FOBO, An App for Auctioning Used Electronics in 97 Minutes | Hacker News Reader

FOBO, An App for Auctioning Used Electronics in 97 Minutes

laughingsquid.com

27 pointsed14 comments

I'd really like to see something replace Ebay/Paypal and be more like "the old Ebay". This is an interesting idea, but there are a number of aspects about the initial version of Fobo that seem to fall quite short:

--97 minute auctions only? This might be great for electronics that are prolific like Apple hardware or game consoles, but it doesn't seem appropriate for most electronics, of which fewer exist and which have fewer potential buyers.

--Only available via a native smartphone app on a single platform? No web-based interface? It might work in San Francisco, but it probably wouldn't elsewhere, and I don't like it philosophically.

--It's really expensive. Ebay is horrible these days if you're selling a single expensive item without paying for a (relatively inexpensive) merchant account. This compares unfavorably even to the full price.

Maybe I'm just the opposite of the target audience.

Note we're in the ballpark of eBay fees. FOBO charges 15%, a 2% premium over eBay's total fees, which they aren't very upfront about (10% for eBay, 3% for PayPal).

I think the added transparency in Fobo's pricing is a great feature.

Ebay's recent change to a flat-rate system was horrible for occasional sellers. Until late 2012 or early 2013, the fee for computers and tablets was only 4% fee, making a total of 7% after Paypal.

What some don't realize is that these rates are still available--for $16/month. When selling a computer or tablet for anything over $270, it's actually less costly to pay for an Ebay Store account for a month and pay a total fee of 7% + $16 rather than 13%. It's an easy option, but it's not at all obvious to those who aren't in-the-know. I'd be curious to know how many people sell computers on Ebay for >$1000 and pay the full 10% fee--I would expect it's a small number.

So if you weren't familiar with Ebay but a friend gave you the tip to sell your $1000 computer with an Ebay Store, you'd end up with $64 more dollars from your sale than you would with Fobo--$914 instead of $850.

I appreciate that Fobo makes understanding costs easier, but that's not very helpful when those easy-to-understand costs are still higher than the extortionate, only-paid-by-those-who-didn't-read-their-selling-options costs from Ebay. I think a more competitive pricing strategy would reflect the true base price on eBay, plus a small premium for the convenience of not having to research it.

Perhaps there's justification for that level of a premium, and Ebay's choice to horribly obfuscate pricing has made it seem even more reasonable to those who aren't familiar with Ebay's pricing. However, I still don't think that makes Fobo particularly cost-competitive or a particularly good value unless the service can bring a huge audience to the auction.

So this picks at another piece of the puzzle. I wonder if there is a place with something like BufferBox in the middle. It would work like this:

1) I decide I want to sell something, list it.

2) Person sees it and buys it.

3) I drop the merchandise off at a facility that takes it in, photographs it, and holds it.

4) Buyer shows up, shows their 'code' and picks up the merchandise, 'accepting' it when delivered.

I know it seems convoluted but the thing we have yet to capture is that 'sit there and look at it before actually handing over your money' power that buyers have a garage/yard sales with the time shifting/spreading aspects of online auction/resale.

There are ebay sellers who do exactly this.

I have used FOBO as a customer and a seller, pretty amazing on both ends. I really think that adding in payment support as an option in Yardsale would have helped boost that platform a ton. Perhaps if FOBO succeeds the team will circle back and give yardsale another serious go with everything they're learning from this project.

Fascinating idea. I wonder if the savings from shipping and transaction costs (say of using Amazon or ebay) are worth the potential loss of value due to limiting your market (i.e. selling only to those around you). I know that I generally get a better price buying used electronics on Craigslist vs. Ebay, but rarely use that channel due to perceived danger of meeting up with someone random in person, though I suppose FOBO could solve that problem by introducing security and identity measures.

Will be watching with interest.

One of the ideas behind FOBO is that the market for popular consumer electronics is surprisingly liquid, even with a small number of users (>=1K). By guaranteeing a selling price near what you get on eBay, we try to completely remove market liquidity from your decision of whether or not to sell on FOBO. About half our items end up going to real buyers for at or way above starting price, in which case we don't step in to handle the resale.

Check out FOBO's About page http://www.fobo.net/

San Francisco now seems to be challenging Texas for the title of the capital of the world.

Funny, my comment was going to be "I bet there's zero users in Houston" :-)

Given the sheer number of startups that only "launch" locally, even if I were in SF, I think I'd launch somewhere else, to get outside what is a vortex of innovation, especially if your app is dependent upon a network effect.

Launching locally in SF is an extremely good idea. I've worked in lots of other places and nowhere have I found a collective group of people who are willing to beta test your product. Better yet, if it sucks, they'll tell you why it won't' work and what should be improved - that's a good thing. Is there more noise in SF? Absolutely - but it's less of a turf war than people think it is. If your product is better than the competition, people will adopt. Entrepreneurs bring products here to prove their ideas knowing there is a rich cashpile waiting to fund them when they need to scale.

so does yardsale still exist? if not, what happpend?

You bet, it's still got a passionate community of 250k users across America. We started fresh because we saw an opportunity to build something really different which we thought had potential to realize the original vision that got us started at a larger scale... something crazy effective, fun for a community of individual sellers, like the old days of eBay.

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