Online Computer Trade

S

switchednick

New Member
I am in the process of putting together a new site for trading computer hardware and smartphones, something similar to paperbackswap.com. I am just wondering if anyone would use a service like this. I personally have had hardware I wanted to trade and wish I had a service like this. Please let me hear your opinions on this.
 
I agree, however it would seem open to abuse. I would be happy to trade some older components that have a value say <£20, however if I bought say the latest ATi graphics card, but wanted to swap to Nvidia's best, I wouldn't trust my £500 card over the net unless it was bought from me, so I had the money there.

If you can find a safety net feature, other than you get banned (£500 is worth a ban for a lot of people), it would be a great idea
 
i think the only way you could get round that is in the case of expensive exchanges, instead of sending one to another both parties send their items to you or a hired 3rd party and when you have each parties items you then forward them on and if you had the resources to check the items were not faulty that would be huge bonus to encourage people
 
jamesd1981 said:
i think the only way you could get round that is in the case of expensive exchanges, instead of sending one to another both parties send their items to you or a hired 3rd party and when you have each parties items you then forward them on and if you had the resources to check the items were not faulty that would be huge bonus to encourage people
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Or there could be the option to have it local pick up only, that would certainly solve it but would cut down on options a hell of a lot though. I wouldn't trust a 3rd party either, then they have £1k worth of parts that they can run off with...

The only time I would even consider it is if it was a trusted member of the community, the same as it is buying/selling stuff here. Losing out on a few quid isn't so bad I suppose, it sucks, but isn't awful. Losing out on hundreds...that is something else
 
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local pick up is certainly the most reliable way of getting the item, but that does open the door to faulty items if you have no address, as you say aastii think alot would be based as time goes on regular well known users would make the site better, perhaps some kind of ratings or feedback similar to ebay
 
I was thinking of having an office where all items are sent and checked to make sure they are not faulty and to ensure no one is ripped off. After I receive both items of the transaction I would send them out myself. The hardest part of that idea is building the initial trust of the first customers and building a reliable reputation. I was also planning on having a section for local meetups but primarily focus on online trading.
 
switchednick said:
I was thinking of having an office where all items are sent and checked to make sure they are not faulty and to ensure no one is ripped off. After I receive both items of the transaction I would send them out myself. The hardest part of that idea is building the initial trust of the first customers and building a reliable reputation. I was also planning on having a section for local meetups but primarily focus on online trading.
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Say this gets big, you aren't getting any money other than from (potentially) adverts. How will you find the time to manage the site and check the parts when it is that big, and when you aren't getting massive revenue, the money to take on the extra staff to check the parts from the hundreds to thousands of transactions a day? You could always set up a volunteer service I suppose

I guess by that point you would have a decent trusted user base, but then how would new, genuine members break into this?
 
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