New place to buy physical goods with Bitcoins...

[MarkAz]

Although I ultimately want to talk about this in the marketplace section, since I'm a newbie I'll get the ball rolling on here...

I'm just getting ready to integrate Bitcoin support into my company, which is a large consignment business... Think BitCoinStore.com, but instead of new goods, and primarily electronics, it's everything and they're used.  The upside of used is that you can get a much better deal than you normally would buying new, and you can get things that traditionally would be harder to get.

We're really open to figuring out how to best integrate things, and hoping to get some good feedback and suggestions from the Bitcoin community at large.  We've actually had people inquire about freighted things like couches overseas in the past, so we're not just talking about selling some cups or a toaster.

Any thoughts?

[ranlo]

Although I ultimately want to talk about this in the marketplace section, since I'm a newbie I'll get the ball rolling on here...

I'm just getting ready to integrate Bitcoin support into my company, which is a large consignment business... Think BitCoinStore.com, but instead of new goods, and primarily electronics, it's everything and they're used.  The upside of used is that you can get a much better deal than you normally would buying new, and you can get things that traditionally would be harder to get.

We're really open to figuring out how to best integrate things, and hoping to get some good feedback and suggestions from the Bitcoin community at large.  We've actually had people inquire about freighted things like couches overseas in the past, so we're not just talking about selling some cups or a toaster.

Any thoughts?

What you're looking to do is just set up something like bitmit.net? Not against that, but you need to bring something new to the table. What is going to set you apart?

[MarkAz]

Ah, we're totally different - we actually have all the items in inventory, we have two physical storefronts that are each about 70,000 sqft... Our current inventory is over 200,000 items, so we're substantially larger than Bitmit as well.  Think of a consignment store you might find locally, but on steroids. 

[ranlo]

Ah, we're totally different - we actually have all the items in inventory, we have two physical storefronts that are each about 70,000 sqft... Our current inventory is over 200,000 items, so we're substantially larger than Bitmit as well.  Think of a consignment store you might find locally, but on steroids. 

Mmm, the part that's confusing me a bit is... consignment basically just means you're selling on behalf of someone else. Are the only items you're going to be selling the ones you have in possession (or in your storefronts)? Or allowing others to add items as well?

[MarkAz]

Good question - for now the only thing we'll be selling via bitcoins are things that we have in our actual possession... We really want to take a bit of the guesswork out of buying used things, we do the research on the prices and try to determine the true market value, then we image it, write the description, etc.  The idea being that we're more unbiased in the transaction - sure, we want to sell things, but it's more important to us that people come back and buy from us again and again, so we're more buyer-centric in that regard.

Other people can consign things in to us, but that probably only really makes sense if they're in either Arizona or Nevada, which are the two states we're most active in (where we have trucks and people to go pick up things, etc).

That's one of the reasons why I really want to add Bitcoin support - I think it gives people who consign with us another avenue to sell their items that they typically wouldn't have access to.  At the same time, it gives people with Bitcoin a great way to buy a really wide variety of items that aren't as easily purchased without converting into some other currency first. 

The type of things we get in really runs the gambit, from tools and generic household stuff, to super high end furniture and art, to professional fitness equipment.  Right now we add about 5000 items per week into inventory (~2500 per store), and when I say 5000 items, I mean in most cases 5000 totally unique things, not 2000 tubes of toothpaste that are all the same.

[ranlo]

Good question - for now the only thing we'll be selling via bitcoins are things that we have in our actual possession... We really want to take a bit of the guesswork out of buying used things, we do the research on the prices and try to determine the true market value, then we image it, write the description, etc.  The idea being that we're more unbiased in the transaction - sure, we want to sell things, but it's more important to us that people come back and buy from us again and again, so we're more buyer-centric in that regard.

Other people can consign things in to us, but that probably only really makes sense if they're in either Arizona or Nevada, which are the two states we're most active in (where we have trucks and people to go pick up things, etc).

