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This was the first "successful" site that I launched. Took me about a month to develop originally, and launched it last year on Black Friday. Subsequently sold

This was the first "successful" site that I launched. Took me about a month to develop originally, and launched it last year on Black Friday. Subsequently sold the business to a competitor and still operate it for them as a side job. Have put quite a bit of time into it over the past year and just had a relaunch with a new backend system. Basically direct user-to-user trading via the postal service. You sell your games for virtual currency that you use to buy games from other folks. We used to charge for it, but now it's free with a limited ability to get cash for your currency if you can't find anything to buy. Running on Heroku, RoR, Bootstrap (as if it isn't obvious), with plenty of other open source tech behind it. Any questions, feel free to ask.

pervycreeper 13y ago
>Any questions, feel free to ask How do you make money?
- mathgeek 13y ago
  Under the "old" system, there was a $1-$2 fee per trade. Back then, we were doing automatching. You listed what you had, and what you wanted, and the system would match up buyers with sellers (which is what you paid the dollar for). Now, the currency (credits) can be purchased at a rate of $1 per 100 credits. You don't have to buy any, as you can get them in return for the games you want to get rid of, but it's an option if you see something you want to grab right now at a good price. There's also a limited currency buyback program that anyone can use once a month if they don't see any games they want, but want to get case back. That's under maintenance right now, but will be launching again next week.
  - jere 13y ago
    Your answer is a little unclear. If you're essentially printing money (i.e. "credits") and then guaranteeing to buy them back at the same rate, it seems like you would net nothing. Unless you're counting on credits never getting cashed back in or making interest on the deposits. From your FAQ, it seems like the profit comes in the form of a $1 buyback transaction fee. Am I mistaken?
    - mathgeek 13y ago
      Sorry, hope this clarifies. Not every credit that's sold ends up getting cashed out (it's a limited program as far as how many sales worth of currency you can get in cash). That $1 difference helps, but in the end the currency sold is still the main revenue. The buyback is merely a way of ensuring that if you sell games but can't find anything to get back for them, you can get cash. That's limited to 5 games/month.
      - MichaelGG 13y ago
        So the model is hoping people end up with leftover credits? Isn't this similar to a stored-value model, with state laws mandating that any leftover credit has to be returned? I must have misunderstood.
        mathgeek 13y ago
        No, it's simply a model where you continue trading those credits for games. Naturally there is some risk involved, but you can simply buy games to spend down your balance.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
hkarthik 13y ago
This is awesome and I plan to use it in the future. I'm curious how you deal with possible fraud or how you insulate yourself? From an infrastructure perspective, how long did it take you to break even on your costs with Heroku? What kind of configuration did you start with to keep the site's availability under control? Feel free to provide as much or as little detail as you would like. Thanks!
- mathgeek 13y ago
  Fraud really hasn't been an issue, at least as far as we've been alerted to it. We hold the credits until the buyer confirms receipt and that the game works, so anyone sending out fake games would need to make them pretty convincing. There's only been one person that I'm aware of doing that, and that was discovered pretty quickly thanks to the buyers alerting me of the situation. Heroku's been one of the main reasons I was able to launch the site and iterate new features so quickly. 99% of the time the site runs on a single web dyno using unicorn to serve more than one request at a time, plus one worker for sending emails, popping up site notifications (using Gritter for that), etc. It's been that way since launch.
  - CodeMage 13y ago
    Fraud really hasn't been an issue, at least as far as we've been alerted to it. We hold the credits until the buyer confirms receipt and that the game works, so anyone sending out fake games would need to make them pretty convincing. So what happens if Alice sends Bob a legit game, but Bob claims it's a fake? Didn't Bob just get a game for free?
    - mathgeek 13y ago
      In that case Bob is required to send the game to us for verification. Nothing change hands until that is resolved. Bob gets credits to cover the shipping costs to send the game to us, if it's a legitimate claim.
      - jamais 13y ago

pervycreeper 13y ago

>Any questions, feel free to ask How do you make money?

mathgeek 13y ago
Under the "old" system, there was a $1-$2 fee per trade. Back then, we were doing automatching. You listed what you had, and what you wanted, and the system would match up buyers with sellers (which is what you paid the dollar for). Now, the currency (credits) can be purchased at a rate of $1 per 100 credits. You don't have to buy any, as you can get them in return for the games you want to get rid of, but it's an option if you see something you want to grab right now at a good price. There's also a limited currency buyback program that anyone can use once a month if they don't see any games they want, but want to get case back. That's under maintenance right now, but will be launching again next week.
- jere 13y ago
  Your answer is a little unclear. If you're essentially printing money (i.e. "credits") and then guaranteeing to buy them back at the same rate, it seems like you would net nothing. Unless you're counting on credits never getting cashed back in or making interest on the deposits. From your FAQ, it seems like the profit comes in the form of a $1 buyback transaction fee. Am I mistaken?
  - mathgeek 13y ago
    Sorry, hope this clarifies. Not every credit that's sold ends up getting cashed out (it's a limited program as far as how many sales worth of currency you can get in cash). That $1 difference helps, but in the end the currency sold is still the main revenue. The buyback is merely a way of ensuring that if you sell games but can't find anything to get back for them, you can get cash. That's limited to 5 games/month.
    - MichaelGG 13y ago
      So the model is hoping people end up with leftover credits? Isn't this similar to a stored-value model, with state laws mandating that any leftover credit has to be returned? I must have misunderstood.
      - mathgeek 13y ago
        No, it's simply a model where you continue trading those credits for games. Naturally there is some risk involved, but you can simply buy games to spend down your balance.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

hkarthik 13y ago

This is awesome and I plan to use it in the future. I'm curious how you deal with possible fraud or how you insulate yourself? From an infrastructure perspective, how long did it take you to break even on your costs with Heroku? What kind of configuration did you start with to keep the site's availability under control? Feel free to provide as much or as little detail as you would like. Thanks!

mathgeek 13y ago
Fraud really hasn't been an issue, at least as far as we've been alerted to it. We hold the credits until the buyer confirms receipt and that the game works, so anyone sending out fake games would need to make them pretty convincing. There's only been one person that I'm aware of doing that, and that was discovered pretty quickly thanks to the buyers alerting me of the situation. Heroku's been one of the main reasons I was able to launch the site and iterate new features so quickly. 99% of the time the site runs on a single web dyno using unicorn to serve more than one request at a time, plus one worker for sending emails, popping up site notifications (using Gritter for that), etc. It's been that way since launch.
- CodeMage 13y ago
  Fraud really hasn't been an issue, at least as far as we've been alerted to it. We hold the credits until the buyer confirms receipt and that the game works, so anyone sending out fake games would need to make them pretty convincing. So what happens if Alice sends Bob a legit game, but Bob claims it's a fake? Didn't Bob just get a game for free?
  - mathgeek 13y ago
    In that case Bob is required to send the game to us for verification. Nothing change hands until that is resolved. Bob gets credits to cover the shipping costs to send the game to us, if it's a legitimate claim.
    - jamais 13y ago