

Ask HN: How would you take on eBay? - twelvedigits

Imagine you (or, I) were creating a product designed to take on eBay and improve the peer-to-peer shopping experience.<p>What would you like to see changed?<p>Think of this as p2p shopping, not auctions.
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benedwards
Focus. Simplicity. Service. Price.

Swappa is taking on eBay for re-selling Android devices... <http://swappa.com>

Focus. Only fully functional, ready to activate Android devices are allowed.
Anything else is blatant fraud.

Simplicity. Only have one form to fill out to sell a device. No auctions. One
price. A device is sold only when the buyer pays.

Service. An actual person checks in and helps on almost every transaction.

Price. Flat fee ($10), paid by buyer, only when a device sells. Sell a $300
device and save about $20 in fees.

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qq66
eBay has extraordinarily strong network effects. To beat them, make something
designed very well for a particular vertical and build a strong following
there. Like StubHub did in event tickets.

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twelvedigits
Great point.

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twelvedigits
Does anyone have any thoughts on how to make shipping more efficient for the
seller? I feel like we can encourage more listings by making shipping dead
simple.

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triviatise
Embrace and extend. Wrap ebay with a more usable wrapper, then start to give
people who are using your wrapper better usability and more features.

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kirpekar
For p2p shopping: Craigslist > eBay

What I would like to fix: Less Spam. Less Scam.

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amac
Focus on people (sellers), not products or categories.

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twelvedigits
I agree. How can I make selling easier? I can think of many ways to make
listings, payment, categorizing easier.

But how to make shipping easier?

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Punter
10-20 years down the road-3D printing will start to make shipping look like a
lost artform.

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Dnguyen
I'd fix the scammer issue.

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amac
The marketplace (like any) is based on trust, there are always untrustworthy
people.

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farout
think etsy.

To me etsy was a nichified idea of ebay:

-remove the auctions since these people want just want to sell whenever the item gets sold

-make it super easy for crafts to sell their stuff; make it easier than ebay.

-make the fees more reasonable

-make the first time use - dead easy; unlike the ebay experience - so many options and too confusing. People scared of making a mistake.

What were these crafts people using before etsy: ebay.

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stray
We rarely actually say this out loud, but we do intend to take on eBay.

I've got this sling and five stones, you see...

