5 ms·

Tinytrunk - Hyperlocal Flea Market

43 points by flocial 15y ago

coderdude 15y ago
This is nice, I like it. It's very simple and has a clean design. I'm not sure how they're going to make money with it since the sellers use their own PayPal accounts. Though, how else could you do it without putting your ass on the line? All you'd need is a string of bad sellers to send PayPal running for the hills.
- dot 15y ago
  you don't release payment to the seller for X days. enough time for the buyer to file a complaint...
  - coderdude 15y ago
    Not a bad idea at all. I wonder though, since the buyer can file a complaint directly through PayPal if holding the payment would be enough. It would be sort of like having all credit card-paying customers initiate chargebacks when they want a refund. Admittedly I've only recently begun using PayPal for selling so I'm still a bit unsure about how they handle some scenarios.
- fookyong 15y ago
  Thanks for the compliment :) The original problem was simply "I want to hook up a photo and my paypal account easily, so I can share the link with friends and sell my (physical) stuff". As you've touched on, I really don't want to get into payment processing myself (messy), even though it would be a simple path to revenue generation. I also don't want to charge people outright for using the service. I think this is way more casual than regular e-commerce, I'm not going to take a % transactional fee and/or a monthly fee just so a girl can sell a pair of shoes she doesn't wear. I figure that with enough mass there will be other opportunities to generate revenue by upselling services to help people extract more value. For example more visibility - if there's something you need to sell urgently, pay $1 and it appears on the top for a given locality / tag. I'm not really concentrating on building mass yet though. It's still very much in the MVP stage - right now all I want to prove is that I can help people sell their stuff. Need to get that right first.
  - bobds 15y ago
    "right now all I want to prove is that I can help people sell their stuff" Thanks for the inspiration. I need to do this.
munificent 15y ago
Oh, God, it's like Pinterest but you can spend money on it. Please, no one tell my wife about this.
dot 15y ago
I really like something about this. I wouldn't call it a hyperlocal flea market, that makes me think of craigslist for my block, when I think what you're trying to do is more of an etsy meets gumroad.
andreasklinger 15y ago
Yongfook you rock. Wish you all the best with this one :)
- fookyong 15y ago
  cheers!
  - garazy 15y ago
    How long is the waiting list? I signed up Feb 2nd. Other than that nice work.
    - fookyong 15y ago
      garazy > do you have things to sell? I'm kind of concentrating on one region for now (Singapore) so I've been letting those people in first from the waiting list, but if you have things to sell I'll let you in :)
chlee 15y ago
A small feedback. If I was a seller, I would be extremely uncomfortable with Tinytrunk showing my full-name in all of the items that I am trying to sell. I can foresee some privacy issues with this problem. For example, People can easily find information about me via google or some deep search engine. Instead, you can perhaps go with the Yelp route -- show the the user's first name and initial of his or her last name, e.g. Bill G. instead of Bill Gates.
- fookyong 15y ago
  that's good feedback! The original reason for this was accountability - I don't want to build a marketplace where any random username can just put up a photo of a product and collect money into a paypal account. That seems like it's asking for trouble. But I also see what you are saying. First name + initial is a decent compromise.
  - chlee 15y ago
    I glad this feedback is useful. To show how potentially creepy this is, I googled your users. I was able to find the user's linkedin and twitter in the 1st page of the search results. Anyways, good luck. I love the idea, and your design is fantastic. Best of luck going forward.
    - fookyong 15y ago
      Well as I said, that is kind of the idea. There needs to be some form of accountability so anonymous people don't just sell fake things. But yes, full disclosure might not be appropriate.
    - coderdude 15y ago
      I don't know why you think that's creepy. They put that information out there to begin with and for a reason (to be read by humans). Some things online require an identity. Things that involve money also involve real-life consequences and responsibilities to different parties. It would be an overwhelmingly bad idea to start letting sellers hide behind usernames if those sellers are responsible for accepting money and shipping products. (This would be somewhat solved by Tinytrunk handling payments, but that goes against one of his stated goals of not charging processing fees.)
tyok 15y ago
Is there any reason you didn't implement any search or filtering feature?
- fookyong 15y ago
  yup! it's an MVP (a few days of work?) and there's only like 50 products in the database right now :) If I get to over 100 products I'll put in filtering controls.
raghus 15y ago
This looks very nice which leads me to a somewhat tangential question: how is it that the photography on these sites is so gorgeous? This is just supposed to be stuff from one's closet. I fancy myself as handy with a DSLR and even I wonder if I'd be taking such classy DOF-y Bokeh-y pics of watches and shoes to post on (an admittedly much niftier version of) Craigslist? Just imagine what a poorer impression this site would make if the pics actually were like what you'd find on Craigslist? Is the front page curated like heck or what?
- Game_Ender 15y ago
  The front page looks curated and static, so it's no surprise they found the best looking items to put up there.
- fookyong 15y ago
  Love the healthy skepticism! I think I just got lucky with the first batch of users. The homepage is not curated. Everything is just in chronological order of upload. You raise a good point though, crappier pictures would definitely lower the first impression and if/when I achieve mass with this project then curation of some sort will have to factor into the homepage products.
  - raghus 15y ago
    Thanks for replying. I am not so much skeptical as I am jealous :-) Anyway, I wish you all luck in hitting critical mass soon - I've requested an invite myself (email is in my HN profile) and if you can speed up my request to join, I'll be happy to post some stuff I've got and send you feedback on the process. Good luck!
iantay 15y ago
Hi Yongfook, I'm on the waiting list and I have some things i want to sell. Could I have an invite? I'm from Singapore.

