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Show HN: Swapidy: Trade up your old stuff for new stuff

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Re: Show HN: Swapidy: Trade up your old stuff for new stuff

#21

Post by theswapdaddy »

Deinos wrote: post #18

I am kind of surprised to see all of the comments regarding why they would use the virtual currency. It makes sense. They can offer you more by keeping you locked into their ecosystem. A crude comparison would be a company like Gamestop giving you more for your trade-in if you take in store credit as opposed to cash. In store credit guarantees that you stick around.

At a business perspective, it makes sense but I think they are curious to know why the virtual currency is valuable to them.

I'm glad you brought the Gamestop example up. Gamestop gives you the option of selling for store credit or cash. If you take cash, they give you 50%. We can offer more than market value because the overhead for us is minimal since we're dealing with virtual currency. The value of the currency never changes and we're always trying to sell for the lowest amount possible to provide value to the consumer.

So certainly valid questions on here and would love to answer as many questions you have!

-Adam

Re: Show HN: Swapidy: Trade up your old stuff for new stuff

#22

Post by AnthonyMouse »

theswapdaddy wrote: post #11
ef4 wrote: post #7

So money can be converted into honey, but honey cannot be converted into money. How does that not make this strictly less useful than transacting in good old money?

With Honey, we can offer you more instead of what Gazelle or eBay would offer you. Ex) Instead of selling your iPhone for $400, we could give you $440 in some cases. Does that answer your question? -Adam

You do understand that would be a pyramid scheme, right? You can't sustainably create currency out of nothing like that. At best what you're doing is the same as what the Fed does when they print money, i.e. causing inflation, so that at least there is no big crash at the end where everyone left holding your currency loses everything (though that is exactly what would happen if your site ever experiences a significant reduction in the active user base, as it would cause hyperinflation until there are no sellers left willing to sell anything in exchange for your fake money, making it totally worthless). But you're still removing value from the credit each of the existing users is currently holding every time you do it. And you've set it up so that people can't get rid of the "money" in any way other than by putting it into the hands of some other sucker who has to hold it while its value drops every time you make more of it.

I can certainly see how that benefits your company, but I have a hard time seeing how I should like it as a user, unless I think I'm being savvy by getting in near the root of the pyramid and then immediately exchanging all my fake money for real goods valued higher than those I exchanged for them, and hoping I can make my exchanges before the market saturation point is hit and the free money stops.

Re: Show HN: Swapidy: Trade up your old stuff for new stuff

#23

Post by theswapdaddy »

dot wrote: post #20
theswapdaddy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Honey, we can offer you more instead of what Gazelle or eBay would offer you. Ex) Instead of selling your iPhone for $400, we could give you $440 in some cases. Does that answer your question? -Adam

But you also charge more for the new stuff... Craigslist is still the best way to sell popular items. You get cash right away, there are zero fees and you don't have to deal with packaging and shipping. Hard to compete with.

We charge under retail for most items and all of them are brand new in box.

On Craigslist, you have the hassle of going to pick up money and then meeting up with the person to do the transaction.

Swapidy is a b2c business. We buy stuff from you and pay you on the spot. So as soon as you checkout, you already have your currency waiting for you. You can order whatever you want immediately and we'll ship it out to you as soon as we receive yours.

There are no transaction fees on Swapidy. There aren't even any shipping costs. We generate the labels for you free of charge both for selling and buying.

So when you sell something to us, all you do is affix the prepaid shipping label on the box, and drop it in your mailbox. No need to drive anywhere.

Re: Show HN: Swapidy: Trade up your old stuff for new stuff

#24

Post by toddrew »

I went through the process of choosing my MBP to sell: Mid 2011, 8gb, 500gb, 2.7 GHz i7 and it told me that there's no such product.

What does 'there's no such product' mean? Should it say 'we're not currently buying that product'?

I'm typing on it right now so I can assure you that it does exists.

Re: Show HN: Swapidy: Trade up your old stuff for new stuff

#25

Post by mrchess »

I'd suggest not calling it Honey. It is too similar to the word money, and can cause confusion. Imagine in conversation...

