Show HN: Lost & found tags | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Lost & found tags

loseproof.com

39 pointssensecall46 comments

Now what I would REALLY pay for, and what I thought/hoped was, is stickers had location tracking so I could find them with my phone, i'd put them on my keys, wallet everything. I think THAT, packaged into an very easy service, could be a brilliant business.

This might be intresting, http://www.thetileapp.com/

I think this is what you're looking for: http://lapa-app.com/

The similarities between Lapa and Tile are scary. Coincidence or copying?

Check out https://www.sticknfind.com/

Could I ask about the user testing you did on this?

Intuitively, if I lost something valuable, I would feel that people would be more inclined to make an effort in returning it if they saw a name (and hence a person) attached to it. Emotionally, that seems to be more powerful of a draw than a code. I guess in my case, I would think the additional vulnerability from having my name and e-mail address on it would not outweigh the perceived drop in likelihood someone would return my precious item.

I'd love to hear whether that's just me, and whether that's just perception (of having a lower return rate) vs. reality.

I think having a name sounds like a good idea that could be quite hard to do in the wild without making the stickers larger. Take for example my name (Nicholas Smith), which isn't overly long, but it'd take up a bigger chunk of sticker space unless we truncate it to Nick Smith. Which is still reasonably big, so you have to either increase the sticker size or truncate further until it's N.Smith and it loses the persona attached with a name.

This is very reminiscent of http://www.tagbak.net which adds in a "reward for return" for the honest finder (which is a great idea). IIRC, TagBak is trying to work with vendors to include tags with phones instead of selling tags to end users... interesting to think about which strategy is more effective.

Definitely - that's a great idea. We're currently looking in to a few strategies (aside from selling direct to the user): - enterprise/businesses - education (colleges & universities) - manufacturers - insurance providers

One angle that's certainly appealing is to reduce production costs even further (and therefore retail cost) to make a super low-cost way to protect items that have low value but high importance. Things like sketchbooks, coursework and so on.

Free shipping creates an arbitrage opportunity: buy 20 tags for 0.5 GBP/each. Mail them to the shipper, for a little bit extra (0.3GBP maybe? don't know what postage is in the UK.)

You can now have items shipped for $0.8GBP/each.

A great idea, in principle, but £5 for 5 stickers? It'd cost me 10p to print 10 stickers with 'lost@mydomain.org' on... which I might well do, now I'm thinking about it.

Glad we've inspired you :)

Loseproof is really geared toward people who want an out of the box solution – easy to signup, easy to protect your stuff & more secure (it's anonymous).

We'd also love to know where you can get stickers printed at that price... we might need to change supplier!

Sure, I get that. Have you thought about approaching businesses? My organisation has about circa 100 BlackBerry devices in circulation, none of which have any kind of 'if lost' marker on them...

The upside seems to be anonymity, whereas with your idea you could possibly be identified by your own domain. I guess you could easily anonymity with something like "3dal2lk4@gmail.com", though.

How else would you get your stuff back? Someone seeing josh@gmail.com might think "oh, this is josh's laptop, not sksjsjs44444@gmail.com, better email/call".

You're not paying for 5 stickers..

"£5 /5 tags Small Buy now 5 LoseProof tags Automated email alerts Free shipping"

What have I missed?

You're paying for the service, not the stickers. The stickers are a portion of the price, the rest goes towards to the rest of the service.

Your site has several links to "LoseProof store"[1] but I just get redirected to the home page.

Also, I think you should be very explicit about telling people these are stickers. And possibly talk about how well they stick. I don't put stickers on things so these are not for me. I am probably not alone.

Lost & Found seems to be a bit of a crowded space these days... so good luck.

[1] https://loseproof.com/store

Or if you could just generate a QR code and print on a sticker saying "if lost, please scan for return details". The QR code takes you to your own website with return details or a mailto: link.

Not 100% fool proof and depends on those who find it having a smart phone but its a cheap hack.

I like that idea.

It would be great if you always knew where all the objects you own are. For example, if you know you still have some nice LP's in the basement, but you can't find them, you should be able to take al look at your phone and see exactly where they are. (They might show up at a friends place :) Or, if you know there should be some clothes for your kid in a particular size, the app should list all of them available, and show in which box the are exactly.

Not doable yet I guess, but definitely something people will want.

I like the idea but good samaritans in this world becomes scarce, especially for electronics.

