Anyone interested in launching our own sellers market site ?....

[First Edition]

I smell GreenBean....

[RedShootingStar]

Originally Posted by slapped

The Average customer Buys something--Recieves it ---Leaves Positive feedback--- NO ONE who reads your comments on this thread has ANYTHING Positive to say about your comments,,,,

You got a Lot of Balls trying to Proclaim yourself as some type of Expert or Guru,,,,Your Avatar,,Is that a RAT,,VERY appropriate,,,

Here is the TRUTH,,,There are MANY on this forum who FORGOT more about Successful Business Practices than You will EVER Know.

You point out that Education is key in Being Successful, actually you make it seem as if it is the ONLY thing.

Another KEY to being Successful is how you carry yourself (attitude) how well you work with others,,Here you FAIL Miserably,,this is CLEAR from your Postings on this thread.

The "Career" you so Joyously Describe is to me the Life of a Drone,,you will ALWAYS have someone to awnser to. And Please do not allow your Intellectual short commings to defend this position. It is My Opinion and I am Entitled to My Opinion, Living in USA gives me that Right.


As Imjustme Pointed out above there would be NO Entrepreneurs to create New Companies and even INDUSTRIES,,,,,,you know Places and People that YOU would work FOR.

You have EVERY Right to Disagree with the OP,,,Hell I Do,,and I will get to that in a Moment,,,But to Argue that the Cerebral capabilities of 99.9% of this forums Members are inept, or as you infer intellectually unequipped to even Discuss such a Venture, is simply Arrogant Presumption. Then to further your point of View in following Posts CLEARLY Demonstrates your Continued Predelection to Demonstrate the Irrevelencies of your arugment within the confines of this Discussion it also provides Clear insight of your paltry intelligence quotient.

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As for the REAL Discussion here, One of the BIG Expenses in operating a Site such as Ebay is the Legal Expenses. Ebay is CONSTANTLY under attacks from Companies that do NOT want their Merchandise on an Auction site,,to Companies protecting their Intellectual Property, Counterfeits, to Buyers suing for for ALL sorts of stuff and Even seller taking court action for things like Unfair practices, Promoting Buyer Fraud, and Much More, this is the Main Reason Yahoo stopped their Auction site and Google NEVER Launched one.

haha wow.....

[XHIBIT]

Slap....this was one of my primary concerns. The legal aspect of it.

As for the REAL Discussion here, One of the BIG Expenses in operating a Site such as Ebay is the Legal Expenses. Ebay is CONSTANTLY under attacks from Companies that do NOT want their Merchandise on an Auction site,,to Companies protecting their Intellectual Property, Counterfeits, to Buyers suing for for ALL sorts of stuff and Even seller taking court action for things like Unfair practices, Promoting Buyer Fraud, and Much More, this is the Main Reason Yahoo stopped their Auction site and Google NEVER Launched one.

I've even considered, making the site STEALTH...LOL
Initially with it being a small underground alternative site, i think its safe to assume we would be off the radar for awhile.

But...as soon as some VERO products found a home there with a consistent sales record, I'm sure then the letters would start trickling in from Law Firms.

But I spoke with a lawyer (a friend of my wife's husband) who advised me, that if the letters did start flooding my mailbox the best course of action to take (being a small business)...is to RUN and NOT WALK to the magistrate's office and get a Cease and Desist court order for Interference of Business.

If a legal firm wanted to fight the order it could take several years to even make it to a docet and most VERO law representation seldom follow up especially if its out of state.
But...its always safer to begin choking the offending items off slowly.

I'm still checking on some other things regarding that.

[freedomplz]

Originally Posted by XHIBIT

I was banging my head against my PC desk today trying to figure out the lunacy of eBay, IOffer, and all the other sites that continue to make it harder for us to make money.
Seriously folks...its like jumping thru flaming hoops, and sliding barefoot down razor blades just to make a buck.
And then it hit me ....

Its enough of us here to launch our OWN sellers market !
Think about it for a minute....
These are just a few advantages we would have.


