Looking for feedback - gear marketplace

[stratjacket]

I haven’t posted much lately, been developing a marketplace.

I built this but have ran into some technology challenges and not able to get it the way I envision it to be. Before I invest more time and money into developing it, I wanted to get some feedback here (among friends) on what you think. I want to develop a place where we can buy, sell and TRADE and offer some protections as much as possible. Without getting hammered with big fees.

Here is the site the way it is right now. This is NOT final yet, it’s just where I am at the moment. It’s BETA:
http://tonefind.com

Really want feedback on this idea:
A subscription method that would not collect any commission, so no extra 3.5% or 5% or anything like that. The subscription model would be tiered based on how much you buy, sell and trade. But it would be much cheaper than fees, starting at 99cents/month to buy as much as you want and sell up to a couple times per month. The subscription model would be based on how many sell/trade transactions you have, not the dollar amount. So sell a used $5000 guitar and that is $250 saved in commission fees. Only pay the ~2.9% payment fee to the financial company (stripe, PayPal).
You would still buy through the site and there would be a payment transaction fee because I can’t get around that, but it’s only what Stripe or PayPal, etc charges, no added fee.

There would be a buy, make-offer, trade and trade-in offer method the seller could choose when posting. There would be a transaction flow to the trade to allow each trader to do things at the same time and track each other’s shipment.
Question. For trading protection, I am thinking of a model where each trader does a pre-payment authorization that is not charged if the deal is successful. Thoughts on that?

Another thought is to allow sign up through message boards. For example, I currently have it developed where you can sign up with your Facebook, Google or LinkedIn user account. But I think it would be cool to be able to use your forum user account to sign in and create a ToneFind account. Would take some development and I’m not sure if it’s possible depending on the messageboards tech. However I think this would help in the Review, Feedback and Trust system.

I am also still researching the legal side, but I believe since I would not be taking a commission of each sell, I would not collect taxes. The buy/sell is between the buyer and seller with me acting as an arbitrator, so sales tax would be between the buyer and seller, up to them.

What do you think? We need something like this?
I know it’s not going to have all the bells and whistles Reverb has out the gate, but I think the subscription and the trade option with no commission fees and sales tax is a differentiator.

Any feedback or suggestions is appreciated.

 

[Marshalll]

Yeah,why not, a trade market place is allways welcome

 

[errrrrl]

Damn dude that is pretty slick. You made that from scratch or modifying scripts? Impressive either way. Seems like a huge project to take on, best of luck with it!

Btw have you ever used Sweetwater's used gear marketplace? I bought an RME interface from it, it was pretty straight forward between the buyer and seller, worth checking out too. https://www.sweetwater.com/used/

 

[stratjacket]

Yeah,why not, a trade market place is allways welcome

Yeah, I never understood why other sites didn't embrace trading and create a way for it.

Damn dude that is pretty slick. You made that from scratch or modifying scripts? Impressive either way. Seems like a huge project to take on, best of luck with it!

Btw have you ever used Sweetwater's used gear marketplace? I bought an RME interface from it, it was pretty straight forward between the buyer and seller, worth checking out too. https://www.sweetwater.com/used/

I made that with not a whole lot of coding, built on modules, but it is limited. I can't really go any further. I'm going to redo it, so just wanted to get an idea of reception before I spent a lot of time and $$$ doing it.

I've not used Sweetwater's marketplace, but seems cool.

 

[Steinmetzify]

Looks dope, I dig it.

Long as it’s safe I don’t see why I wouldn’t use it. Nice work sir.

 

[japetus]

What assurances can you offer me that your service is any more safe in making high dollar gear transactions, that the big companies like Reverb cant?

 

[glpg80]

What about those that want to use the platform but don’t sell within a year? I don’t flip that much gear? I feel like for small items it won’t pay up the difference on the subscription fee vs arbitrator tax or convenience fee like reverb.

I do like it as is and would pay up to us it on a monthly subscription if people use it. Maybe flat fee for the first year then subscription month to month if we like it and want to stay with NO automatic opt-in?

 

[maddnotez]

Definitely need something like this. Personally I wonder if I would do a subscription type of thing. TGP is the only place I know that does and thats why I don't sell there BUT it is probably one of the busiest forum classifieds around and if the costs are low I could see people using it. Protection would be one of the most important things imo.

 

[311boogieman]

I think it is a great idea regardless. Good luck either way

I like your site because it is clean and modern looking. Not cluttered with crap. My concern for you would be the you acting as arbitrator With all the flakes out there I'd be afraid you'd get bogged down in he said she said.

 

[stratjacket]

What assurances can you offer me that your service is any more safe in making high dollar gear transactions, that the big companies like Reverb cant?

What don't you like or what suggestions would you have about the protections Reverb and/or other companies give?
I am thinking of a way to protect trading which doesn't exist anywhere that I've found. See the OP for a little on that.

Mainly it would be cheaper than all the fees currently being charged and provide a way to trade that gives some protections.

 

[stratjacket]

What about those that want to use the platform but don’t sell within a year? I don’t flip that much gear? I feel like for small items it won’t pay up the difference on the subscription fee vs arbitrator tax or convenience fee like reverb.

