I like the idea, and I think keeping it simple is an incredibly good idea. I wish you much support in creating such an auction site!

I'm quite new to BC, but I've been lurking on the forums for a week or so catching up on technical issues and most importantly practical issues when it comes time to scaling BC beyond the geek community (myself included).  I too like the idea of an auction site.  Something like http://www.listia.com would be perfect, but with BC instead of centrally controlled and issued "listia credits."

On the other hand, I think it might be a better idea to actually plan out an auction site, complete with voluntary transaction arbitration/escrow to instill the kind of confidence that will make BC famous .  Right now when people hear the word "decentralized" they probably think of something quite chaotic.  I think if there is a framework by which we can provide anonymous arbitration services (agreed to by both parties prior to transacting) along with escrow services (again agreed to in advance), this could go a long way towards a fully functioning market-anarchy economy.  Anonymous Escrow and Arbitration Services would pop up and compete, and people would migrate towards the services that best fit their moral framework and privacy ideals. I like it.

Thoughts?

listia looks like an awesome idea.Its like a cross between freecycle and ebay.

I have an idea that could work with reverse auctions using bitcoins.If anyone wants to implement it  I can provide  hosting and a domain name for it.All you have to do is design and code it....and share in future revenues   

This service names the lowest price for a product that you desire to buy. As a result various sellers compete among themselves to meet and beat the lowest price in order to sell you their product. At the end, the lowest bidder wins the auction


You  describe the item that you would like to purchase. You name the price (maximum that you are willing to pay).

Multiple sellers offer you the desired product at competitive prices.

The seller who posts the lowest bid is the winner of an auction. The buyer has the right to cancel a transaction with any user they are uncomfortable completing a transaction with.
   
You, as a buyer, will receive contact information  about the seller and you are welcome to contact him/her at this time.

At this stage, the buyer will make the arrangements in providing the payment to the seller in order to complete the transaction.

After receiving the funds, the seller is responsible for packaging and shipping the product directly to the buyer. It is highly advised that the seller gets the tracking number from the shipping company in case there is a problem.

Upon receiving the package from the seller, the transaction is considered complete. Both buyers and sellers are welcome to post a feedback about the party.



1. Buyers - Posting an Order is Free.

2. Sellers - Displaying items for sale is Free.

3. Sellers - Bidding on items at online reverse auctions is Free.

Buyers pay a service fee a percentage of the lowest bid. The service will then provide you with the sellers contact information (name, address, telephone and email) to complete the sale.
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Extra ideas for future implementation-
You could have verified members with badges who have confirmed their credit card and address details for a small transaction fee that would give them a verified members badge.

You could give people bitcoins in sign up fees or a referral program for bitcoins to encourage new users.

You could have a database of previously successful suppliers people could invite to their auction.

 To encourage community building you could let people donate bitcoins to each other as they do on this forum 

I imagine you could partner/advertise with other bitcoin sites that you could refer people to for managing bitcoin purchases.


What problems can you see with such a model?Do you have any ideas that could make this better?

It is probably the only way it is possible.A web of trust might also be needed.

This is true. What I would like to see is a listing service like http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites with a feedback system like ebay.
The prices could be listed in National currencies and then the payment accepted via bitcoins at the current market rate. This way some one could immediately turn them back into the cash they are used to using until BTC becomes more widely accepted.

I don't think this is so good because there is no one market rate. There are and will be multiple exchange markets that have different 'last' trades due to different closing times, down times, random large orders to buy or sell pushing prices temporarily apart. Arbitrage seekers will move them together over time, but while the markets are so thin you can have moves of 20% in minutes.

I think it's best to quote a price, but note that it's subject to change.

Maybe when buyers make offers in terms of BTC they should give an expiry time or date at which they are no longer committed to buying at that price.

I think this is a mentality that we will need to avoid in the longrun if we are going to have this take off as an independent currency.  Easy exchanges for dollars are good, pegging the bitcoin to the dollar for sales, not so good.

I thought the goal was to trade it for goods and services.  Certainly some of those goods can be gold and silver.

This sounds like an underserved market.  Are farmville products transferable?

Hi, I am new at this can anyone tell me if there are auction sites which are accepting bitcoins as a mode of payment also could you please tell me who is their business model different from off-line auction sites.