43 points by flocial 15y ago

This is nice, I like it. It's very simple and has a clean design. I'm not sure how they're going to make money with it since the sellers use their own PayPal accounts. Though, how else could you do it without putting your ass on the line? All you'd need is a string of bad sellers to send PayPal running for the hills.

dot 15y ago
you don't release payment to the seller for X days. enough time for the buyer to file a complaint...
- coderdude 15y ago
  Not a bad idea at all. I wonder though, since the buyer can file a complaint directly through PayPal if holding the payment would be enough. It would be sort of like having all credit card-paying customers initiate chargebacks when they want a refund. Admittedly I've only recently begun using PayPal for selling so I'm still a bit unsure about how they handle some scenarios.
fookyong 15y ago
Thanks for the compliment :) The original problem was simply "I want to hook up a photo and my paypal account easily, so I can share the link with friends and sell my (physical) stuff". As you've touched on, I really don't want to get into payment processing myself (messy), even though it would be a simple path to revenue generation. I also don't want to charge people outright for using the service. I think this is way more casual than regular e-commerce, I'm not going to take a % transactional fee and/or a monthly fee just so a girl can sell a pair of shoes she doesn't wear. I figure that with enough mass there will be other opportunities to generate revenue by upselling services to help people extract more value. For example more visibility - if there's something you need to sell urgently, pay $1 and it appears on the top for a given locality / tag. I'm not really concentrating on building mass yet though. It's still very much in the MVP stage - right now all I want to prove is that I can help people sell their stuff. Need to get that right first.
- bobds 15y ago
  "right now all I want to prove is that I can help people sell their stuff" Thanks for the inspiration. I need to do this.

munificent 15y ago

Oh, God, it's like Pinterest but you can spend money on it. Please, no one tell my wife about this.

dot 15y ago

I really like something about this. I wouldn't call it a hyperlocal flea market, that makes me think of craigslist for my block, when I think what you're trying to do is more of an etsy meets gumroad.

andreasklinger 15y ago

Yongfook you rock. Wish you all the best with this one :)

fookyong 15y ago
cheers!
- garazy 15y ago
  How long is the waiting list? I signed up Feb 2nd. Other than that nice work.
  - fookyong 15y ago
    garazy > do you have things to sell? I'm kind of concentrating on one region for now (Singapore) so I've been letting those people in first from the waiting list, but if you have things to sell I'll let you in :)

chlee 15y ago

A small feedback. If I was a seller, I would be extremely uncomfortable with Tinytrunk showing my full-name in all of the items that I am trying to sell. I can foresee some privacy issues with this problem. For example, People can easily find information about me via google or some deep search engine. Instead, you can perhaps go with the Yelp route -- show the the user's first name and initial of his or her last name, e.g. Bill G. instead of Bill Gates.

fookyong 15y ago
that's good feedback! The original reason for this was accountability - I don't want to build a marketplace where any random username can just put up a photo of a product and collect money into a paypal account. That seems like it's asking for trouble. But I also see what you are saying. First name + initial is a decent compromise.
- chlee 15y ago
  I glad this feedback is useful. To show how potentially creepy this is, I googled your users. I was able to find the user's linkedin and twitter in the 1st page of the search results. Anyways, good luck. I love the idea, and your design is fantastic. Best of luck going forward.
  - fookyong 15y ago
    Well as I said, that is kind of the idea. There needs to be some form of accountability so anonymous people don't just sell fake things. But yes, full disclosure might not be appropriate.
  - coderdude 15y ago
    I don't know why you think that's creepy. They put that information out there to begin with and for a reason (to be read by humans). Some things online require an identity. Things that involve money also involve real-life consequences and responsibilities to different parties. It would be an overwhelmingly bad idea to start letting sellers hide behind usernames if those sellers are responsible for accepting money and shipping products. (This would be somewhat solved by Tinytrunk handling payments, but that goes against one of his stated goals of not charging processing fees.)

tyok 15y ago

Is there any reason you didn't implement any search or filtering feature?

fookyong 15y ago
yup! it's an MVP (a few days of work?) and there's only like 50 products in the database right now :) If I get to over 100 products I'll put in filtering controls.

raghus 15y ago

This looks very nice which leads me to a somewhat tangential question: how is it that the photography on these sites is so gorgeous? This is just supposed to be stuff from one's closet. I fancy myself as handy with a DSLR and even I wonder if I'd be taking such classy DOF-y Bokeh-y pics of watches and shoes to post on (an admittedly much niftier version of) Craigslist? Just imagine what a poorer impression this site would make if the pics actually were like what you'd find on Craigslist? Is the front page curated like heck or what?

Game_Ender 15y ago
The front page looks curated and static, so it's no surprise they found the best looking items to put up there.
fookyong 15y ago
Love the healthy skepticism! I think I just got lucky with the first batch of users. The homepage is not curated. Everything is just in chronological order of upload. You raise a good point though, crappier pictures would definitely lower the first impression and if/when I achieve mass with this project then curation of some sort will have to factor into the homepage products.
- raghus 15y ago
  Thanks for replying. I am not so much skeptical as I am jealous :-) Anyway, I wish you all luck in hitting critical mass soon - I've requested an invite myself (email is in my HN profile) and if you can speed up my request to join, I'll be happy to post some stuff I've got and send you feedback on the process. Good luck!

iantay 15y ago

Hi Yongfook, I'm on the waiting list and I have some things i want to sell. Could I have an invite? I'm from Singapore.