1) We could control who we allow to sell.
2) We could control what we allow to be sold.
3) VIP Members could pay 1 fee...Yearly, Bi yearly, or Monthly.
4) We could have our own dedicated server.
5) We could have mixed auctions (timer and bid), buy it now and (best offer) auctions.
6) We could also have classified ad auctions.
etc etc...

The possibilities are endless.
And as far as promoting the site, a simple link from your existing stealth eBay, Amazon, IOffer, and any other virtual sellers marketplace would bring you your own customers WHILE HELPING ADVERTISE THE NEW SITE !

It would take a bit of work at first of course...such as a catchy domain name...an eBay clone site script (which I can find and install very easily) and a few modifications tp give us a unique look and feel.

But the bottom line is, if they can do it...who says we cant do it and be even better at it ?

I'm really serious about this...lets hear your take on the idea folks.

When the hosting site makes more money than the seller, it is time to move on. Talk about buyer protection on ebay - Buyers can give negative feedback on a whim while sellers are forced to give positive feedback. Seems to me that means democracy is dead on ebay. Got my first paypal "hold today" - all of $.67. If this is a sign of things to come, I am dead meat. I'm all for a new seller's site.

[freedomplz]

Didn't know you could still get a .com domain name for $.99. I just did at Domain Names & Web Hosting : 1&1 Internet Inc. That will be $9.01 saved for registering a new auction site. I'm also willing to help with the legwork/setup for this site.

[mine]

Originally Posted by freedomplz

Didn't know you could still get a .com domain name for $.99. I just did at Domain Names & Web Hosting : 1&1 Internet Inc. That will be $9.01 saved for registering a new auction site. I'm also willing to help with the legwork/setup for this site.

My internet security software warned me about this website when I tried to go to it. That's the URL without the anonym.to prefix.

[XHIBIT]

Didn't know you could still get a .com domain name for $.99. I just did at Domain Names & Web Hosting : 1&1 Internet Inc. That will be $9.01 saved for registering a new auction site. I'm also willing to help with the legwork/setup for this site.

Whats the catch though ?

Do you have to have that particular company actually host the domain ?
And also, how much is it to renew the domain each year thereafter ?
These are 2 tricks hosting companies often use, some inflate their prices with offers of super low domain registrations.

Oh and if so....is it on a shared server ?
Not that it really matters because all it takes is to point the domain's DNS to the server you're actually on.

[XHIBIT]

I just went to that link and my security alert popped up also...9.00 for a domain name wont kill me I guess...LOL

[XHIBIT]

OK, I'm goofing around with catchy domain names for the market site and need some ideas, so let 'em rip guys.

Here's a few I came up with:

1) ShopNGo.com
2) StopNShop.com

and my personal favorite...(which is already taken by the way ARRRRRGHHH)

WiseBuys.com

(I even had envisioned the logo...a shadowy mafioso guy in an alley with a tommy gun in his hand, wearing a an opened trench coat with dollar sign tags inside the coat).

Oh well...I'm pretty sure you guys can come up with something better, I'm all eyes and ears.

[First Edition]

Typically with a domain name, you want keywords that will draw traffic into your site, two words at the most, and something catchy, short, and easy to remember.

ebay.com, for example... two syllables, easy to remember, 10million people a day shop on the .com website alone. They don't rely on google searches as much as a normal company might.

The hosting is easy. You set up a domain name, I recommend namecheap.com. Don't pay a lot of money for it. Namecheap gives free whoisguard access for the first year. It will cost you 10 dollars per year to register it. After that, you decide who will host it. This doesn't matter either.... i'd go with hostgator, or namecheap as well. You don't need that much bandwidth unless you're getting 50k visitors a month. 10 dollars a month will give you a lot with hostgator.

But then, the tricky part comes...... DESIGN.

It's easy to set up a buy it now style site. You'll need a logo, full design comp, etc, etc, etc.... It's more complicated when bids, accounts, and everything else ebay has for example. It sounds like you need a programmer. Or at least someone who is an expert.

