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

swapidy.com

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

#41
post #25

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? Wh…

Honey is sweet!

We wanted to be a bit unique and because we're not using real money to buy your stuff, we thought Honey would be the next best thing.

Honey is different than dollars so think of it as its own currency. As for the conversion ratio, all currencies aren't equal, so we wanted to differentiate a little bit.

However, I understand your confusion and will work with my co-founder to make it easier to understand.

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

#42
post #25

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? Wh…

Because they don't want you to do normal math and realize how much you are being ripped off...

We have the conversion ratio posted on the homepage itself and want users to know what it is. $1 = 10 Honey.

Also, we are giving users more than market value on products and selling brand new products under retail. The same products would be more expensive if you were to buy them directly from the store.

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

#43

Thanks, I just had a serious philosophical chuckle. :) From one perspective, 'Swapidy: Trade your old stuff for new stuff' is a such an impossibly elegant example of Web2.0 startup culture and American consumer-materialism. You guys should enter in to some kind of poetry award as a free marketing gimmick.

+1

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

#44
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.

I suggest you change your wording. Saying there's no such product makes me think I either entered in some wrong information and try again.. and again... or makes me think there's a mistake in your system.

Your best bet would be having an email opt-in pop up letting me know it's not currently a product you're buying but I can be notified when you are. (like you just did)

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

#46
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>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 ? Thank you for pointing out that you don't use their currency to buy the products they purchased from their other customers (though it makes me wonder…

I'm terribly sorry. But your continued use of "pyramid scheme" is just wrong.

1) "they expect users to hold an ever-increasing amount of their currency in their accounts and not spend it immediately."

> Where does it say that ? Unfortunately no where. And who wants to hold their currency ? Use case: I want a new phone. I accept the offer from swapidy for X currency and then buy a new iphone at X currency. At what point do I want to hold my currency ? No, I want a new phone and if their pricing makes sense I transact. Thats it.

2) "too many users tried to spend their currency all at once they would go out of business and you would lose your money;"

> At what point would you loose your money ? The currency is valid and you can purchase an item. They send you that item. I am assuming your inference is that they do not stock any of the items they sell and I am unclear where you draw that inference from ? Please let me know if you have some sort of information that I do not other than what is illustrated on the site. If you transact and sell your phone, you send it to them and I assume they will subsequently sell that. You purchase a new phone and they send you that new phone. There is obviously the requirement for inventory and stock and so on. Thats a business and cost inventory issue, nothing else. If the company fails, you become a creditor - like when any company fails. It's a trust issue and up to them to ensure that its trust worthy.

3) "it's a pyramid scheme."

> No, its not. Refer above and please refer to Wikipedia or other sources to learn about pyramid schemes.

4) " They give you $440 instead of $400 for your iPhone, but then a new product that would cost $400 on Amazon costs $440 in their currency. It's not a real discount. "

> Amazon is not a fluctuating pricing market like ebay or other such services. You will receive a standardized cost on Amazon for a extended period of time whereas this site infers you will receive the current daily market rate or close enough. This is the difference and therefore ultimately the difference in the pricing mechanism. If you want cash, transact at some other market and see if the pricing differential is more advantageous than what they offer. Some items will be cheaper and some will not be - don't tell me they actually want to run a site that makes money ? The use of virtual currency is to lock a user into their service and there is nothing wrong with that if you want to accept their buy offer which is more than you would receive elsewhere. No one is forcing your hand to transact.

5) "They take less as profit than Amazon"

> How do you know what profit they take ? Feel free to let me know.

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

#49
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I suggest you change your wording. Saying there's no such product makes me think I either entered in some wrong information and try again.. and again... or makes me think there's a mistake in your system. Your best bet would be having an email opt-in pop up letting me know it's not currently a product you're buying but I can be notified when you are. (like you just did)

Well in some scenarios, there are no such products due to people clicking multiple filters in the same category.

We're working on making them better and adjusting them to different scenarios.

You're product will be added shortly and I will update this thread as soon as it becomes available.

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