The Buy Nothing movement is essentially the same as this concept.
Giving something away on "Buy Nothing" seems like the same amount of work as selling the thing to me (except with no money exchange).
Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
61–70 of 72 posts
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#62Thanks for all the comments! Really cool!
I also got links to https://www.stuffle.com and https://www.circle-hand.com/ via the blog.
Some services mentioned really look promising, yet none offers the convenience that I would love (not thinking about anything) but I guess I will try some of the mentioned services!
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
It's the merchant's signature. The buyer's info isn't part of the receipt as I envision it. It's necessary for some of the functionality I mentioned but not all. 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…
That doesn’t prove anything. It just means you had access to a receipt at some point. This is a human problem that can’t really be solved with technology.
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#64Remoovit.com does this exactly. They pick up your stuff, then either sell, donate, or dispose of it. If they sell it, you get 50%, or if they have to pay to dispose, they charge you for it. Works great.
Service area is just SF Bay and Phoenix so far.
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#65I built something similar to this for a client in 2002, I still have the Java source code. It was called CurbDiver [1], and the idea was that a local agent (a "broker") would list the thing for you on eBay (including taking nice photos), and if it sold, they would package/ship it for you and give you a percentage of the selling price (80% if memory serves).
It had some promising early uptake, but it fizzled after a few years. There just wasn't much money to be made, even when being discerning about what items were allowed. It was a weak, inconsistent stream of nickels and dimes, and a lot of work to get it.
One element that we underestimated was the volume of low value/no value stuff people wanted to try to push through. Pretty quickly agents learned when/how to say no, but even saying no consumes some resources.
At its core it's not a bad idea, but such an operation would have to be very optimized to be profitable.
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#66Unfortunately the potential for abuse makes this idea hard to implement. Abusers would use the system to sell their drugs (ie, junk item stuffed with cocaine lists for $9999). Let’s not forget the sale of illegal firearms (aka teddy bear stuffed with handgun with filed off serial number). Now you need a proper drug detection protocol, X-ray machines to scan all packages, dedicated security personnel. Then there’s the…
How would reverse amazon know to price your junk item extremely high? Seems like you're just losing a whole bunch of cocaine.
How would reverse amazon know to ship a potential illegal firearm buyer your teddy bear versus one of the others in comparable condition they have in stock? I imagine you could set up some elaborate code to make side arrangements, like someone agrees to wire you money and you communicate to them a very specific pattern of damage to look for in a used item so they know which one to buy, but at that point why not sell direct?
And people claiming not to have received items they purchased is a common problem to all online sales platforms.
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#67I'm currently trying to help a relative who's a hoarder, and I have to say, reducing the friction of getting rid of things without just mass-dumpstering them would be a godsend I think this is one of those ideas that needs scale to work well, like craigslist or ebay pretty much got rid of all the friction you can without propping up a fulfillment network and appraisers etc., but if anyone's got a good way to make it…
> and I have to say, reducing the friction of getting rid of things without just mass-dumpstering them would be a godsend Yeah, that's a big problem with modern consumerism: with money to spend, buying stuff is too easy compared to the effort to part with it later. Although if you 'have' to move fast, there's companies that specialize in house clearing (as another poster noted). Some thrift stores also do this, provi…
Right, the missing niche is the fast piecemeal service AFAICT. Not "look through all my stuff and try to sell it" but "take maybe as little as one item I want to sell, today, seamlessly, and appraise and sell it"
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#68Selling 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.
this is the way. put it on Craigslist "Free" and FB Marketplace, drop specific coordinates / locations / picture.
"first come, first served", then walk away. Like one time I put the furniture and other stuff at the end of the driveway and then took a shower, and when I went back to look maybe 30 min later it was gone. deleted the posts and got on with life.
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#69Facebook 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, o…
I mean it is a market, the market is THE mechanism to match and allocate.
If it is low value, how do you know someone would want it anyway?
Re: Startup Idea: Reverse Amazon
#70IIRC Vinted is somewhat like that, they sort out shipping but you need to haggle yourself.