia.com/auction/197>

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leelin
I'll bet the YC "Make Something People Want" T-shirts would sell for lots of
credits (with pickup at YC HQ)!

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jasonlbaptiste
The "I Made Something People Want" t-shirts are actually for purchase. You
have to be Google,etc. and armed with 7-8 figures :-D. Shipping is free at
least.

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leelin
Hah, nice.

The only problem is, you'll get the T-shirt delivered, but it will be worn by
your newest set of employees.

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rms
I like this a lot.

Feature requests: How can I report an auction that seems fake? This one seems
very fake. <http://www.listia.com/auction/276>

Watch item.

More options for listing, like a 3 day auction instead of 7 day or making my
item show up more prominently in listings for extra points.

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rms
This is like a non-evil Swoopo. Entertainment shopping that creates money out
of thin air by having people give stuff away.

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euroclydon
How do they assign a dollar value to the points for tax purposes? It's my
understanding that they would have to in this scenario.

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DTrejo
"1. Sign up and get 500 free credits"

I signed up and got 100 credits.

Why????

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joepestro
I think you need to list an item to get the 500 credits.

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socratees
Just signed up and the site is cool.

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zach
Listia is very qool, er, cool!

I really like the clean interface; this site is one I will put next to Etsy on
my list of good content site designs.

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zackattack
Congratulations.

1\. Is there a way to sell your credits back? If not, won't black market deals
just be created? e.g. creating an auction for a useless item?

2\. If a new user signs up after viewing a listing for MY item, shouldn't I
get the credit for the referral? Why not cookie them after they view my
listing?

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trefn
#2 is definitely an interesting suggestion.

I don't quite get the black market thing though. If they _can't_ trade the
points for dollars, what's the motivation for creating useless auctions?
Doesn't seem like a way to launder money.

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zackattack
1) Nokia cell phone is up for bids. Winning bid will be 1000 points.

2) I want to buy it. You don't.

3) The Nokia cell phone is worth $90 to me. It's worth $60 to you.

4) You have 1000 credits, from selling random stuff.

5) I could either buy $100 of credits and receive 1000 points, or I could give
you $60 and receive 1000 points, making your life more convenient (you don't
have to buy the phone, and then ebay it (credits->item->ebay->dollars ==>
credits->dollars)

6) The best way to get 1000 points off of you is to have me PayPal you $60,
and then for me to create an auction for some obscure useless good, and have
you bid 1000 points for it. This strategy would require you to have a
confederate to bid 999 points, although this is trivial if a black market is
already established.

7) Alternatively, Listia could price its currency near to its sell price. This
makes it unappealing to execute laundering schemes for small margins.

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zackattack
I want to buy $100 worth of credits from you guys. But what if I waste them
bidding on items that never get delivered?

Also, do you cookie people once they click the referral link?

You have a bunch of typos on your About page

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zackattack
There's no way to tell how many credits I currently have that are available
for bidding.

I want to be able to get email notification when I get outbid.

