23 ms·

I love this idea because I think this is a huge win-win for both buyers, sellers, and efficiency (more stuff gets used, less gets tossed). As the comments have

by riggins 12y ago

I love this idea because I think this is a huge win-win for both buyers, sellers, and efficiency (more stuff gets used, less gets tossed). As the comments have pointed out the difficulty is accurately identifying items. With used books you don't have that problem because every book has an ISBN number so you can easily identify any book. That's enabled a robust used book market. So maybe the business isn't the end product, maybe the business is an intermediate step, the equivalent to ISBN numbers for everything. The business I'm thinking of is QR tags for everything. The QR code allows the owner to simply scan the QR code when they want to sell their stuff. You'd have to work with OEMs. The pitch to the OEMs is that a QR code that allows the item to be identified and easily resold enhances the resale value, thus enhancing the initial value of the item.

miguelrochefort 12y ago
Yes. I quickly realised that the business is indeed the item identification mechanism. I used to call the idea "Facebook for Things", where everything has a profile. Part of the idea was to identify stuff, and then send people a QR code so that they could refer to physical item with a simple scan. Want to find someone that can repair that particular guitar? Scan it, pick "Find repairman" (or any other contextual action), and you're set. Insurance backlog, selling, lending, sharing, hands-on trial (before buying online), lost & found, quick review, ownership history, package tracking, user's manual, community hacks and mods, 3D print a case/accessory, buy related accessories, brag, home automation, etc. Once you can refer to a specific item precisely (knowing everything about it), the sky's the limit. I looked at existing barcodes you can find on some items, but they're rather limited. Recognizing games, music, movies and books is easy. But that's quickly becoming all digital.

by riggins 12y ago

miguelrochefort 12y ago

Yes. I quickly realised that the business is indeed the item identification mechanism. I used to call the idea "Facebook for Things", where everything has a profile. Part of the idea was to identify stuff, and then send people a QR code so that they could refer to physical item with a simple scan. Want to find someone that can repair that particular guitar? Scan it, pick "Find repairman" (or any other contextual action), and you're set. Insurance backlog, selling, lending, sharing, hands-on trial (before buying online), lost & found, quick review, ownership history, package tracking, user's manual, community hacks and mods, 3D print a case/accessory, buy related accessories, brag, home automation, etc. Once you can refer to a specific item precisely (knowing everything about it), the sky's the limit. I looked at existing barcodes you can find on some items, but they're rather limited. Recognizing games, music, movies and books is easy. But that's quickly becoming all digital.