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Ask HN: Review my Craigslist-Ebay hybrid

6 points by vail130 ↗ HN
I'm looking for brutally honest feedback on this idea and implementation.

The concept is basically a Craigslist-Ebay hybrid where users pay small, flat rates to post listings and contact other users to create a spam-free environment. Additionally, I plan to make it look a hell of a lot nicer than Craigslist, simpler than Ebay, and to have handy, extra features like public statistics about the "economy" on the site (going rate for certain items, daily activity stats, etc.).

Here's the site:

http://www.plztake.com

Again, I am looking for two things:

- I'm interested in your opinion on the feasibility of the concept

- I'm interested in ideas about how to get people using the site

Thanks in advance!

10 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 34.2 ms ] thread
lclaude01
Borrowing from Steve J. << it needs more sex >>
vail130
Thanks for the feedback! Could you point me to maybe a couple of sites that you would say do have enough sex?
z2600
Hard to tell anything from the site at the moment.

The up-front cost could deter a lot of people. Why not let people post and take a percentage of the final sale price?

vail130
Thanks for posting! Sorry that there isn't much yet; I just put up what's there to gauge interest.

So, the idea is that the site connects people who having something in common (buyer/seller, etc.), but then they would deal with each other on their own terms. I would think that it's more attractive to people trying to sell stuff, because I do not take a percentage. Just $1 to post. Of course, they won't pay $1 if no one is on the site...

revorad
It is notoriously difficult to get people onboard on marketplaces (see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2898589). By asking people to pay a subscription, you are making it even more difficult!

I don't know what you're testing with this fake landing page. There is clearly a need for marketplaces as Craigslist, Ebay, Airbnb, Etsy etc have shown. It's just difficult to execute.

You need to be clear if you want to build a marketplace or not. If the answer is yes, then you need to build something small but useful and figure out a way to get users.

You will have the luxury to solve the spam problem once you have any traction at all.

vail130
Man, I can just sense the total clarity in what you're saying! Thanks!

You're right. I've totally lost sight of the actual people whom I can actually help, and if you can't help people, you can't run a business!

I believe that there are people I can help to sell their old stuff. It would make more sense to start there, use a website to sell the stuff, and figure out what my fee might be for both sides.

Thanks again!

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wallawe
The tough thing here is that you have to essentially monopolize a certain market place like craigslist and ebay have done. If you want to bid on a product you are going to go to ebay, if you want to search for something in your area you are going to go to craigslist. These are your competitors and to take users away from these, while implementing a monthly fee is going to be really tough.

Take a look at what a difficult time oodle is having, even though it is teamed up with the monstrous facebook. People are going to go to the one with the most listings and that's why the big two will remain so.

sixtofour
I'm not expert, but what wallawe says makes sense.

So the next step/question is, what can you do, that ebay and cl already do, but an order of magnitude better. What pain do ebay or cl users experience that they would pay to make go away.

Alternatively, what can you do that ebay or cl don't or can't do.

I've never used ebay, hardly used cl, so I don't have a source of pain to suggest. Since you came up with the idea, hopefully you have something that really pisses you off, perhaps the very thing that motivated you to do this in the first place. If it's just spam, they seem to be doing OK right now.

sixtofour
"Listings never expire" is a long time. You may be lucky enough to regret that one day.