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Show HN: Get a list of your Amazon purchases and see what you can sell them for
- balor123 12y agoMaybe get the purchase history another way? Use the new Gmail API to search for the Amazon emails. Could easily extend to other stores as well.
- loumf 12y agoOr use this http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200131240 http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=2... I know it puts some burden on the customer, but as a fallback, it's better than losing them.
- StephanKletzl 12y agoWe tried it ... however, the steps (go to Amazon, download the history, search it in your downloads folder and upload it on ShelfFlip) was a bit too confusing - so we don't offer that option (at the moment).
- ChristianKletzl 12y agoGreat idea. We have that actually implemented, but are currently not displaying it. Unfortunately people are even less likely to give a website access to their emails, since this often means giving access to pretty much everything (through "I forgot my password" emails)
- MichaelGG 12y agoAmazon has order reports, do they not? Why not just allow importing of that?
- cm2012 12y agoAwesome business model and setup.
- StephanKletzl 12y agoThanks for your comment, I am glad you like it. (PS: No, the parent comment was not a self-promotion by us - I swear)
- dewey 12y agoLooks nice, but it just feels a bit weird to enter your amazon password with linked credit cards and bank accounts on another site. I'm aware that there's probably no better way of accessing that purchase history data but it's just something people are preaching for years shouldn't be done.
- ChristianKletzl 12y agoAgreed. However, even with your credentials, we wouldn't be able to access your credit card number (Amazon hides it). Additionally, if we would want to order anything in your name, but our address, we would have to reconfirm the credit card number, which we don't have.
- JelteF 12y agoThis should be right there at the sign in screen. This is info people don't know, but will give them a lot safer feeling using your site.
- falcolas 12y agoYou could, however, spin up or down EC2 instances associated with that account. You could easily destroy a business with this information, or bankrupt a person (well, Amazon is usually pretty good about forgiving accidental charges, but imagine explaining to them how someone got your credentials).
- bearbin 12y agoThis seems like a cool idea, but I don't feel comfortable giving out my Amazon credentials with no guarantee of how they are used.
- pdabbadabba 12y agoAgreed. My understanding is that having your password does not necessarily allow someone to see your CC number or order things on your behalf through Amazon, but it definitely does not seem like a best practice to go around handing out one's Amazon password. This sort of thing sounds like a good argument, though, for Amazon's implementing the sort of fine-grained permissions (in conjunction with a federated authentication system like oauth) one finds on twitter, FB, Google, and other services with a well-developed API and ecosystem. I would happily authorize a site like this to view my order history, even if I would not be willing to provide my password.
- ChristianKletzl 12y agoI wish Amazon would implement this. We see them visiting our site a lot. If you read this, dear Amazon employee, please implement :)
- mritun 12y agoIt's in progress: http://login.amazon.com http://login.amazon.com
- sliverstorm 12y agoAlso highly risky is AWS. Maybe an attacker can't order diamond rings for themselves, but they certainly could spin up a million EC2 instances to mine bitcoin. The cost efficiency is terrible of course, but what do they care.
- ChristianKletzl 12y agoWe haven't tested that, but I highly recommend (regardless of using ShelfFlip) to use "Multi-Factor Authentication" for AWS.
- izzydata 12y agoUnfortunately I agree with everyone else and I was immediately wary when it asked me for my amazon credentials. There must be a better way to get this information. Also these prices make no sense for when I search items directly. How can a flawless Nexus 7 2013 be worth only $70? Where can I buy them all?
- slig 12y ago> How can a flawless Nexus 7 2013 be worth only $70? Where can I buy them all? It's worth $70 to them. They are buying to resell, and they can pay a lower price for the convenience of getting the item from your house and paying you instantly. One can always sell it on eBay/craigslist and get a bigger price, but you'll have to deal with buyers, scammers, shipping, etc. It boils down to how much your time is worth and/or how fast you need the money.
