would you use a free, 'community-driven' ebay alternative (designed for audio gear)?

[b05q]

i'm thinking half way between ebay and the gearslutz classifieds, with a dash of digg/facebook/wikipedia thrown in.

wouldn't be so auction-oriented, you could do an auction, or name your price, or do an OBO maybe.

been thinking about a more 'web 2.0' approach to it. so instead of just receiving feedback from buyers/sellers, other people could vouch for you on some level. i know sockpuppets would be a problem, but there's plenty of ways to make it prohibitively difficult, time-wise, for a scammer to misrepresent themselves.


PROs: better suited for audio gear, and cheaper, than ebay.

CONs: missing all those eyeballs looking at ebay pages. especially at first. and all the other things associated with a small, new community-driven site.

any thoughts, comments, questions, feedback?

[OldTimey]

at first, restrict sellers to people with good online "reputations"...people who regularly post here or recording.org, or tapeop...etc

[Steffmo]

I certainly would. In particular if you were to incorporate some kind of payment buffering. Maybe an escrow service.

Back about ten years Dave Berliner and the folks at Redco were involved in a similar site that was pro audio centric.

They had a system where they held the money until the unit was satisfactorily delivered, and it made all the difference in the world. They were ulimately bought out by EBay...I'm sure at a nice price, but probably with a non competiton clause.

I recently did a 5K transaction on EBay and i can't begin to tell you the level of anxiety it caused. Worked out in the end, but it was a nightmare until the last moment.

I'd certainly give it a try.

[Pfraser]

I think it would be great if buyers had the option to have it shipped to a "mediator", the mediator being the company like ebay.

So if I buy say a $10,000 console but I think it's a sketchy buy, I can buy it but have it sent to the "ebay" warehouse where they hold my money and wait for the console to come, once it arrives, the money is sent to the seller automatically.

This insures that the buyer doesn't get an empty box, or nothing at all for that matter and doesn't get ripped off. Also it would prevent "okay well, I'll pay half now, and half when it arrives" and then the payer not paying the other half when it arrives.

[deda]

Originally Posted by Pfraser

I think it would be great if buyers had the option to have it shipped to a "mediator", the mediator being the company like ebay.

So if I buy say a $10,000 console but I think it's a sketchy buy, I can buy it but have it sent to the "ebay" warehouse where they hold my money and wait for the console to come, once it arrives, the money is sent to the seller automatically.

This insures that the buyer doesn't get an empty box, or nothing at all for that matter and doesn't get ripped off. Also it would prevent "okay well, I'll pay half now, and half when it arrives" and then the payer not paying the other half when it arrives.

This was the DIGIBID way that worked for several years. I did a lot of business with them but towards the end it really became a pain. I think Ebay bought them out at some point. The system was great for the first few years so a "me to" like Digibid would a good way to go. The only thing positive I have from their demise in a Vintage Digibid Tee Shirt. Regards ,,deda,,

[JPeters86]

Option #1

[AllAboutTone]

The only reason i use ebay is because it reaches more people and i ALWAYS sell anything i put on it, in fact i get more money for it there as well, im not against any others like GS etc. I use GS and love it but im more out to the sell first on ebay before GS, not sure why .....
However i do buy a lot on gearslutz but not much luck selling, ebay always pulls through.

[Protools Guy]

I voted for the second from the top, only because there wasn't an option for yes, I'd like to have another viable alternative. Ebay certainly doesn't make me sick. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

[duckoff]

defo

[tluke]

Originally Posted by Steffmo

I certainly would. In particular if you were to incorporate some kind of payment buffering. Maybe an escrow service.

Back about ten years Dave Berliner and the folks at Redco were involved in a similar site that was pro audio centric.

They had a system where they held the money until the unit was satisfactorily delivered, and it made all the difference in the world. They were ulimately bought out by EBay...I'm sure at a nice price, but probably with a non competiton clause.

I recently did a 5K transaction on EBay and i can't begin to tell you the level of anxiety it caused. Worked out in the end, but it was a nightmare until the last moment.

I'd certainly give it a try.

Ouch. That kind of anxiety is bad for you. Yes, I would definitely use one.

[Sqye]

Originally Posted by Protools Guy

I voted for the second from the top, only because there wasn't an option for yes, I'd like to have another viable alternative. Ebay certainly doesn't make me sick. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

i've actually been one of the lucky ones, too - so far - knock on wood.

......but i do only few transactions a year.
.

[Old Cane]

I wish there was a simple YES in the poll. None really fit me. Adam who?

Anyway, I have done this on flyfishing forums and cowboy action shooting and ar15 forums. The results were excellent. Of course anyone can be a scammer but like minded seem to do quite well in these types of transactions. I've bought just about everything I have from your classifieds and the dealings I had were A+.....at least. Great folks here. I think it's worth a try.