New Reef Classified Buy/Sell/Trade System

[Tobe71]

Is it possible to REQUIRE payments be through paypal by VERIFIED paypal members? Seems like that could potentially weed on some riff raff.

The other big thing would be integrating trading feedback. This could especially be useful for a trading system to show that previous trades were successful.

Seller and buyer ratings would go a long way to building confidence on both sides too. Basically, just knock off eBay. Ha!

 

[Ponraj A]

Being in India, I am using Ebay.com / aliexpress /saltwater aquarium.com / seaflower / aquaristik shop for most of my purchases, I would like to mention the below difficulties which i was facing.

1. would be better if we can go through customer reviews and installation procedures
2. payment through paypal or other trustable sites
3. would like see the pictures in detail
4. clubbing the courier cost for the items ordered for transit to India
5. packing and organizing to receive the articles safely. As you are aware how we feel in this hobby when we receive and broken or damaged item. Ofcourse all the above mentioned sites support for return transit of the damaged items and replace it but the time and patience of us are in vein.
6. selling good quality products and building the trust with buyers.

 

[Doubbler]

I quit buying online only because of the shipping costs. The only time I will make online purchases is if I know I can have the seller hold all purchases until I fill a box, or have enough disposable income to pay shipping

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

A livestock thing like what is being described will just turn into a price war, only the people with the cheapest item and cheapest shipping will be selling. No vendors will stick around for that when they can be putting that same time and effort into their own web page. Could send up being like Aquabid which is only small breeders and LFS, along with small home breeders competing but no actual big players are involved because it's not worth the time.

 

[Reefltx]

This could be awesome.
Say I want to buy a red planet frag, search pulls up a list of all available sellers and price range. Maybe have something like "Prime" Available from sponsors.

I wouldn't mind paying a yearly fee for "R2R Prime".

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I'd much rather see live goods in person, but a website dedicated to buying and trading dry goods between reefers would be awesome.

 

[Frop]

There are already websites with tons of selections.

 

[happ]

It would have to be like ebay where there is some kind of protection when buy

 

[trevormass7]

Ok I've only read part of this and it sounds amazing, my vote is a definite yes. I live in a small town that can't even get next day shipping. The most expensive part of the hobby for me is getting things here. If I could connect with local reefers that would be great

 

[Forsaken77]

I think businesses should be in a separate section than person to person sales. Not just businesses listing new equipment for sale and someone having to wade through all of the business products to find a person selling new equipment they, hypothetically, impulsively bought on sale and now want to sell off. Make it work for the individuals as well. Give them the same chance as the businesses, without getting lost in the noise.

There should definitely be a section for member-only sales that aren't muddled in with businesses. Because it seems like businesses are the driving force behind this (for revenue purposes). Just please don't let that interfere with individuals trying to sell stuff to other hobbyists.

 

[Tobe71]

I think businesses should be in a separate section than person to person sales. Not just businesses listing new equipment for sale and someone having to wade through all of the business products to find a person selling new equipment they, hypothetically, impulsively bought on sale and now want to sell off. Make it work for the individuals as well. Give them the same chance as the businesses, without getting lost in the noise.

There should definitely be a section for member-only sales that aren't muddled in with businesses. Because it seems like businesses are the driving force behind this (for revenue purposes). Just please don't let that interfere with individuals trying to sell stuff to other hobbyists.

EXACTLY what Forsaken77 just said!

 

[Peng]

Wow I've been buying and selling frags with hobbyists but never really thought slamming was such a big and frequent(?) issue here. I would suggest:
1. Make selling/buying from hobbyists easier - like an eBay market place.
2. Charge a fee for the feature for better maintenance
3. Sellers and buyers can be rated once the purchase is verified
4. Require pictures and the source of lighting (all bulbs or just blue/violet/UV only)

However, be careful about potential price wars. Not until I started to sell corals had I realized how much time and efforts it takes to grow corals, prep the frags, take pics, write posts, chat, pack the frags, and eventually send them out. But I'm all for a more convenient way for people to sell livestock and reduce scamming activities. Also vendors with obviously outrageous prices should be discouraged by this market as well - we can pay more to buy quality livestock from well-rated vendors but sometimes the prices from some vendors/sponsors can be outrageous.

 

[Lofr]

Being new to saltwater (cichlids and an established goldfish/koi pond), am not one that would probably post that much because I'm reading and learning. At the same time, my needs list probably exceeds those who are "well-known members" so to limit the ability to buy/sell due to the amount a member has posted seems contrary to me. Given, of course, the earlier posts regarding the security measures.

 

[inurmind]

I agree with a lot of what's been said... I'm feeling a cross between eBay, Amazon and Craigslist! ..."Reeflist"?

Big on the idea of search location/distance variances (ship/local pickup only) being an option as well as being able to click out of commercial listings included in the results.

I'd definitely use it though!

 

[keddre]

the one think that I dislike about a certain popular website is their lack of filters. If you go to their site you can go to section A but you can only break down by brand name; nothing else like gph, ratings, etc.

Another think I would like to see is subscriptions. One think I like about amazon is I can sign up to have fish food sent to me monthly

 

[vetteguy53081]

I would like to see a feedback system. Location is a must. Categories for products would also be helpful.

We have a feedback system. Unfortuanetly it is not as visible /user friendly as it was in the past. Would be great to see the old version reinstated.

 

[vlangel]

I checked maybe because I would use a service like this if it was easy to use and competively priced. I do not have paypal however so if it is connected to paypal I would not use it. I prefer to do online buying by purchasing gift cards so that my finances are not connected to the web.

 

[pilot108]

I think it's a good idea. I would definitely use it over the Facebook sale groups, I won't use them because my wife is on Facebook and she would see how much I spend lol I'm sure I'm not in that boat alone

 

[klp]

1. It seems this is to be used primarily for businesses. Like others I would like to see a non business section.
2. Selling livestock in many cases involves shipping which many of us non professionals will not be successful at IMO. Live when shipped dead when received. Talk about promoting issues.
3. A live seller shipping kit should be available from R2R for shipping to cold as well as warm climates for non business folk.
4. Detailed instructions should be available online at R2R on how to actually ship live fish or and corals and exactly what is required as a minimum. This should be considered as mandatory and should be expected by the buyer otherwise this could be a fiasco.
5. I think there should be a "for local pickup only" feature for those that do not want to ship.
6. I think selling used equipment would be a great service to us all. Many are stuck with old equipment that still functions and would be a nice for a starter tank, frag tank, hospital tank, quarantine tank etc. A 30 day limit then automatic removal would keep it from being cluttered. They could repost if desired.
7. Do not limit the amount of pages such as search for 15, 30, 50 etc. Have a scrolling feature ala Facebook. I despise waiting to go from page to page or remembering what page whatever was on. I have just stopped searching before and gone to other sites.
8. Have sections for fish, corals and invertebrates with subsections such as SPS etc. for quicker searching.
9. A separate vendor list for who sells what whether fish, corals, hardware only etc. so we can hit all the relevant sites and see what they offer.

Hope some of these ideas are helpful to you. Good luck with it!

 

[Bob E]

Just a thought not sure how to put this on paper

Maybe you setup the marketplace two ways.

The individual members use the R2R future setup pay method that they would create and the commercial vendors would be link that would send you to their own site to complete the purchase. This may be a way to allow the commercial sellers to essentially get exposer without paying extra IT cost in the R2R marketplace. Obviously there would be toggles to turn search options on and off. Example to look for cheaper used equipment vs. new commercial sellers

Maybe the people that now this better can add pros and cons to this

Would definitely like to see the local/near by check box