I do like it as is and would pay up to us it on a monthly subscription if people use it. Maybe flat fee for the first year then subscription month to month if we like it and want to stay with NO automatic opt-in?

Good feedback, thanks. I was thinking that 99cents per month would give you the ability to buy all you want and do up to a few trades/sells per month with first month free or something like that. Then it would be tiered subscription from there. You could list as much as you want, it only matters how many sales/trades you have in a month to determine subscription costs.

I haven't worked out the exact subscription tiers yet, but it would definitely be cheaper for everyone, especially the mom & pop music store. I think having each buyer pay a small fee is important too so they have some skin in the game and I can disable bad buyers and identify them easier if they try to re-apply under a different name due to the payment setup.

 

[stratjacket]

I think it is a great idea regardless. Good luck either way

I like your site because it is clean and modern looking. Not cluttered with crap. My concern for you would be the you acting as arbitrator With all the flakes out there I'd be afraid you'd get bogged down in he said she said.

Yeah, the arbitration piece is the hardest and scariest part...open to suggestions on how that can be handled. We all have issues from time to time and there are no shortages of people being pissed about how it was handled. Just can't really think of other ways other than digging into each dispute.

I do think if there is a good way to have people being able to use their message board account to login so they could be identified and exposed as being StratJacket@Rig-Talk for example, would deter a lot of folks. So if I did a deal with 311splawndude@Rig-Talk and you screw me, I may come to this site and let everyone know. It could also drive more discussions and traffic to Rig-Talk as well.

 

[stratjacket]

Looks dope, I dig it.

Long as it’s safe I don’t see why I wouldn’t use it. Nice work sir.

Thank you !!

 

[311boogieman]

What about those that want to use the platform but don’t sell within a year? I don’t flip that much gear? I feel like for small items it won’t pay up the difference on the subscription fee vs arbitrator tax or convenience fee like reverb.

I do like it as is and would pay up to us it on a monthly subscription if people use it. Maybe flat fee for the first year then subscription month to month if we like it and want to stay with NO automatic opt-in?

Good feedback, thanks. I was thinking that 99cents per month would give you the ability to buy all you want and do up to a few trades/sells per month with first month free or something like that. Then it would be tiered subscription from there. You could list as much as you want, it only matters how many sales/trades you have in a month to determine subscription costs.

I haven't worked out the exact subscription tiers yet, but it would definitely be cheaper for everyone, especially the mom & pop music store. I think having each buyer pay a small fee is important too so they have some skin in the game and I can disable bad buyers and identify them easier if they try to re-apply under a different name due to the payment setup.

I'm not a heavy trader so my advice is probably not worth much but your idea of linking to other social media is a good one. That and if you could force people to do all of their correspondence on your site you could create paper trails for all transactions. That vs. people texting and emailing each other on the side. You could also force people to take detailed pics pre and post packaging and maybe even add clips. I guess the question is can you make enough money to compensate yourself for the headaches?

Good luck bro. I hope it is a success

 

[splatter]

went to the site and joined , looks pretty sweet to me .
As for the trade thing you mentioned . The prolem I see with the pre authorization of funds is if its mandatory and one of the trders doesn't have the cash its gonna kill the deal . If it weren't mandatory and could be an option then I think it would be good and may help with people bing more honest about the condition of the instrument.
Good job BTW

 

[stratjacket]

went to the site and joined , looks pretty sweet to me .
As for the trade thing you mentioned . The prolem I see with the pre authorization of funds is if its mandatory and one of the trders doesn't have the cash its gonna kill the deal . If it weren't mandatory and could be an option then I think it would be good and may help with people bing more honest about the condition of the instrument.
Good job BTW

Yeah it’s a pickle for sure on the trades. Perhaps offer it as optional with both parties agreeing to have pre-auth or not? There is more risk on trading no doubt, sellers can also option not to do it. At a minimum, I could suspend accounts of scammers, but that doesn’t do a whole lot for the scammed person. Perhaps the messageboard affiliation can help build trust better though. But ultimately it’s the trader taking the risk, just thinking of a way to add some protection and facilitate.

Thanks for joining, that site will stay pretty static right now as I’ve started developing the new one from the ground up. But could change.

 

[SithLordChris]

This is a rad idea. I like it. It helps to have more options!

 

[EXPcustom]

I really hope this takes off and with the Etsy Reverb buyout and Reverb getting rid of the phone support and upping fees this is the time to capitalize on their poor business strategy. I either see Ebay reabsorbing the lost Reverb customers or another, hopefully your service picking up the slack.

 

[GtarLover]

WOW!!! Really clean and easy to navigate.

This sounds like a great idea and would be welcome by plenty of people.
There will definitely be a bunch of people that are left wanting with the Reverb/Etsy thing and eBay may not offer a good enough alternative. That opens a space for this EXACT idea.
I’d be interested for sure and really like the forum connection for “good deal” info.

I was personally wondering who/what was going to fill the gap.
Hope it’s this

 

[Jack Luminous]

Yeah,why not, a trade market place is allways welcome

Yeah, I never understood why other sites didn't embrace trading and create a way for it.

There's no money to be made out of trading. It's inherently anti-capitalist.