You're also not the first person that tried to compete with ebay, or amazon. Look at ioffer, or swoopoo. The amount of effort something like this will take.... I think you will learn why ebay and amazon do what they do. It's not because they just get off on it, they're a business.

[slapped]

I Volunteer to VET all the Sellers and ENFORCE The sites Rules,,,,,,,,,,NO,,,,,as GreEnbean puts it,,,, Foo Foo!!!

[First Edition]

VET?

Doesn't ebay try and get rid of all the foofoo? but.... it doesn't work that well

[XHIBIT]

Ha haaaaaaaaaa...looks like we got us a security guard. But ya only get 1 bullet though (and you gotta keep that in your shirt pocket). LOLLLLLLLLLLLLL

And yes you're absolutely correct about choosing a catchy domain name. 2-3 syllables at best. I've got an even cheaper host with a semi dedicated server (due to them screwin up one of my forums a few years ago). But there is 99.9% uptime and I have tons of space and unlimited bandwidth.

I'll be on for the next 3 days looking and comparing clone scripts as well as custom paid scripts and contacting developers for additional coding ideas.

Example...
Live Auction timers
Deals of the Day
Buy it now special timers
Classifieds
And eBay and Amazon feedback integration


It would be nice to have a PhpBB forum installed that matches the selling site, and as far as graphics go, my one of my best friends' owns and illustrates Conspiracy Cards - Welcome and did some of the original Star Wars concept art pieces.

[imjustme]

Some suggestions. Unlimited bandwidth doesn't exist, especially not if it's "cheap". Any host that offers that will either cap you at some point or charge you for hidden overages. A dedicated 10Mbps line can't push more than 3TB of traffic per month. And even with the cheapest providers, a dedicated 10Mbps line will cost you several hundred per month. Cheap also means more outages.

I personally would recommend going with a provider like RackSpace, where you have the option to expand into your own co-location or server farm.

[XHIBIT]

Ok well I'm just sayin, I have 2 other websites online as well, its very very rare that any of the sites lag or experiences downtime since they moved me off the more crowded shared servers after losing some of my forum files while installing a new PhpBB.4 three years ago.
In order to make things up to me they put me on a semi dedicated server and I still pay a monthly hosting bill equivalent to that of the shared server with no extra charges.

As far as bandwidth...last year I broke open a story about Joseph Mosche and within 2 days had 39,000 hits and it handled the incoming stream of traffic with no problems or lagging so I'm pretty confident with the current host.

Plus if I need something installed they normally do it for free.

Also as mentioned I'm not under the false illusion that we will rival eBay and have a sellers war, complete with machine guns, grenades and drive by shootings. But I am fairly certain I can get out of it only what I put into it for a good while. For now its a small enterprise and if and when it grows and needs more space and/or a dedicated server the owner of the hosting company has offered me a reduced price.

But in any event you're right I have talked to RackSpace back when I co-hosted an f.m radio talk show. The station wanted to find different ways I could co host from home and I managed to find a MUCH MUCH cheaper alternative using a Shoutcast server and having the feed relayed to a sister station yo me in real time, whereas I bounced it back.

But this is a bunch of major decisions that I will spend the entirety of this week researching. Thanks to all the input from everyone I dont feel so handicapped now and am able to mentally prepare for this undertaking.

[freedomplz]

Originally Posted by XHIBIT

OK, I'm goofing around with catchy domain names for the market site and need some ideas, so let 'em rip guys.

Here's a few I came up with:

1) ShopNGo.com
2) StopNShop.com

and my personal favorite...(which is already taken by the way ARRRRRGHHH)

WiseBuys.com

(I even had envisioned the logo...a shadowy mafioso guy in an alley with a tommy gun in his hand, wearing a an opened trench coat with dollar sign tags inside the coat).

Oh well...I'm pretty sure you guys can come up with something better, I'm all eyes and ears.

Just wrap him in red, white and blue. Seriously now, a catchy name is very important and it would be be nice if it signifies fairness. The biggest problem with ebay/paypal is that they make decisions without looking at the facts. Any spiteful person/company can make a claim and ebay drops the hatchet without even so much as a mediocre investigation.

