Kleinanzeigen is not a thing in Austria?
Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
31–40 of 72 posts
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#32As much as I dislike Meta, Facebook Marketplace is basically this. My town also has a “swap shop”, which makes it really easy to give away still-useful things.
Post mentions the downside of this: you have to deal with _people_. I don’t necessarily feel comfortable with strangers coming to my house, and don’t really have time or energy to coordinate meeting people. I see value in this idea over marketplace.
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#33Isn't this E-Bay.?
Yes. Or to go even older, this is a rehash of consignment stores/estate sales/liquidation centers, but with the internet involved.
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#34I wish there was something like a second hand store where you can just drop your stuff for 10% of its price on eBay. I don't want to deal with anything. Not wait for someone to pick it up. Not wrap it in a parcel and bring it to the post office. Not sign up for some service. Nothing. Just drop my stuff, get a little bit of money and am done with it.
Pawn shops exist and will give you about that percentage for your stuff.
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#35I wish there was something like a second hand store where you can just drop your stuff for 10% of its price on eBay. I don't want to deal with anything. Not wait for someone to pick it up. Not wrap it in a parcel and bring it to the post office. Not sign up for some service. Nothing. Just drop my stuff, get a little bit of money and am done with it.
They are (or were) called consignment stores and most of them would be knowledgeable in their area to give you quick cash.
If it’s valuable, you could pawn it.
Most people just drop it on GoodWill.
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#36Selling is hard, but even giving things away is more difficult than it should be. When you list something for free you soon find out how bad people are at communicating and how unreliable they are at showing up when they say they will show up.
Giving it away for free is a nightmare because you get time wasters - better to charge even a nominal amount which will weed out people who feign interest because they're FOMO for something that is free.
You can always decide not to charge the person when they turn up
EDIT - to tell a story about time-wasters: I once bought a 2nd hand digital piano on Carousell (like Craigslist/Gumtree). The seller was being super assy to me, essentially actively hostile.
For reasons I decided to persist and it turns out this seller had the only model of this piano in Singapore and so people were using him as a free showroom then ordering it online. He was so fed up of this he was convinced I would also be a time-waster
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#37Selling is hard, but even giving things away is more difficult than it should be. When you list something for free you soon find out how bad people are at communicating and how unreliable they are at showing up when they say they will show up.
If you live in a semi-dense population, put it on the curb then post about it on your local facebook group and it will disappear in minutes.
Since it's free, people probably don't think they are missing out as they can get that "free" at some point later on. You take things more seriously when you pay for them.
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#38As much as I dislike Meta, Facebook Marketplace is basically this. My town also has a “swap shop”, which makes it really easy to give away still-useful things.
Post mentions the downside of this: you have to deal with _people_. I don’t necessarily feel comfortable with strangers coming to my house, and don’t really have time or energy to coordinate meeting people. I see value in this idea over marketplace.
Look up a consignment shop in your area, take your stuff to them, they'll handle it and give you like 30-50% of what they sell it for, done.
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#39Facebook Marketplace To avoid scammers are hard though, so usually people meet in public place for transaction Imagine you post a picture then exposing your home address that is scary
The problem with Marketplace and Craigslist is the time they take. I can just send the stuff somewhere and wait for someone to buy it. I need to post it, wait, hope that someone wants it at the same time I’m selling, filter out scammers, negotiate the price, arrange a meeting place, and go meet the person and hope they’re normal.
For one relative high value item that’s ok. When someone had a lot of stuff to unload, or lower value items, it’s too much work or not worth the time.
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#40That is what charity shops do in the UK. You don't make money as your stuff are donation, but the charity does when then resell. Works surprisingly well.