Automated Sellers Market?

[irishmick]

Is anyone aware of a "market" type website that allows sellers to list their wares and the site automatically converts the USD value of the product to the current 24HR bitcoin value and provides the checkout system with bitcoin payouts? I've got a relative that sells scentsy products  http://scentsy.net/ that I think could do quite well in the bitcoin marketplace. I've done some programming, but I know my limits and writing something "secure" for all involved is something I would most likely not excel at.

I'm not even sure if scentsy allows that type of sale, but regardless of the product being sold I think it would/could be very profitable for the right person who can write it and takes a small percentage off the top.

Really I'm assuming someone has already written one and I just haven't found it yet. Anyone? ;o)

Thank you.

[nhodges]

I've been thinking of developing something like this, however the problem is verifying the individual sellers in the network. I'm curious at your proposal on how that problem should be solved. (Do you sell on Etsy? How do they verify you?)

[irishmick]

Sorry I really have no clue how etsy verifies sellers. A co-worker has/does sell on there so I can ask him tomorrow. You're right though the trust would be entirely on the buyer who sends his btc and assumes their product is on the way. Frankly I'm not sure how to answer that. There is a fine line between accurately identifying sellers and being so invasive no one wants to sell on your site. At the beginning I would imagine it starts with trust and seller reputation, like ebay does. If you have 0 rep it may be awhile before anyone buys from you, but once you get above 10-20 reputable transactions buyers become more comfortable and trusting.

I was going to say something about the site escrowing the first 10 or so transactions from a seller until each individual transactions buyer confirmed it, but that makes the buyer position too strong for possible fraud.

You could ask the seller to make a small deposit to back their sales, but that again may lock out small sellers and scare others away.

I think it has to be simply about trust and reputation. You are untrustworthy, no one buys from you. Simple.

There would be no such thing as a deadbeat buyer as they'd need to transfer bitcoin. Though how you deal with dead beat sellers is another nut to crack.