My Startup: forget the outdated craigslist model

how many transactions have taken place or take place on a daily basis?

it's a really interesting concept and something that i've considered before. basically a reverse auction where the seller bids to sell the item to the buyer. theoretically the lowest bidder wins and sells the item.

from the buy side, this seems like a great idea. don't spend a lot of time perusing craigslist or ebay. just name your price, and hopefully sellers will compete to sell the item to you. however, my gut feeling (and from what i saw from browsing the site for a minute) is that people who post want a deal. they don't want to pay ebay/craigslist market going rates, let alone retail.

which brings me to the sell side, with craigslist and ebay both offering higher going rates, why would a seller want to take a huge hit on what he/she is selling on this site?

basically, you're trying to appease two markets, and i don't (at first glance) see the incentive for the seller to participate, given the success of craigslist and ebay.

also, how do you plan on monetizing?

Why would I not continue using craigslist? I do have a suggestion though, with craigslist so densely packed with rental listings, if you can help landlords rent our their rental properties, you'll have a lot of return traffic and word of mouth for your site.