Show HN: We're launching an auction site and the first auction starts at 3pm PST | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: We're launching an auction site and the first auction starts at 3pm PST

shoptheshelf.com

31 pointsminouye25 comments

Interesting, some feedback:

It's not immediately clear why I would shop The Shelf instead of one of the many other ways of shopping.

Please be super-explicit about what the app will do if I log in via Facebook. I like being able to auth without creating a username/password, but I worry about feedspam.

You should show the current bid amount on the front page before the click-through.

The scam "pay to bid" sites make me weary of new auction sites, so you may have an uphill battle proving that you're not one of them. I trust that you're not.

Thanks! All great points. You're definitely right that the auction format inspires serious mistrust these days(i.e. "Just buy a bidpack!"). Our main goal is to provide a platform where sellers can get in front of new customers and buyers can get access to quality products, in a fun/engaging format.

get access to quality products

A marketplace of only actually awesome stuff that I can buy right now sounds good.

Like Amazon, you mean.

Amazon sells good stuff, but a lot of crap too. Their mission is to be comprehensive, not curated.

You mean FAB, then?

More like FAB than like Amazon, but a lot of the stuff on FAB feels a little cheesy. I'm thinking more like Uncrate without the supercars, yachts, and kickstarter junk.

Didn't expect to get to the frontpage :)

We're going to start another auction at 5pm PST since it looks like there are still a lot of people checking it out.

Love what you're doing guys but you're killing me. Add an email subscription form or a registration button or SOMETHING to the page if I make it through the popup.

Also maybe go easy on the popup in the first place - I closed it so I could work out what the page was about first.

Both of these things should increase your conversions to new users or, at the very least, subscribers.

Thanks for the feedback! Just cleaned things up a bit to make it less jarring and easier to find the sign-up page.

Much better. There's plenty of data out there around call to action buttons with a lot saying that a red button converts the best, but contrast is definitely important.

A nice little guide here FWIW: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/call-to-action-buttons-guidelin...

Actually the sign-up page is what is jarring me.

Everything I click on sends me to a sign-up page. What if I just wanted to look at the auctions?

Wouldn't it be preferable to only force people to have an account if they want to bid? How do you expect your items to be indexed by the Google?

This is a very difficult space. Ebay has user feedback (which is very important when purchasing anything online).

There have been many competitors to Ebay over the years, but none of them lasted very long.

Absolutely agree. Although we incorporate auctions, I think there's many ways to use the auction format that eBay isn't able to take advantage of.

Our main focus with The Shelf is to help quality sellers get in front of new customers and provide an engaging format for buyers. Sellers can see it as a new marketing channel and buyers can have fun getting quality stuff.

Are the products on your website handmade? Who is curating these items?

We're curating the items to make sure that the quality is high and to ensure that we only work with great sellers.

Are the products handmade? What qualities do you look for in a quality item?

We haven't nailed down a set of criteria, but we're starting with things that we and our friends would want to own. Handmade items tend to have good stories which make them more fun to sell, but probably not everything will be handmade.

If I understand correctly, this is kind of like woot.com with auctions?

I freaking love this!!

heh - me too - I won the first auction

You bid $22 on an item with a retail value of $20?

http://shoptheshelf.com/auctions/1

I was thinking of commenting that the retail value was $20 and nobody should bid higher than that, but I figured that nobody would... Oops.

It is still lower than the item + shipping on etsy. which is $23.95

Heh, yeah in this first case the optimal economic choice would've been to bid, then lose the auction but get the 10% off code, then buy at slimfoldwallet.com for a price of $18. EDIT: But then again, one point of auctions is that the retail price is not necessarily perfect in the supply/demand curve, and there's nothing inherently wrong with paying a bit more if you value it more (For instance, maybe "I won the first ever shoptheshelf.com auction" was worth $2)

I bought one retail for $20 from his site. Love the Etsy tie-in. I was hesitant about giving payment info to a new auction site, but this helps the trust factor a lot. (May want to emphasize the seller info early on for this reason?)

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