"so you go to this website and trade your stuff in for honey."

"wait you mean money?"

"no honey. but honey is like money, you can use honey to buy stuff just like money..."

etc.

EDIT: I just looked the pricing model and it is evokes weird feelings. Any reason why you don't just do a 1:1 ratio? Why force users to compute a secondary calculation. True, it is a multiple of 10 but still a calculation and makes me feel like I'm making a foreign purchase.

Re: Show HN: Swapidy: Trade up your old stuff for new stuff

#26

Post by argumentum »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #22
theswapdaddy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Honey, we can offer you more instead of what Gazelle or eBay would offer you. Ex) Instead of selling your iPhone for $400, we could give you $440 in some cases. Does that answer your question? -Adam

You do understand that would be a pyramid scheme, right? You can't sustainably create currency out of nothing like that. At best what you're doing is the same as what the Fed does when they print money, i.e. causing inflation, so that at least there is no big crash at the end where everyone left holding your currency loses everything (though that is exactly what would happen if your site ever experiences a significan…

You do understand that would be a pyramid scheme, right?

I think this would be true if there is no value added, as in the case of the Fed. But in this case, the model creates a market restriction which can theoretically benefit both parties.

Consider the following case:

1. Consumer A has an Apple and wants an Orange 2. Consumer B has an Orange and wants an Apple

Trading the Apple for the Orange directly (bartering) is clearly more efficient than A and B both trading for dollars and then trading their dollars for the good they want.

Swapidy will benefit specifically for consumers who have one of the devices they are buying and want one of the (new) devices they are selling. They can get a better deal than the full market would allow.

Re: Show HN: Swapidy: Trade up your old stuff for new stuff

#27

Post by theswapdaddy »

brilee wrote: post #19

Maybe I'm being paranoid, but your use of virtual currency strikes me as an attempt to later coin your own currency to "buy" other peoples' goods for free. It doesn't bode well for trust, in any case...

Thank you for your concern. I will go over this with my your co-founder and come up with a way for consumers to feel comfortable that this won't happen.

-Adam

Re: Show HN: Swapidy: Trade up your old stuff for new stuff

#28

Post by timmyd »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #22
theswapdaddy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Honey, we can offer you more instead of what Gazelle or eBay would offer you. Ex) Instead of selling your iPhone for $400, we could give you $440 in some cases. Does that answer your question? -Adam

You do understand that would be a pyramid scheme, right? You can't sustainably create currency out of nothing like that. At best what you're doing is the same as what the Fed does when they print money, i.e. causing inflation, so that at least there is no big crash at the end where everyone left holding your currency loses everything (though that is exactly what would happen if your site ever experiences a significan…

Have you read the sites context ? It's not a pyramid scheme. Lets recall what a pyramid scheme is expressly defined as

"A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public"

Now lets read what the site does

"We buy your products for Honey. You buy anything using Honey." - all the products you buy using honey are new according to the site. There isn't a second hand market place on this site - so there is not any supply issues here. The supply is the company sending out products based on the current market value of the products interpreted into their model.

You sell your product, they will give you virtual currency in order to lock you into their ecosystem and then you buy a new product based on that honey value. Please explain to me, in lay terms, how that explanation is equal to the definition of pyramid scheme above ?

Frankly speaking, dealing with morons from craigslist is becoming a pain in the ass and if the value is not that different and these guys can give me the convenience, delivery and remove headaches - great. It comes down to their pricing vs. others in the market (gazelle and so on)

Re: Show HN: Swapidy: Trade up your old stuff for new stuff

#29

Post by theswapdaddy »

toddrew wrote: post #24

I went through the process of choosing my MBP to sell: Mid 2011, 8gb, 500gb, 2.7 GHz i7 and it told me that there's no such product. What does 'there's no such product' mean? Should it say 'we're not currently buying that product'? I'm typing on it right now so I can assure you that it does exists.

Hi. You are correct. Please email me at adam@swapidy.com and I'll update you on when your product has been added to our database.
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