If I am a seller, what is my motivation to use your product? I could easily post my things on CL, tell the buyers to come pick up, and I get full price for my stuff. Where do you add value to the seller where CL doesn't?
Selling on CL is a huge annoyance. I've tried to sell a number of things there, and mostly get flaky "buyers" who never respond back after their initial "I'm interested" message. Then you have the problem of giving your home address to a stranger. I'd be open to trying this service if they ever expand out to the East Bay. I've got a bunch of stuff in my garage I'd love to sell, but the existing channels (CL, eBay, etc.) are total pains in the ass.
And from the other point of view, I've sent reasonable offers (based on local market rates) to sellers that "Had to have it gone by the end of the month!", gotten a "No way, I paid $X for this new just 12 months ago!" only to see it relisted the next month.
This system makes that "Get it gone now!" constraint real.
> I could easily post my things on CL, tell the buyers to come pick up, and I get full price for my stuff. Where do you add value to the seller where CL doesn't?
What fantasy land do you live in where this happens? I have never had a time it didn't take me at least 2-3 times to sell something, the buyer is a hassle to deal with if the item is large and needs a suitable vehicle for transport, and they want to haggle once they're on site.
I've had both experiences. If you are looking to get full possible value on something, expect to ride it out. If you just want to get rid of something and don't mind taking a little less than full value, I've had things get snapped up.
Most people don't have trucks and you don't have to deal with CL- reposting every 12 hours, dealing with people who want to pay half the agreed upon price at the door, telling people where you live, etc etc.
Yes it does eliminate people showing up to your house and giving your address out to God-Knows-Who. But this service certainly doesn't eliminate the reposting problem. You can only sell your stuff in a 90 minute window. In fact, using this service more cumbersome because you have to physically be where the merchandise is for the pickup. CL you can do at work and deal with the masses on your schedule. Plus, the truck problem isn't the sellers. Sure, YOU might not have a truck, but SOMEONE does.
My concern is, this product seems to be more valuable to the buyers than the sellers. Yet the buyers don't pay anything for the service.
"Yet the buyers don't pay anything for the service."
Well, it is a bidding process. So if buyers believe there is enough added value in this service, they will overbid the 'CL price'. So if a couch would sell for $300 on craigslist, presumably it could sell for that plus whatever the value of having the item delivered, let's say $400.
I think the bigger issue with this service, is that the cost of delivery of a large piece of furniture is relatively constant regardless of the value. So if I want to sell a $1000+ dollar couch, I have no incentive to use this service, it would make much more sense to sell it on craigslist and offer to cover the costs of a professional moving service instead ($500 vs $100-200). It seems to me that this service is most valuable for lower priced items. So if I can sell my crappy $100 couch hassle free, but only get $50 back, I would be pretty happy with that. However I doubt that would be profitable for the company.
