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>There will be no site that does not offer advertising, because advertising allows the site to determine which sellers can afford to pay more while still being

>There will be no site that does not offer advertising, because advertising allows the site to determine which sellers can afford to pay more while still being profitable. It's still possible that people exist who charge "what it's worth" rather than "what they can get". Those people can still make a fine living off of a two sided market place through flat transaction fees. Craigslist is an example that comes immediately to mind. Smart market participants are already punishing providers that maximize profit with payola, which is leading to success of new smaller niche markets - reverb.com comes to mind, or bricklink.com or alibris.com. That is not to say the market of markets is "solving" this problem - we probably want more consumer protection law - but it does show that your startement about ads is, strictly speaking, false.

afiori 3y ago
But you need the entire marketplace to follow that rule. You cannot charge "what it's worth" on amazon because you either pay the ad tax or you compete for the lowest price.
alsetmusic 3y ago
Craigslist is a hell hole. I stopped selling there because even when I was practically giving electronics away (to prevent buyer’s remorse), people still emailed insultingly low offers. I just gave up on the site maybe five years ago.
- simpaticoder 3y ago
  CL has gotten much much worse over the last few years. So has FB Marketplace. Perhaps a hidden value of the payola approach is to avoid these outcomes. Or perhaps every marketplace declines like this. It may be that private secondary market online market is simply not a sustainable business. That would be unfortunate, but interesting.
- tgma 3y ago
  I think that reflects more on your sales strategy than CL in general. If there's negotiating expectations in a market (Middle East or Craigslist) you gotta start higher to arrive at the desired "halfway point" (think Ross pricing for clothes) and you gotta ignore spam/lowballs altogether. In fact pricing things too low undermines the quality of the item you're selling perceptually and attracts lowballers disproportionately. CL has gotten worse since FB Marketplace has gotten foothold people visit it much less. FB Marketplace on the other hand is a race to the bottom due to ease of sales by laypeople.
balex 3y ago
The problem is that "what it's worth" can only be determined via "what you can get". Flat fees are just operational costs + capped profit. And the next question would be, where do you place that cap and why there?

afiori 3y ago

But you need the entire marketplace to follow that rule. You cannot charge "what it's worth" on amazon because you either pay the ad tax or you compete for the lowest price.

alsetmusic 3y ago

Craigslist is a hell hole. I stopped selling there because even when I was practically giving electronics away (to prevent buyer’s remorse), people still emailed insultingly low offers. I just gave up on the site maybe five years ago.

simpaticoder 3y ago
CL has gotten much much worse over the last few years. So has FB Marketplace. Perhaps a hidden value of the payola approach is to avoid these outcomes. Or perhaps every marketplace declines like this. It may be that private secondary market online market is simply not a sustainable business. That would be unfortunate, but interesting.
tgma 3y ago
I think that reflects more on your sales strategy than CL in general. If there's negotiating expectations in a market (Middle East or Craigslist) you gotta start higher to arrive at the desired "halfway point" (think Ross pricing for clothes) and you gotta ignore spam/lowballs altogether. In fact pricing things too low undermines the quality of the item you're selling perceptually and attracts lowballers disproportionately. CL has gotten worse since FB Marketplace has gotten foothold people visit it much less. FB Marketplace on the other hand is a race to the bottom due to ease of sales by laypeople.

balex 3y ago

The problem is that "what it's worth" can only be determined via "what you can get". Flat fees are just operational costs + capped profit. And the next question would be, where do you place that cap and why there?