hawaiianjuggernaut Posted September 2, 2014 Report Share Posted September 2, 2014 I do quite my fair share of buying/selling/repairing/trading airsoft guns, probably significantly more than the next guy. Arguably it's a vice, but so is this entire game. Lol. Its taken me awhile to get streamlined for looking at eBay for deals, checking craigslist and forums all the time for good stuff to pop up, and it got me to thinking, What if there was a devoted app to reselling airsoft related merchandise? A few of my buddies are on the US based airsoft buy/sell facebook groups, and last I checked they have a few thousand members, so there is no doubt a large enough percentage of the populous who are proficient sellers/buyers and would benefit from a devoted airsoft resell app. What do you guys think about it? Some ideas I had about it: Listings would be free. I would not want it like eBay, who leverages money from you every time you sell there. App is not responsible for payment see-through; Sellers leave a contact point, buyers contact, make deal, either F2F or Paypal'ed and shipped. Once done, deal topic is locked/archived. Would not have the (US mainly) headache of "listings require orange tips" that eBay is so anal-retentive about. Feedback would be left ala forum style. Each user will link which deal they worked with, and ratings would be left normally. Search filters: Brand, Price, Condition, Gas/Spring/Electric/PTW/HPA. Additional areas for extra goodies like sights/accessories and gear could also be included. Saved Searches: Because reasons. Listing alerts: Been looking for a nice VFC Block 2 thats been pre-tricked out? Fancy that, set the search filters and your app will alert you for when something is listed fitting your criteria Some possible problems I could forsee: Weeding out bad apples and scammers would have to be done the old fashion way, old reputation and reporting way, seeing as the transactions are not handled by said app. Feedback spamming. This is obviously not eBay, and if possible scammers wanted to boost their feedbacks to seem reputable, they could easily post bogus ads, "buy" from themselves, take the ads down within minutes, and give themselves feedback from extraneous accounts. Trolls: Because reasons. This is the internet. Listings would need monitoring/reporting features for catching people with nothing better to do than cause angst and chaos on sale threads. All in all I think the cons could be mitigated with the proper scaling and moderating. The first possible con about scammers could be also mitigated by requiring basic information to be posted, IE: An email or valid verified phone number as point of contact, in addition to a basic-common-sense "Dont ship to Nigeria" and "Take Paypal, not Western Union" warnings. Thoughts? Also, polled above, would you use something like this to either sell unneeded stuff or browse for new toys? If this seems like something a lot of people would use, I might try and make some connections and start the development of this app. Link to post Share on other sites
ShinSeiki Posted September 3, 2014 Report Share Posted September 3, 2014 I like it! there is a definite gap to be filled! I can only speak for myself across the pond, but something (app/website/both) that would let me browse a large selection of stuff while being able to filter by country(or better yet, have a EU filter like ebay has) would be a godsent. There are a couple of pitfalls to be avoided, for example, a solid and "exploit proof" feedback(for sellers/buyers) system is a must. Link to post Share on other sites
Tinkerton Posted September 3, 2014 Report Share Posted September 3, 2014 Not news. Moved to General Discussion (seems the best place for it) Link to post Share on other sites
hawaiianjuggernaut Posted September 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2014 Not news. Moved to General Discussion (seems the best place for it)My bad, wasn't sure what the best place would be for it. Link to post Share on other sites
NonEx Posted September 3, 2014 Report Share Posted September 3, 2014 Yeah, I think it sounds good. It's always nice to be able to sell things easier. Link to post Share on other sites
hawaiianjuggernaut Posted September 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2014 I like it! there is a definite gap to be filled! I can only speak for myself across the pond, but something (app/website/both) that would let me browse a large selection of stuff while being able to filter by country(or better yet, have a EU filter like ebay has) would be a godsent. There are a couple of pitfalls to be avoided, for example, a solid and "exploit proof" feedback(for sellers/buyers) system is a must. Yeah, that's the main issue that seems to stick out.I think if the system requires a confirmed point of contact (either phone or email) like craigslist, it'll cut down on the blatant fakers. We could also do it so that all trades are to be done via paypal, that eliminates almost all of the issues with scamming. Any disputes over an item would be adjudicated by paypal. Giving the basic warnings of "Don't ship to Nigeria" and "Take paypal only" would, I'd think, clear up most of that. However there will always be sneaky crooks making their way around stuff, so we'd the best we could but in the end its up to the other trader. If you guys are on any Facebook sales groups you'll know what its like. I'm thinking something along that atmosphere would be the most effective. Link to post Share on other sites