I believe it is best to use services like Find my iPhone/Droid, and the likes if you lose your precious device. At least you can lock/wipe/send your details if your device is found and still have a little chance of having it returned.

Also I think sticker tags like that are not really effective in a world where everything becomes location/people/things aware. The natural evolution is "tag 2.0" (eg. TheTileApp)

This is exactly like TrackItBack, which you've probably heard of? I came across them since they had some pretty awesome airline mile bonuses. I never used the stickers (I still have them); all I remember was thinking to myself "damn these are some expensive stickers." (The miles promo was so good that it made sense to buy them even if you wouldn't use them).

I just searched for them and found that they're out of business. Other competitors seem to be idstickers and foundit, though I know nothing of them.

I haven't heard of TrackItBack actually, but we know there are a few very similar products (TagBak, GadgetTrak, Tracer Tags). The problem is they're just so clunky - something we think we've solved pretty well.

Why can't I just put my (e-)mail address on the device? The person who finds it just needs to give it to the next post office and tell them the receiver will pay for it.

Good question – one of our main aims with LoseProof is to keep your personal information secure (phone number, email address, home address etc).

Although a lot of items get lost relatively close to home, you're right – we're looking at extending the service in the future to offer the option of return postage.

Re: pricing table -

  Protect unlimited items
  10 LoseProof tags

This doesn't really compute. So is it "unlimited" or is it "10"?

Sorry, that is really confusing – it looks like copy left from an earlier iteration. Thanks for pointing it out.

Interesting service - looks a lot like http://www.stuffbak.com/sb/default.aspx.

I've had StuffBak for years and really like the idea of tagging my device but in the end, it really boils down to having a finder that is honest enough to return your device.

Honest and sympathetic enough. And a low tech note scrawled with a sharpe may have an advantage there.

Maybe your iPhone has a passcode lock, or your diary has only got your name in. If they got lost, how would you get them back?

On Android, there is an option called "Show owner info on lock screen" that lets you put whatever text you want on the lock screen. I use "jon@jrock.us". Is there really no iPhone equivalent?

The same thing can be done on the iPhone

So what happens if someone (a loseproof member) finds the items but decides not to return it ?. It can help muggers too , why the need to mug someone directly, become a loseproof member and you will get to know the approximate location of the item. And then he looks for it for a day , finds it and sells it .

Hmm, seems like something product manufacturers should pay for not consumers - see http://www.knomobags.com/uk/register-your-knomo/

As with the last time this was posted you can also just register your items for free here: https://www.immobilise.com/view.php

Nice job on the site and branding. Personally I don't see writing "Please call 555-1212 if found" as a security problem that needs solving, but there are probably some who do.

Thanks very much, glad you like it.

These things need: Bluetooth Low Energy profiles, and Infinergy 800mhz energy-harvesting antennae. Then they'll be worth 5 bucks.

Found a typo on the FAQ page under the question "Can you guarantee my stuff will be safe?":

> your stuff will get back to you should the worse happen.

worst.

Good catch, thanks.

Just get 100 stickers with your email address, put it on your things and hope for the best...

For a moment I thought it was RFID stickers and I got excited.

Is anyone else's tongue tripping on the name? I keep saying "LooseProof" in an effort to make the syllables use the same vowel sound (English US speaker).

The web page is nice, but this stage in my life I feel like I've got too much stuff. Losing it is one convenient way to rid myself of some of the mass. The things I really care about aren't conducive to stickers ... I think my wife and kids would object, but maybe I could find somewhere inconspicuous. Everything else I'd hate to lose I have redundancy for (family photos are on Flash drives in multiple locations).

Maybe my definition of "Love" has become more refined than it used to be?

> Is anyone else's tongue tripping on the name? I keep saying "LooseProof" in an effort to make the syllables use the same vowel sound (English US speaker).

It could be that we pronounce things differently... but for me the single "o" in lose and the double "o" in loose make the same sound as the double "o" in proof. The two words (lose and loose) only differ in the way the "s" sounds. The "s" in lose is more of a "zzzzz" while the "s" in loose is a standard "s" sound. So... my tongue is not tripping on that.

I know we're not supposed to comment on being down-voted, but it might be useful to the OP to know why people wouldn't use his product. I don't think I'm alone, but rather that there's a whole demographic of people that feel overwhelmed by what they (now) own.

I don't think I was rude about it ... and doesn't this give the OP a chance to optimize his web-site for people like me? Or at least decide I'm not his target market?

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