Styckyd: Classifieds

[KerryF]

Hey everyone. I was chatting with JayC and he suggested that I make a post in here to get some feedback on Styckyd: Classifieds.

I'm the founder of the company and an automotive enthusiast (No Buicks or even FI cars in my past, unfortunately) and am working on solving some of the problems with parts and vehicle classifieds. Basically we're trying to make classifieds for enthusiasts.

The first two problems we're tackling are the search and listing functionality (We want it to be easy to find parts for your car and take a bunch of the thinking out of deciding what to put into your listing) and trying to help sellers with shipping. Once you have created a listing the system automatically calculates how much it will cost to ship your part to the buyer and collects those funds for you so you don't have to guess at it.

There is a fee for selling parts on Styckyd. We charge 5% of whatever it ends up selling for (Not including shipping). This only gets charged if your listing sells. If it never sells then you never get charged. This also helps us reduce the chances of a scammer as the card must be verified before the listing gets created.

You can find a little more info here: Styckyd | The marketplace for car lovers

What do you think? Your feedback helps us create something better than what's currently out there. There are lots of guys with good parts sitting in their garages, we just need to make this easy and good enough for them to list them.

 

[TexasT]

Well, sounds good as a concept. 5% seems like a lot. I know you have to make money and all and that is why you are in business. Then comes the 3% papal and we are close to double digit charges. Really close to what sales tax is in my area. Then comes shipping and the fees and shipping end up costing more than the part you bought.

Not saying it won't work just pointing out what I see as downside.
Good luck with your venture.

 

[Grumpy]

I don't see how this will prevent scamming. Guy sells a part an gets payed say by Paypal. Guy doesn't ship the part (dog died, he got hit by a train OR just disappears ...) or the buyer says he never got it, damaged, paid to much $$$ for the part in that condition, or buyers remorse. So what do you do ?? go beat em up and settle everything I also see the 8% charge being added to the cost of the part.

 

[KerryF]

Thanks for the feedback, gents.

We'll be adding functionality for sellers to be able to list cars in the next few weeks - listing vehicles will be free. So the fee applies to part sales. The average value of a part for sale in this market seems to be about $200. So our fees on that would be $10. Which you don't pay unless you sell your part. So if we help you find a buyer and calculate the shipping to them (And add that cost on top of the $200 they're paying you) is that not worth $10? Even with the PayPal fee you're still ahead by $184.

For a different data point, if you were to sell that same part on eBay and assuming it sold you would pay close to 14%. Also, with Styckyd a portion of the fees goes to the forum so they can keep providing these venues for us enthusiasts.

We're also working on ways to bring economies of scale to our sellers to reduce the shipping costs to buyers - this will take a little time to sort out.

For scammers there are two things here. The first is that when they list a part we verify their credit card information. This alone may be enough to ward off unscrupulous people. Next is that like on eBay the buyer and seller enter into a formal agreement. If the seller never ships the part then you can talk with PayPal to get your money back. We are working on a system that will greatly improve this as well and almost completely eliminate the issues here, but again it will take some time to get this system in place.

 

[G NASTY]

I don't care for the idea.

 

[ttaowner]

And how does this affect me as a paying vendor on here? I assume none of this applies to me right?

 

[KerryF]

I also assume nothing will change for vendors at this time for any forum that uses the Styckyd plugin. There are some opportunities for us to improve the situation for forum vendors as well, though. There isn't anything in the immediate pipeline relating to that at the moment but I would like to explore that more in the future.

 

[SGRIM]

Reply, no James. If we go this route I will set up a new forum for vendors like you so it doesn't interfere with your transactions....

I hope more people reply. This is a pretty good option especially with all the fraud we have lately... We are just looking every way possible to improve the turbobuick.com experienc:biggrin:

 

[ttaowner]

What if somebody is selling something then it turns into a trade situation? Will the seller be still charged a fee? You would be surprised at home many times somebody turn a sale into a trade

 

[SuperSix]

Why would a board member use this service instead of listing in the For Sale/Trade forum? Is this being considered ad a replacement for the For Sale/Trade area?

 

[KerryF]

What if somebody is selling something then it turns into a trade situation? Will the seller be still charged a fee? You would be surprised at home many times somebody turn a sale into a trade

In that situation I assume the transaction would take place off of the platform. There isn't a whole lot we can help with in that situation at the moment. If the part never gets bought through the system and through PayPal then no charge would be made. Our fees are triggered when PayPal tells us you've received your money from the buyer.

