A Shadowrun "Ebay" site?, Would the community want it? Options

[Stumps]

I had a thought that was inspired by another user asking permission to announce a Shadowrun auction through Dumpshock.

If there isn't already one (and I don't mean Ebay), would the community around here be appreciative of a site that worked "like" Ebay but was entirely for Shadowrun products?

[Sabosect]

Shadowbay?

I would. I could use a way to gain access to books I need but cannot buy from FanPro because they are out of stock.

[Stumps]

I was serious here btw...If there is enough people wanting it, I will try my damndest to put something together...so far though...it's looking like no one wants this.

[kryton]

I think that would be an excellent idea. The only problem might be higher prices. Since this is a shadowrun only site prices might be higher because of greater demand. If the site charged a small fee for sales that would be an excellent way to generate money for maintence and repair. If Adam could work out a deal with "stiggy baby" that might a good agreement to make. I'm surprised they don't advertise ect. I think though Adam really wants to keep the site comercially "neutral" so that there's no bias or conflict of interest. I could be totally wrong though?

[Backgammon]

An Ebay store would be the simplest and most efficient way to do it.

[Stumps]

Backgammon, I'm going to look into that as soon as I see a possibility that people want a devoted area for auctioning SR books.

[note:I advertise Stiggybaby at www.exigine.com]

[Backgammon]

Actually, re-reading your thread, that's no good.

What you want is a place where people can come and try to sell their SR stuff. An ebay store is just a conveniant way for YOU to list a bunch of stuff YOU are selling. Not the same.

Also, it's my opinion that trying to centralise stuff never works. How would you go about telling people "hey, you can come sell stuff here". Most people selling SR books don't frequent these boards, nor probably any. You'd have no way of getting all these people to go through your site.

[Stumps]

Yeah...I went all the way through signing up to check out what an ebaystore offers just to find out that it doesn't do what I want. *lol*

3 tactics off the top of my head really...

1) Let it be known here that anyone who wants to sell SR books can do that at the Shadowbay.

2) BEG, BEG, BEG Adam to link it as a useful thing since people are commonly looking for books and what not...(though I doubt he would link it since he doesn't even link Stiggybaby...but it's always worth asking.)

3) Tell places like Stiggybaby's about it and see if cross advertising is an option.


It's not really about me making a buck though, so I don't care about that...it's more about making it easier for people to get what they want.

[Adam]

err, I do link Stiggybaby from The Shadowrun Supplemental; one of the only pages on Dumpshock that is fully under my editorial control. We don't link to anything from the Forums because I don't believe the Forums are someplace where some goes to find links; they're a destination.

Stiggybaby isn't linked on the front page because a) Dumpshock is more or less non-partisan [Dumpshock doesn't even link to FanPro!], but also mostly because of b) The front page design and concept is dated and needs to be revised.

Way back when, the Shadowrun Archive ran a trading post thing; nothing as complex as eBay [which, I might add, is a trademark that I suspect would be defended with vigour even if used in various derived forms], but it seemed to work okay.

If it was done and didn't suck we may promote it.

[Backgammon]

[Fortune]

[Stumps]

Adam: my bad. I didn't realize that you did link to it, and I see your point with the non-partisanship. I think what I said came off sounding like an attack style or complaint, but really it was rather just more a statement of saying that Dumpshock doesn't link to anything like that so I doubt it would link to one now.
(I actually admire that about dumpshock btw...It's been around for years and hasn't taken the dollar bait.)

The Archive had a trade system? Really?? Too bad you say it sucks.
Well...the numbers are climbing slowly in favor so I might end up looking around to see what the options are for that.

Backgammon: don't worry about it...I do stuff like that all the time. That's why I have an e-mail addy that has 2000+ junk e-mails in it! (commonly owning around 100 new junk e-mails in a day)

[Adam]

To be clear: The Archive's trade system didn't suck at the time. It wasn't robust and didn't need to be; a new system would need to be more robust to be worthwhile, IMO.