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Ask HN: Garagesale, my weekend project. Can I monetize it?

4 points by fdiotalevi ↗ HN
Last weekend I hacked a project and published (thanks to duostack) at http://garagesale.diotalevi.com

My goals:

- learn node.js/express/jade with mongo

- sell my furniture! since I'm moving to another country

Now what I'm wondering is what you guys think about the product. Could I sell it as a service for other people in the same situation? I couldn't see many similar websites, even if of course one would use eBay for this kind of things.

If that's the case, what are the mandatory features to add to make it a MVP?

8 comments

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donofrip
Just quick off the cuff thoughts:

1) I'm not sure this is a scalable idea. 2) Isn't this what Craigslist does?

vipivip
Yep Craigslist does the same thing.
fdiotalevi
yes, but Craigslist doesn't give you "your website" to organise the garage sale. The idea is to let people create and customize the website, specifically in situations when they need to sell many things.
donofrip
I agree--a personalized website is the value add. The issue I see is what is the breakeven on something like that? It will obviously cost something to put up your own site (not just money, but time). If I'm trying to sell stuff in a jam, do I think I'm going to get more page views on my own site than on CL? Is it going to be worth the extra time? Am I getting a better price for my stuff?

Also, it will be a bit of a pain if I need to update it each time something is sold.

Things I would consider adding: 1) ability to pay for the item directly on the site (you could partner with paypal on this, or offer the merchant service directly for a cost to the website user)

2) waiting list for people interested in the objects.

General issue I see with this: can you get people to pay for this when they have a free option? If you're going to offer it free, can you generate enough page views on individual sites to validate ad revenue?

Sorry... just my opinion.

fdiotalevi
Sure, you raise good points!

I'm also in doubt whether to put more work on it or leave it as it is.

veb
Add an option to barter! (i.e. swap your TV for a airplane ticket to this other country)