That's one of the reasons why I really want to add Bitcoin support - I think it gives people who consign with us another avenue to sell their items that they typically wouldn't have access to.  At the same time, it gives people with Bitcoin a great way to buy a really wide variety of items that aren't as easily purchased without converting into some other currency first. 

The type of things we get in really runs the gambit, from tools and generic household stuff, to super high end furniture and art, to professional fitness equipment.  Right now we add about 5000 items per week into inventory (~2500 per store), and when I say 5000 items, I mean in most cases 5000 totally unique things, not 2000 tubes of toothpaste that are all the same.

Thanks for the clarification! So this is more of an online store than an online open market. I like the idea, .

Do you guys also have any type of insurance/return policies?

[MarkAz]

Correct, it's an online (offline) store now - once we nail all of that down, then we can explore the whole open market space, but I'd rather that we do really well at one objective, then mediocre at two. 

As far as insurance/return policies, we obviously have them in place for people who come into the physical stores, but we need to figure out what they'll be for online.  Since we sell on eBay as well as Amazon, we're more than familiar with what works and what doesn't work in terms on online dispute resolution.  That is one of the big advantages we have over someplace like eBay - when they get in the middle of a transaction, they never have actually handled the items in question.  Were the pictures accurate that the seller took?  Was the box trashed by the shipper?  We're the ones who take all the pictures, we write the descriptions, we note the condition details, etc.  I would say we err on the side of showing even minor things, because we would rather have the buyer be pleasantly surprised then slightly disappointed. 

On a couple of the more technical things we've sold in the past to people online, they've called and walked someone at our store through the process of testing an item to ensure it's in working order - if you're familiar with datacenter stuff, think of it like remote hands.  While one of our employees might not be able to flip on an oscilloscope and tell you if it's working or calibrated, if you're familiar with the item you can generally determine if it's working or not.  We test everything to the best of our ability, but the shear breadth of things we carry means that we can't exhaustively test everything.

So, to your specific question - I suspect our return policy will be something mainstream like 30 days.  Refunds would be in either Bitcoins or if the person wanted, they could put it on a giftcard - but not USD (otherwise I suspect we could run into some legal issues).

As far as insurance (I'm assuming you mean shipping insurance), we don't normally do it since we haven't found a big need for it - but if it was something that people felt was important, then we could certainly do it - it just costs more in terms of shipping.

[ranlo]

Correct, it's an online (offline) store now - once we nail all of that down, then we can explore the whole open market space, but I'd rather that we do really well at one objective, then mediocre at two. 

As far as insurance/return policies, we obviously have them in place for people who come into the physical stores, but we need to figure out what they'll be for online.  Since we sell on eBay as well as Amazon, we're more than familiar with what works and what doesn't work in terms on online dispute resolution.  That is one of the big advantages we have over someplace like eBay - when they get in the middle of a transaction, they never have actually handled the items in question.  Were the pictures accurate that the seller took?  Was the box trashed by the shipper?  We're the ones who take all the pictures, we write the descriptions, we note the condition details, etc.  I would say we err on the side of showing even minor things, because we would rather have the buyer be pleasantly surprised then slightly disappointed. 

On a couple of the more technical things we've sold in the past to people online, they've called and walked someone at our store through the process of testing an item to ensure it's in working order - if you're familiar with datacenter stuff, think of it like remote hands.  While one of our employees might not be able to flip on an oscilloscope and tell you if it's working or calibrated, if you're familiar with the item you can generally determine if it's working or not.  We test everything to the best of our ability, but the shear breadth of things we carry means that we can't exhaustively test everything.

So, to your specific question - I suspect our return policy will be something mainstream like 30 days.  Refunds would be in either Bitcoins or if the person wanted, they could put it on a giftcard - but not USD (otherwise I suspect we could run into some legal issues).

As far as insurance (I'm assuming you mean shipping insurance), we don't normally do it since we haven't found a big need for it - but if it was something that people felt was important, then we could certainly do it - it just costs more in terms of shipping.

Thanks for the in-depth responses, . I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how this pans out!