Beeingmyself Posted September 3, 2014 Report Share Posted September 3, 2014 Search filters would be importent. I see a lot sites having actually very many things but their searchfilters eigther isn't there or just don't work proberly which is a shame because I think they woul sell more if they did. Link to post Share on other sites
hawaiianjuggernaut Posted September 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2014 Search filters would be importent. I see a lot sites having actually very many things but their searchfilters eigther isn't there or just don't work proberly which is a shame because I think they woul sell more if they did. Of course! I was thinking brands, variants, condition. Possibly even "With extras" and "how many mags" Who knows, this is all still in the very pliable and moldable idea stage. Could be a year or two before this is out. It'd take a considerable amount of cash to front this, somewhere upwards of ~15-18k USD. I'd need some serious backing, in promises of use and probably some financial sponsorship to fund it lol Link to post Share on other sites
ShinSeiki Posted September 5, 2014 Report Share Posted September 5, 2014 That's the hardest part, only human oversight can guarentee a smooth experience to both buyer and seller (maybe have mods comb through every submited listing and weed out the fishy ones even before they hit the database). But oversight costs money and you'll need a really robust ad platform in order too keep both the app and the listings free. I think the best way to get there is to integrate your newfangled searchability into the ads themselves so when i search for a classic army m15 there would be an add for a new one from retailer x in the listing page. That i could see some retailers paying top dollar for. I'm rambling a bit, am i making sense? Link to post Share on other sites
hawaiianjuggernaut Posted September 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2014 Very true, I fully agree. Mods are going to cost extra and human interaction truly is the only way to stop the fishy people from hitting the market. I'm willing to take a small loss with the airsoft sales idea, as I think the app platform might become a versatile business for other avenues of sales. IE, luxury watches, cars, (lol yet another car listing site) shoes, whatever. I'll have most of the app developed already, so it wouldn't be too hard to open new sale "niche" categories. As far as the pricing on the app, I was thinking a $0.99 annual premium member ship rate would probably be reasonable. If the app gets enough traffic and dedicated users, the advertising would be able to pay off running costs (ie hosting fees, mod employment etc) and it could really be a nice venture. Your ad idea might be a workable thing; that would get the retail companies' attention for sure. Forvenue would be a nifty name, forum+venue. What do you all think? Itll need a cool name. Link to post Share on other sites
hawaiianjuggernaut Posted October 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2014 Aright, so I did the numbers, it will be better to do it as a website first. I'm trying to make it unique, not to be like FB groups, Forum sales or etc, but still be super easy to use. It's being professionally developed: I actually have an Indiegogo Campaign going right now for it: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/forvenue-premium-airsoft-marketplace/x/8931680 If you have a dollar or two you can spare, that would be amazing. I really want to get this up and running. Link to post Share on other sites
hitmanNo2 Posted October 22, 2014 Report Share Posted October 22, 2014 Specific search filters are definite must. Look on Auto Trader or PistonHeads and see the level of filtering you can apply on searches. If you could do something as specific for airsoft, that would be killer. Link to post Share on other sites
hawaiianjuggernaut Posted October 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2014 Yessir, I'm hiring a pro to do this, he knows his stuff. It'll have all of that. Chip in a dollar or more, youll get a one year premium access membership! Link to post Share on other sites
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