- StephanKletzl 12y agoPricing is definitely one of our challenges. We are currently paying prices of around 80% of what we think is a fair amazon market value, while giving the user a hassle-free sales experience. (Our prices are not manually entered but automatically calculated [e.g. based on price on Amazon, prices on other recommerce sites, ...]) This (almost) always leads to prices that are higher than Gazelle's or NextWorth's while also offering the convenience of getting paid within 24 hours. (in SF)
- azurelogic 12y agoI had a bad feeling as soon as I saw the "Let's find out button". When my fears were confirmed, I immediately closed the tab. You HAVE to find a better way to do this. People are becoming increasingly aware of the risks of this kind of behavior on malicious sites, and potential users will walk away out of paranoia. It's a great idea, if you can find another way.
- donall 12y agoI'm curious about the algorithm. Is there a ceiling for book prices? I seemed to get very similar results for multiple different types of books, including being offered $3.21 for one that sells for $100:http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0575066601?pc_redir=1405401886&robot_redir=1 http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0575066601?pc_redir=1405401886...
- ChristianKletzl 12y agoThere is no ceiling in place (I need to look into why different books show similar results). For the mentioned book, there's a difference between for how much it is offered and for how much it is bought (if someone wants $100, it doesn't mean that anyone is buying it for that price) Scanning 44 other book-buying sites, only 3 are buying that book and the price is between $0.12 and $3.97
- donall 12y agoMakes sense. I didn't realize you had multiple sources, but I'm glad you do!
- saddestcatever 12y agoI'm curious to see where the pricing structure is coming from. For example: Apple MacBook Pro ME864LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop with Retina Display (NEWEST VERSION) $382.32 It's a compelling business idea, and I understand there's a need to generate a profit, yet the math seems a little off.
- ChristianKletzl 12y agoI looked into this and the price is now $472. (HN traffic is stress-testing our pricing engine) For this item, we relied on Amazon's trade-in price, which we want to get away from very soon. (because the prices are too low, imho)
- silentbob46 12y agoAfter giving this a try, I got an email from Amazon saying they've reset my password because I "may have been subject to a 'phishing' scam".
- ChristianKletzl 12y agoI am really sorry to hear that. We've experienced that once or twice before. This happens when the phone number associated with the account doesn't match the one you entered. Unfortunately, Amazon sometimes asks for an old phone number, as long as that number has at one point been associated with your account. ShelfFlip definitely doesn't do anything scammy.
- JustSomeNobody 12y agoI don't think you are, but if you were doing something scammy, would you _really_ admit to it?
- ChristianKletzl 12y agohaha I know... I just wanted to highlight that
- fursund 12y agoThis is a really good idea! I'd say Amazon isn't the only place I buy stuff, so adding places like Target, IKEA, etc. would be great!
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- JadoJodo 12y agoFor what it's worth, I did this and it prompted Amazon to reset my password due to suspected phishing attempts.
- meritt 12y agoIs this obtaining pricing via the Product Advertising API or is it doing via more traditional scraping (e.g. website or mobile app)?
- martingordon 12y agoWhen you sign up, your Amazon email and password are sent to server using GET and so are visible in the URL. While the request is done over HTTPS (and traffic snoopers can't see it), it is very likely that there are a ton of Amazon credentials lying around unencrypted in a log somewhere on their server. For some reason, the "Norton Secured" badge makes me less likely to trust the site and looking at the inline, not very well written Javascript gives me even less confident that the guys behind this site have the technical chops to keep my data secure.
- jggonz 12y agoI agree. The use of the Norton Secured badge made me quickly leave the site. A possible solution: There's a "Login with Amazon" service that may be what the developer needs to be using: http://login.amazon.com/ http://login.amazon.com/
- martingordon 12y agoAccording to one of the founders, "Login with Amazon" doesn't grant access to a user's Amazon account.[1] If they were using it, there would be no need to ask for users' passwords. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8070310 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8070310
- ChristianKletzl 12y agoA/B testing showed that the Norton security badge is perceived positively. Does anyone have a different experience?
- dbtc 12y agoI would guess that A/B testing against HN users would provide different results than the general population.
- seanlinehan 12y agoI can't speak broadly, only from my personal reaction. I also left the site after seeing the Norton logo (and before reading the comments here), because it seemed completely misplaced. I associate Norton with cleaning my computer of badware, not of whether or not some just-launched service is treating my data securely. Because it seemed out of place, it felt like it was an obvious tactic to bootstrap trust where there wasn't any. A better icon (for me) would have been a badge from your SSL provider, or even just some well designed lock icon.
