51–60 of 72 posts
I 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.
I think this is a great idea. eBay did something vaguely similar when it introduced local agents who would sell stuff for a cut of the sell price. I used it and it was really useful for people like me who hate packing boxes working out post etc etc. I have a ton of stuff I'd love to get rid of if it was frictionless. Maybe the existing delivery gig network could be used? Uber, Deliveroo etc? I like the idea of donati…
Local agents is cool. I remember seeing a store in Berlin a decade ago where you could rent some display space and sell your stuff there
I 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.
Pre-Internet, there were consignment shops for clothing.
In earlier days of eBay, IIUC, there was a third party business with a chain of physical locations where you could drop off your stuff, and they'd do all the eBay hassle for you.
eBay and Amazon have tried some ways to improve the one-off selling experience for select commodity-like used items (e.g., iPhones). There's also ways to get Amazon to warehouse and list misc. items (but that looked like more headache and risk than it was worth, for one-off).
There's multiple businesses here that you can pay to remove most items, and I assume they cherry-pick some items for resale rather than trash.
Goodwill takes donations, and has staff that intercepts some items to eBay (and perhaps elsewhere), lets professional third-party flippers into centers (e.g., finding designer clothing), and then the rest can go to their retail stores.
Selling 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.
I noticed there was this one spot that always had something there.
After living there for about 2 years I knew it was THE SPOT.
So when it was my turn to move out, I had to get rid of all my furniture and thought I'd give it a go: over the course of a day I got rid of two 3x3 ikea kallax, a 2m cupboard and a tv amongst other stuff. An old woman even tried to tell me off for illegal flytipping but the ONLY time anything lasted more than 30 mins was when a guy found the 2m cupboard and was organising a car to come pick it up for him. And he stood there protecting his quarry for about 1 hr (I could watch the spot from my balcony)
My fav was actually helping to carry one of the kallax shelves about 400m to the other guy's house with him.
The life of selling stuff via listing pages
I've thought about something like this. In my mind it all comes down to receipts. We need a system of ubiquitous standardized itemized and cryptographically signed digital receipts. That way everything you buy aggregates into your personal inventory app. Then making a posting is a matter of one click and one photo. The UPC in receipt means a full product listing can be generated automatically. This is crucial since m…
Why do you need the cryptographic signature? Who needs to know that I was the original owner of a tea kettle 7 years ago that has been sold in a yard sale twice? Absolutely nobody. Having an actual UPC (which coincidentally stands for "Universal Product Code") that is globally unique would be extremely useful. Further if all the parts were listed in the UPC (so it could be easily sold for parts, or even if I was look…
Also you're assuming the receipt from one transaction follows the item. That's not necessary. Every transaction gets a new receipt. But you would want a history of receipts for a Rolex or car.
Picture this, I submit the item to Craigslist with my receipt. It's not posted, but Craigslist verifies it and puts a check mark on the post.
I've thought about something like this. In my mind it all comes down to receipts. We need a system of ubiquitous standardized itemized and cryptographically signed digital receipts. That way everything you buy aggregates into your personal inventory app. Then making a posting is a matter of one click and one photo. The UPC in receipt means a full product listing can be generated automatically. This is crucial since m…
The market price for two used hypothetical coffee makers¹ (same manufacturer/type/age) is rarely the same. One has scratches, stood in direct sunlight for years, and has a few parts in need of replacing soon, the other was used twice and has sat in a cupboard ever since. Both work. Besides, who keeps receipts for anything but expensive items that might need warrantee? Most people don't. Sometimes you acquire somethin…
It wouldn't be linked to me as I envision it.
It could work if the item was originally bought on Amazon and one could just point to the original listing, though.