So in this case I imagine the seller would just take down their listing and carry on with the trade.

 

[Grumpy]

I hope more people reply. This is a pretty good option especially with all the fraud we have lately... We are just looking every way possible to improve the turbobuick.com experienc:biggrin:

Well some of scams have been from long time members. Not everyone pays with a CC or paypal. I just do a USPO MoneyOrder . I can't see any way to protect both partys. Oh gee it has a scratch on the bottom of it. Oh it worked the last time I used it . You must have hooked it up wrong.
..Comes back to just using common sense. Like I would NEVER buy a car sight unseen. My buddy just bought one from a member here. Pics sucked and he of course said he only had a cell phone to take pics. Car had body issues and mechanical problems. Oh car runs great !! Opinions opinions !!

 

[KerryF]

Why would a board member use this service instead of listing in the For Sale/Trade forum? Is this being considered ad a replacement for the For Sale/Trade area?

There are a few reasons. Part of the problem I'm currently having is being able to break all the features down into an easily digestible format so the value-add is more obvious. Here are a couple of reasons I can think of off the top of my head:

A) We have a built-in Want to Buy system, if you list a turbo for an '87 and there are buyers who have said they're looking for FI parts for the same year/model/generation they'll get an e-mail letting them know about your new listing. So you don't have to constantly bump your listing hoping someone will find it eventually.
B) Our system sits on top of a vehicle classification system developed by the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association. So your listing gets tied to vehicles that you set. And our parts classification system is designed for car parts only. This means that searching for parts that fit your car is much better, and more powerful than any other platform out there. It still needs some work and the power isn't apparent until there are some results to display, but this will definitely help buyers find your listing.
C) It's easier to upload pictures, there are no limits.
D) The system automatically calculates shipping for you so you don't have to try and get quotes for potential buyers. If you list a part for $100 and shipping to the buyer costs $30, you'll find $130 in your PayPal account when the buyer purchases the part.

There are more but these are the ones I thought of off the top of my head that may be interesting to you.

Also, I should note. Local listings are free. We only want to earn fees when we've added value. For us right now this means helping you find a non-local buyer and helping you ship it.

We are constantly working on improving this and there are a ton of features in the pipeline. If there's anything you really wish it could do, let me know as we might be able to make it happen.

 

[KerryF]

Well some of scams have been from long time members. Not everyone pays with a CC or paypal. I just do a USPO MoneyOrder . I can't see any way to protect both partys. Oh gee it has a scratch on the bottom of it. Oh it worked the last time I used it . You must have hooked it up wrong.
..Comes back to just using common sense. Like I would NEVER buy a car sight unseen. My buddy just bought one from a member here. Pics sucked and he of course said he only had a cell phone to take pics. Car had body issues and mechanical problems. Oh car runs great !! Opinions opinions !!

This of course can be a problem that may require mediation (or not). We'll be keeping an eye on these issues to see if there's anything that we can do to adjust the system so that these problems are either eliminated or greatly reduced. I'd be happy to listen to any thoughts or ideas anyone has.

 

[Red C5]

Do you have a link to an automotive forum that is currently using this?
What other message boards like this one, use this service?

Peter

 

[JayC]

Good feedback going here. I tried to explain this service and didnt do a very good job so Kerry popped over to chat with you guys about it.

 

[KerryF]

Do you have a link to an automotive forum that is currently using this?
What other message boards like this one, use this service?

Peter

Here are a couple for you to have a look at:
Styckyd: Classifieds - ElantraXD.com - Elantra Enthusiasts & Community
Styckyd: Classifieds - Northern Kentucky F-Body Association Forums

Your feedback is valuable and will help us make it better for everyone. I mentioned we have a lot coming (Some really cool stuff) and it will be possible to list cars with specific focus on modified and race prepped cars in the coming weeks (For free). What you see now isn't how it will be forever, the service is constantly evolving and getting better and I'm willing to listen to any concerns as we may be able to overcome some of them fairly easily.

So far in my experience the hardest thing has been to get people to list the parts they have - as a result we launched two features/services. The first was a "Feeler" that allows sellers to just post the item they have with very little information and then if there's enough interest they can convert it to a full listing. And we're also starting to expand into a bit of a consignment service but that will take more time to develop as I need more guys on the ground in major urban centres to collect and clean the parts. We're making progress. If there's more feedback on what might stop you from using a service like this, let me know.

Or if there's something about the service you like or are intrigued about let me know and I might be able to expand on how it works or what we have planned.