Idea of a place to buy and sell anything computer related

[jgilliam]

Hey everyone,

I have this idea to create a marketplace for people all over the world to buy and sell computer related items. It would be an auction website like eBay except just for computer items. New or used computers, laptops, components, accessories, printers, scanners, EVERYTHING computer related. Have it to where people could open their own stores with all their items listed in it. Have everything ebay does just PC related.

I have worked on computers all my life and I love it! I actually have a bunch of stuff I need to sell and started looking for a place and couldn’t find a place specific to just computers that I could list my own items on. So I had this thought. I have actually already got the majority of the site built.

What I am wondering from you guys is if this website was free with no fee to list your items no fee to open a store no end of auction fee or final value fee. I think the only fee I would charge is if you wanted to list your item on the main page. Do you think it would catch on?

Thanks in advanced for any thoughts you may be willing to share.

Justin

 

[ssddx]

i wouldnt use it.

reasons?

often enough older pc equipment is not worth selling because it depreciates very quickly. a system you paid thousands for could only sell for a few hundred in just a few years.

for older or collectible equipment people already use ebay and other auction sites

ebay and amazon have way more page views and are likely to get 100 times the visitors.

new equipment is better off being bought through newegg, tigerdirect or another well known reputable seller than on a website with no protection. this is where ebay and amazon shine: the guarantee.

if you have some parts less than a year old then you can probably sell them in an online auction.

if you have complete systems you can try an auction or craigslist.

 

[jgilliam]

Thanks for the response ssddx,

I do agree that older PC equipment is not worth selling because of the lack of a demand for it therefore the value is crap.

Not sure if you thought the idea behind the site would be to sell only used parts but the idea I had for the site is for it to be like eBay anyone can sell anything they wanted (PC related) new or used parts, whole systems, Monitors, NIC cards, CPU's whatever.

EBay and Amazon will for sure have more page views. I by no means think it could compete with them in page views, items listed, or popularity within the first 5 or so years after starting it. This is why my site would be free since I wouldn’t want to charge people to list or sell items if it takes longer to sell than on other sites.

And the guarantee that eBay offers is through PayPal (same company as eBay) which my site will accept transactions through them and Google checkout which offer their own forms of guarantee's.

 

[jgilliam]

If you guys want to see how it looks so far it is www.BitBidder.com Just know that I am still working on it.

 

[ssddx]

if the buyer guarantee applies... then it will drastically improve public response to it. especially in the uncertainty of buying pc parts from unknown buyers.

i'm not saying its useless. if it gets popular then it could be a nice place to sell just pc parts and software. i'm just saying that i personally seek other means of purchasing my parts and equipment.

then again i have a microcenter 45 minutes away... so i suppose i'm spoiled.

 

[jgilliam]

I decided to pull the idea. You are right about the buyer guarantee only through eBay purchases and a few other ways but none I could afford to do. I also read this article which is a really good read.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/05/ff_endofauction/all/1

I love the idea of having my own site but I really cant afford to advertise it like some of the other sites can and with this article and the lack of funds I am afraid it may be dead before it even gets started....