Now this is something I want.
Assuming the price I get is over half of what I'd expect to be able to get for it myself if I put in a lot of time, effort, and luck.
Why 3 MIT Grads Want to Send You an Empty Box
21–30 of 96 posts
Re: Why 3 MIT Grads Want to Send You an Empty Box
#22Interesting idea, however I just don't think the issue with selling most items is the box. The post office has plenty of free boxes you can take, and if it's a bit too big you can usually pad it with newspaper. They specifically say they're only supporting small objects so that ruins any argument about something big. When the author says "As someone who hardly ever sells anything online in part because I never have t…
For me, the biggest hurdle to selling my personal items online is flaky and/or malicious buyers. On Craigslist, buyers tend to be extremely flaky. Every time I've sold something there, I've wasted substantial time with people who arrange meeting times and don't show up. This happens many times per item. It's also overrun with scammers, although those are easy to spot if you know the signs. (Bad grammar, being unreali…
Yeah, that's what I was trying to say as well, that seems to be the biggest advantage. It would take the hassle out of setting up and selling. Now if they just pass along those disputes to you, you're not really that much better off :\. I don't know their policy however.
Re: Why 3 MIT Grads Want to Send You an Empty Box
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
For me, the biggest hurdle to selling my personal items online is flaky and/or malicious buyers. On Craigslist, buyers tend to be extremely flaky. Every time I've sold something there, I've wasted substantial time with people who arrange meeting times and don't show up. This happens many times per item. It's also overrun with scammers, although those are easy to spot if you know the signs. (Bad grammar, being unreali…
For me, the worst part about using ebay is the stench. Ebay has done so much to build ill-will with sellers over the years, and with the recent fee increases it was almost too much for me to continue. I decide to hold my nose and list a couple of items anyway this past week, but the listing page is now broken in both Firefox and Chrome on linux! Enough is enough. It is a shame, though. The users generally seem to be…
Yeah, I haven't sold anything on eBay in a while. The fees I could maybe deal with. But the fraud was what really drove me away.
Re: Why 3 MIT Grads Want to Send You an Empty Box
#24Irrelevant nitpick, but including punctuation in their trademark makes their marketing materials pretty hard to read: "Not only are Sold. boxes free, but they come pre-paid, pre-labeled, pre-insured, tracked, and filled with bubble wrap"
Reading this stuff requires two passes for me.
Anyway, neat company. Unfortunately I don't think I have anything they would be willing to sell. This is something I would be interested in trying if I did.
Re: Why 3 MIT Grads Want to Send You an Empty Box
#25Interesting idea, however I just don't think the issue with selling most items is the box. The post office has plenty of free boxes you can take, and if it's a bit too big you can usually pad it with newspaper. They specifically say they're only supporting small objects so that ruins any argument about something big. When the author says "As someone who hardly ever sells anything online in part because I never have t…
Gotta say that I disagree (yes, yes, it's all anecdotal). I find a great deal of the hassle in selling stuff online is the shipping aspect: how much does it cost? Will I have to travel to the Post Office? How long will I have to be there? Do I have the packing material? Should I insure the box? Going to the Post Office is a huge hassle. Even when I don't have to go to them, but say, FedEx Kinkos, I have to deal with…
Hmm, valid points. I guess I'm not trying to say that the box isn't useful, it is easier undoubtedly (if you have an item that fits), I just feel like the rest of the service seems like it could be the better aspect. And actually after watching their promo video they seem to emphasize the service a lot more than the box, which the article seems more focused on.
Re: Why 3 MIT Grads Want to Send You an Empty Box
#26I think the motivation behind the service is definitely sound...I'm just not sure that the service, as described, solves the most pertinent pain points...and part of the problem is, the pain points are different depending on whether you're a very casual seller, or a regular one (i.e. several products a week). For example, the auto-marketing of the product: > With Sold’s app, you take a picture of the thing you want t…
> If Sold decides my product would work best on eBay, then is there the appropriate configuration options so that I can define minimum bid and user reputation?
I don't know if this is the case, but I'd hope they would completely abstract away the particulars of eBay vs Craigslist vs anything else. I.e. you wouldn't have to know or care about minimum bids or buyer reputation. Sold just tells you the price, you accept it, and they pay you. Problems with the eBay buyer? Sold absorbs that time and money cost. At least that's how I would want it to work.
> And if so, how much convenience does Sold's wrapper over this process give me over just directly using the service itself?
If all the effort and risk of selling an item is abstracted away as I suggested above, then that would be a great deal of value added, at least for me.
> Now if I were selling lots of things in a fairly regular interval...how does Sold scale?
I don't know the numbers yet, but I'd have to guess you'd be better off managing your own sales and shipping at that point. You could still use a marketplace site like Etsy or eBay. But I don't think you'd want a second layer of middlemen, which Sold is. It sounds like Sold is for one-off, consumer-to-consumer transactions.
Re: Why 3 MIT Grads Want to Send You an Empty Box
#27I think the motivation behind the service is definitely sound...I'm just not sure that the service, as described, solves the most pertinent pain points...and part of the problem is, the pain points are different depending on whether you're a very casual seller, or a regular one (i.e. several products a week). For example, the auto-marketing of the product: > With Sold’s app, you take a picture of the thing you want t…
It seems like this is targeted more at people who have a handful of smaller items that they'd like to get some cash for. If you're a power seller or running your own crafts store you'd probably not want to use Sold since they're going to take a cut anyway, and I would assume that their pricing models are designed for things like iPhones and don't work well for unique or handmade items.
If this works as described I see it as a simple way of getting some money for things you no longer need. You know that you could probably get more cash if you did all of the legwork yourself, but if you just want something gone in exchange for a few bucks then this seems like a fairly painless way to accomplish that.
Re: Why 3 MIT Grads Want to Send You an Empty Box
#28Or.. you can just order free boxes at USPS:
https://store.usps.com/store/browse/subcategory.jsp?category...
Re: Why 3 MIT Grads Want to Send You an Empty Box
#29Or.. you can just order free boxes at USPS: https://store.usps.com/store/browse/subcategory.jsp?category...
It doesn't seem like you actually read the article. The service doesn't just send you a box, but appraises and lists the item you're trying to sell.
Re: Why 3 MIT Grads Want to Send You an Empty Box
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
For me, the worst part about using ebay is the stench. Ebay has done so much to build ill-will with sellers over the years, and with the recent fee increases it was almost too much for me to continue. I decide to hold my nose and list a couple of items anyway this past week, but the listing page is now broken in both Firefox and Chrome on linux! Enough is enough. It is a shame, though. The users generally seem to be…
Yeah, I haven't sold anything on eBay in a while. The fees I could maybe deal with. But the fraud was what really drove me away.
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