Now that I think about it, I've seen a bunch of complaints on HN about Amazon having fake goods for sale (most recently https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12743316, but it comes up pretty much every time there's an article remotely related to Amazon). Maybe I should mention something about how we're only sourcing from legitimate suppliers like retailers or direct from manufacturers, which might alleviate that issue. It's definitely not the main problem I'm trying to solve, which is the amount of time good deal-hunting takes. (Price comparison, coupons, taxes, plus around a dozen other considerations).
I think it would be useful to give examples on how or where you your site finds an item at a price that I, presumably, was not able to find?
It sounds sketchy. :)
Also not sure if the whole workflow of your clients providing prices for items and then hoping your site delivers will work. How do I know the price I provided is realistic at all?
If you already have the capability to find items cheaply, just list those items on your website and let people purchase them :)
>I think it would be useful to give examples on how or where you your site finds an item at a price that I, presumably, was not able to find?
Right now I'd be checking other retailers, other price comparison sites, some tools, plus using a handful of tricks to save off the posted price. It's deal-finding-as-a-service.
I want the flexibility to be able to source differently later; e.g. if there's a lot of demand for one brand I might get direct from the manufacturer, or wholesale, etc. You as the customer should be agnostic as to where I get the product from, as long as it's the right price.
>Also not sure if the whole workflow of your clients providing prices for items and then hoping your site delivers will work. How do I know the price I provided is realistic at all?
I don't know either. I believe I'll be able to fulfill a significant portion of orders, but I won't know that until a bunch of orders come in.
If you a put in a price within a few percent of retail, there's a good chance we'll be able to meet it.
Also, I'm not charging tax out of NY, and most states have a dropship sales tax loophole. That means you could save 3-4% off the Amazon+tax price on most items even if I don't find a deal.
>If you already have the capability to find items cheaply, just list those items on your website and let people purchase them :)
Well, I've sold through Amazon and other channels and have had over 100k in sales, all from being able to find items cheap enough to resell. But to launch a website to sell you either need a narrow niche (which prevents mass appeal), or a huge investment to list many products (or big partnerships with sellers with lots of products). Allowing the customer to name the product lets me not worry about product pages, and I do think the Name Your Own Price mechanism is beneficial to all parties (priceline is valued at $73 billion because they brought a ton of value to users).
Eventually I'm going to want to open up to sellers/retailers, but even without that I think I can add value.
