5 ms·

Show HN: I created a directory of the most durable products in the world

6 points by buyitforlife 2y ago

Hi HN, I'm a big fan of buy it for life products so I created a directory for them. I'm looking for some feedback!

hubraumhugo 2y ago
I'm having a bit of a deja-vu with this since I tried to build the same a few years ago, see my Show HN from back then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24707407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24707407 Some challenges I faced: - Warranties have many nuances depending on the country and the fine print - Monetizing this is hard. I see your using affiliate links, but this will hurt the trust of your users. - Only very few users are willing to write valuable in-depth reviews. I tried to collect data on how products perform over their lifetime (https://www.looria.com/reviews https://www.looria.com/reviews), but never reached a critical mass. - Astroturfing is a major issue. I aggregated many reviews from Reddit, but even there it's getting worse. Happy to chat or help out with data if you're interested :)
- buyitforlife 2y ago
  wow, thanks for the feedback. Really cool to see your response here after seeing you had such a successful Show HN. I did come across your website at some point before when looking to see if this existed. I think the main difference is you were doing UGC. -Definitely. IMO a 'lifetime warranty' isn't required for a BIFL product, it's nice to have though. However; some products absolutely depend on a lifetime warranty to make it BIFL, for example Husky Tools. I mostly included warranty info to help buyers be informed. -I agree. Affiliate links have a bad wrap IMO. I made sure that I only used affiliate links to Amazon so there is no bias with specific brands paying out higher percentages. I have a lot of products where I don't use any affiliate links (Patagonia for example). -I agree. User generated content would be nice but it's not realistic (at least not yet) I plan to continue to buy and test products myself before including them on my list. Eventually I'd like to have a team and would love to have a UGC component but all of that depends on how successful the site is. -Astrotrufing is one of the main reasons I made the website! Reddit has become a cesspool of bots and you cannot trust much on there anymore. Again it's super cool to see your feedback!
maalber 2y ago
Good idea, more focus on buy for life type products would definitely be a good change. I wonder what your criteria are for including products? Are there different categories/scales of how bfl certain products are? A little bit more info in this direction I think would be a good addition
- buyitforlife 2y ago
  Right now the criteria is a combination of historical opinions (Think Reddit / Forums before they were heavily astroturfed) and my own use case. There is a lot of discussion in the community on what should be considered BIFL. Some think it's items that will literally last a lifetime, some think it's items that last as long as possible for that specific category. I personally lean towards the 2nd option because if it was just items that lasted a literal lifetime all we would be talking about is cast iron. Appreciate the feedback! Any other thoughts?

6 points by buyitforlife 2y ago

Hi HN, I'm a big fan of buy it for life products so I created a directory for them. I'm looking for some feedback!

I'm having a bit of a deja-vu with this since I tried to build the same a few years ago, see my Show HN from back then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24707407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24707407 Some challenges I faced: - Warranties have many nuances depending on the country and the fine print - Monetizing this is hard. I see your using affiliate links, but this will hurt the trust of your users. - Only very few users are willing to write valuable in-depth reviews. I tried to collect data on how products perform over their lifetime (https://www.looria.com/reviews https://www.looria.com/reviews), but never reached a critical mass. - Astroturfing is a major issue. I aggregated many reviews from Reddit, but even there it's getting worse. Happy to chat or help out with data if you're interested :)

buyitforlife 2y ago
wow, thanks for the feedback. Really cool to see your response here after seeing you had such a successful Show HN. I did come across your website at some point before when looking to see if this existed. I think the main difference is you were doing UGC. -Definitely. IMO a 'lifetime warranty' isn't required for a BIFL product, it's nice to have though. However; some products absolutely depend on a lifetime warranty to make it BIFL, for example Husky Tools. I mostly included warranty info to help buyers be informed. -I agree. Affiliate links have a bad wrap IMO. I made sure that I only used affiliate links to Amazon so there is no bias with specific brands paying out higher percentages. I have a lot of products where I don't use any affiliate links (Patagonia for example). -I agree. User generated content would be nice but it's not realistic (at least not yet) I plan to continue to buy and test products myself before including them on my list. Eventually I'd like to have a team and would love to have a UGC component but all of that depends on how successful the site is. -Astrotrufing is one of the main reasons I made the website! Reddit has become a cesspool of bots and you cannot trust much on there anymore. Again it's super cool to see your feedback!

maalber 2y ago

Good idea, more focus on buy for life type products would definitely be a good change. I wonder what your criteria are for including products? Are there different categories/scales of how bfl certain products are? A little bit more info in this direction I think would be a good addition

buyitforlife 2y ago
Right now the criteria is a combination of historical opinions (Think Reddit / Forums before they were heavily astroturfed) and my own use case. There is a lot of discussion in the community on what should be considered BIFL. Some think it's items that will literally last a lifetime, some think it's items that last as long as possible for that specific category. I personally lean towards the 2nd option because if it was just items that lasted a literal lifetime all we would be talking about is cast iron. Appreciate the feedback! Any other thoughts?