- Practicality 12y agoThe simple login prompt for a different site is terrifying. Even if you can be trusted today, are you sure you won't hire an employee tomorrow who will sell all those passwords for fun and profit?
- elyrly 12y agoodd they would release it on hacker news with this flaw.
- thekevan 12y agoNot only would I echo the "give a website my Amazon creds" argument, but what if I want to sell things I haven't bought from Amazon and/or (like me) you don't really buy things on Amazon? I have lots of things I would like to sell and declutter, but none of them are from Amazon.
- ChristianKletzl 12y agoYou can also sell products that you haven't bought on Amazon - if we show a price, then we are buying it (you can search for books / electronics here: www.shelfFlip.com/search.php).
- ChristianKletzl 12y ago---UPDATE--- @everyone: Want us to email you as soon as we have a password-free way to import your purchases? (for example through csv import) Shoot me an email to christian@shelfflip.com (subject: "shelfflip passwordfree")
- schrodinger 12y agoYou should really do the right thing and takes this down until then.
- StephanKletzl 12y agoWe offered a password-free option but it was too complicated (and thus, the users preferred the current option). We'll likely add the other option in the future (but only as an addition to the current option).
- schrodinger 12y agoYou should be prepared for Amazon to block requests from your servers. (And I think this would be the right thing for them to do)
- schrodinger 12y agoHonestly, this is unethical. You should not be collecting peoples' usernames and passwords, being a software engineer aware of the consequences, regardless of whether users are willing to give them up. There are so many things that can go wrong, even if you've got the best of intentions.
- cnaut 12y agoI don't feel comfortable giving my amazon login credentials like a lot of people here. I think Unioncy (https://unioncy.com/ https://unioncy.com/) has an interesting solution to this. They parse your emails for amazon receipts to figure out your amazon purchases.
- billsinc 12y agoWhat about going the "TripIt" route and let people forward their email receipts? You could parse and let people populate their accounts that way. I think you can even request old receipts for ones you've deleted.
- nigo 12y agoAlthough this is a useful service, the Amazon Security team may block your site. Even if your site is trustworthy, this increases Amazon's liability for phishing attacks on other phishing sites.
- WWKong 12y agoI saw a form asking for my Amazon password and noped out of there. I really want to try the service, but how do we solve for this trust issue?
- BrandonY 12y ago> What is your Amazon.com password? If this were Reddit, this is the point where I would attach a hilarious GIF of some animal running away with the text "NOPE" all over it.
- meraku 12y agoAsking me to enter my Amazon username and password makes this a complete non-starter. Might be the best idea in the world, but I'm not going to risk handing over my credentials for something as sensitive as my Amazon account to make a few extra bucks on some old stuff. There's just not enough risk-reward there for me (though with all due respect and in all honesty, it's unlikely there would ever be enough reason for me to hand over my credentials to some random startup)
- sami_b 12y agoAt first I thought this was a prank to see if I would easily give up my amazon credentials. Fool me once...actually not this time.
- Kluny 12y agoA site that is not Amazon asked for my Amazon username and password. Uh, nope the fuck out of here. That account has access to my credit card information and home address.
- SethKinast 12y agoI can't believe anyone would put their Amazon password into a third-party site. I clicked on the link, started through the login funnel, realized what I was about to do, and stopped. When I got the "Are you sure?" message, I started thinking that the site was specifically crafted to show how easy it is to get people to give passwords to a "reputable-looking" third party. I expected to get some sort of congratulatory message after saying no, like "You're smart enough to not give us your password!" When I didn't get that, I came back to the HN comments, expecting to see an explanation from OP about this proof of concept. Then I see it's supposed to be a real site. Well then.
- xur17 12y agoGreat idea! I'm guessing you're checking the resale price on Amazon, and giving a price based on that? I got frustrated with the process of listing / selling items on Amazon (I imagine a lot of it could be automated), and looked around for a service like this (and then added it to my 'side-project' idea list). I'll give it a shot next time I get rid of stuff.
- vermooten 12y agoyeah right, I'm totally going to give you my credentials. You from Nigeria by any chance?
- dgurson 12y agoThank you for taking the hassle out of reselling my items. I think this is a great idea!