Listia (YC S09) Is An Awesome Way To Give And Get Free Stuff | Hacker News Reader

Listia (YC S09) Is An Awesome Way To Give And Get Free Stuff

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98 pointsmoses140028 comments

I must be missing something, why are so many people seemingly willing to ship anywhere in the U.S.?

You're giving away a DVD and on top of that you're going to pay for the shipping?

this confuses me, too. plus, you have to go to a post office.

on the other hand, if someone saw something he really wanted it might seem worthwhile to do extra work in exchange.

A couple questions...Why would i buy more points when i can re-register and get points for free? And what if i made referrals to myself to accumulate points?

I think this is the coolest thing on there ...

"Signed copy of On Lisp" http://www.listia.com/auction/207

Bet that won't last long.

this is out of print and very rare :-)

I guess the Viaweb polo is pretty rare too :)

http://www.listia.com/auction/209

On Lisp is more in demand though... it goes for more than $100 on eBay.

Now that's a clever way to support and promote Listia!

I guess books would be the things I would list most frequently if I were to sign up. I always try to get rid of some books when I move to a new flat (which I seem to do every (second) year or so). I'm not sure my books would get as many bids as this little gem though :)

I didn't bring my copy because I didn't want to seem like a fanboi! Damn, I could've got it autographed!

Heh. That would be pretty fanboi of me...

Congrats on the extremely positive writeup. You got the full Arrington!

Listia is extremely fun. Just paging through some of the auctions, you see the goofiest stuff. Ex: PG's dracula cape (I think worth at least 10 credits...). http://www.listia.com/auction/197

I'll bet the YC "Make Something People Want" T-shirts would sell for lots of credits (with pickup at YC HQ)!

The "I Made Something People Want" t-shirts are actually for purchase. You have to be Google,etc. and armed with 7-8 figures :-D. Shipping is free at least.

Hah, nice.

The only problem is, you'll get the T-shirt delivered, but it will be worn by your newest set of employees.

I like this a lot.

Feature requests: How can I report an auction that seems fake? This one seems very fake. http://www.listia.com/auction/276

Watch item.

More options for listing, like a 3 day auction instead of 7 day or making my item show up more prominently in listings for extra points.

This is like a non-evil Swoopo. Entertainment shopping that creates money out of thin air by having people give stuff away.

How do they assign a dollar value to the points for tax purposes? It's my understanding that they would have to in this scenario.

"1. Sign up and get 500 free credits"

I signed up and got 100 credits.

Why????

I think you need to list an item to get the 500 credits.

Just signed up and the site is cool.

Listia is very qool, er, cool!

I really like the clean interface; this site is one I will put next to Etsy on my list of good content site designs.

Congratulations.

1. Is there a way to sell your credits back? If not, won't black market deals just be created? e.g. creating an auction for a useless item?

2. If a new user signs up after viewing a listing for MY item, shouldn't I get the credit for the referral? Why not cookie them after they view my listing?

I agree with #2, since I think that is a large motivating factor for wanting to do the work to get more points.

#2 is definitely an interesting suggestion.

I don't quite get the black market thing though. If they can't trade the points for dollars, what's the motivation for creating useless auctions? Doesn't seem like a way to launder money.

1) Nokia cell phone is up for bids. Winning bid will be 1000 points.

2) I want to buy it. You don't.

3) The Nokia cell phone is worth $90 to me. It's worth $60 to you.

4) You have 1000 credits, from selling random stuff.

5) I could either buy $100 of credits and receive 1000 points, or I could give you $60 and receive 1000 points, making your life more convenient (you don't have to buy the phone, and then ebay it (credits->item->ebay->dollars ==> credits->dollars)

6) The best way to get 1000 points off of you is to have me PayPal you $60, and then for me to create an auction for some obscure useless good, and have you bid 1000 points for it. This strategy would require you to have a confederate to bid 999 points, although this is trivial if a black market is already established.

7) Alternatively, Listia could price its currency near to its sell price. This makes it unappealing to execute laundering schemes for small margins.

I want to buy $100 worth of credits from you guys. But what if I waste them bidding on items that never get delivered?

Also, do you cookie people once they click the referral link?

You have a bunch of typos on your About page

There's no way to tell how many credits I currently have that are available for bidding.

I want to be able to get email notification when I get outbid.

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