[freedomplz]

Originally Posted by XHIBIT

Ha haaaaaaaaaa...looks like we got us a security guard. But ya only get 1 bullet though (and you gotta keep that in your shirt pocket). LOLLLLLLLLLLLLL

And yes you're absolutely correct about choosing a catchy domain name. 2-3 syllables at best. I've got an even cheaper host with a semi dedicated server (due to them screwin up one of my forums a few years ago). But there is 99.9% uptime and I have tons of space and unlimited bandwidth.

I'll be on for the next 3 days looking and comparing clone scripts as well as custom paid scripts and contacting developers for additional coding ideas.

Example...
Live Auction timers
Deals of the Day
Buy it now special timers
Classifieds
And eBay and Amazon feedback integration


It would be nice to have a PhpBB forum installed that matches the selling site, and as far as graphics go, my one of my best friends' owns and illustrates Conspiracy Cards - Welcome and did some of the original Star Wars concept art pieces.

We could probably launch this for next to free by using facebook. I am not a fan of facebook but their fan pages can be used for anything, including setting up a store. Then we could get tons of likes = traffic that we can eventually integrate with our final official auction site. I am sure someone here on this forum know exactly how it is done.

[freedomplz]

Originally Posted by GrannyT

Wow - who are the other 1%?

I guess if a lot of us who don't know what we are doing could get our heads together and make this work. We have to start somewhere. What's that story about Goliath? This is a swim or sink deal. I got my flippers on. I know a good idea when I see one. This idea is superb.

[freedomplz]

Originally Posted by GrannyT

When do we start?

I guess I am just getting carried away because I am afraid that my next shoestring drop ship sale will end with my funds being held by paypal. Then I'll be history.
That said, I hope this new auction site will either start of by saying "all sales are escrow" instead of popping it on you just when you've made the first big sale ever - forcing you to wait 21 days to collect. If that is not illegal then neither is kidnapping for a ransom.
Drop shipping gives small fry a chance to earn an income instead of looking for a handout. The new auction site needs to take that into consideration and setup safe guards to ensure that drop shipment are completed without eliminating the possibility of small fry making an honest living.

[freedomplz]

Originally Posted by mine

My internet security software warned me about this website when I tried to go to it. That's the URL without the anonym.to prefix.

I just love how the big guys keep the little guys at bay.
Domain Names & Web Hosting : 1&1 Internet Inc. is a short URL which tracks how many persons took me up on my suggestion to get a legit .com domain for a buck.
No catch - all the facts are stated clearly on the site. You can do anything you want with the domain name.
Check alexa.com for 1and1.com
I would be nuts to recommend a site on this forum that is dangerous. I do not want to risk being kicked out of such a vibrant forum. especially since I seriously want to kick butt where ebay and paypal is concerned.
BTW If you sign up through my URL I get a whooping ?% commission :D which gets held up by cj.com if I don't earn enough.
I here to help build something new. I am here to help slay the Goliaths

[freedomplz]

Originally Posted by XHIBIT

Whats the catch though ?

Do you have to have that particular company actually host the domain ?
And also, how much is it to renew the domain each year thereafter ?
These are 2 tricks hosting companies often use, some inflate their prices with offers of super low domain registrations.

Oh and if so....is it on a shared server ?
Not that it really matters because all it takes is to point the domain's DNS to the server you're actually on.

They are legit and are considered a top notch hosting company. This is for you guys if you want to save a buck. Their rate goes up the second year and thereafter to standard rates. That link bears absolutely no importance when compared to what's at hand. Don't let the big bad wolves fool you this time. GoDaddy.com is not the only game in town. I have an affiliate link to them too. Let's all just go kick ...
1and1.com - Information from Alexa Internet

[freedomplz]

Originally Posted by mine

My internet security software warned me about this website when I tried to go to it. That's the URL without the anonym.to prefix.

Just go if you want it. I posted details in other posts.