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freebay?
FROM: Brent Ashley
What NEED does this meet?
People often have things that get thrown away although they are still useful. The point here is to redirect items towards recycling rather than giving your local rubbish depot the problem.
What is the APPROACH?
Ebay sells a whole range of items. Freebay gives them away, the only cost being delivery. This could be through the current postal service (like ebay) and/or including geographical locality i.e. you go and pick it up or the current owner brings it to you. Organisations (such as charities) as well as individuals could use this service.
What are the BENEFITS to people?
It will stimulate giving and increase the range of recyclable items.
What is the COMPETITION?
The "similar service" is embryonic in everyones minds when they have a springclean and ask themselves "who can I give this too?" Ideas like these will have to be introduced at some point out of necessity for ecological reasons.
What BUDGET & LOGISTICS are required?
I havnt a clue but for anyone who does - take Ebay as a model and imagine people clicking on to do what they already do there but for free.
November 1, 2003 in Connecting People, Environmental, Giving stuff away | Permalink
Comments
Great Idea, Just crying out for one of thoses new Govertment EcoGrants too :]
Got my vote.
Posted by: Alex at Nov 1, 2003 2:24:16 AM
Excellent idea - I hate throwing anything away when it might be useful to someone else.
As EBay already has an excellent auction system set up, perhaps they could add a new type of auction where the first bid of £0.00 wins and ends the auction.
The items in such an auction could be searched separatley from the normal auctions.
Only problem might be preventing someone from 'buying' everything in sight in order to sell it on later - but as it's being given away it probably wouldn't recover the postage price.
Posted by: Geoff at Nov 1, 2003 11:22:50 AM
Just realised that using EBay and selling with a 'Buy it Now' price of £0.00 would implement this idea.
'Buy it Now' is currently only available for sellers with a rating of 10 or more, but an exception could be made if the price is zero.
Posted by: Geoff at Nov 1, 2003 11:26:30 AM
This is a good idea, however it may be improved. Ebay already exists. Many people use Ebay to sell things they find during 'Spring Cleaning'. However, the things they find which they cannot sell on Ebay, are usually broken, defunct, old, or junk. Of course, it could be junk to that person, and something swell for another. There are many charity organizations that exist for this 'junk' though. The organizations usually have collection facilities which they store and distribute said junk - at either affordable prices for the low income, or as a donation. So, a suggestion would be to not only have the Freebay service, but another service as well which is a communication medium between people, communities, and charity organizations. This could be easily managed by volunteers and existing charity organizations.
So, this has my vote, and a suggestion to go with.
Posted by: Another Alex at Nov 1, 2003 12:39:47 PM
The problem with using eBay for this at the moment is that when you sell an item you have to pay a small fee to sell it. This needs to be free, otherwise people wouldn't bother.
Posted by: Jake at Nov 2, 2003 12:03:20 PM
This URL shows an example of something similar going on on Craigslist. Craigslist references certain geographic areas, though. Freebay as you propose it wouldn't be limited in that way. Also, it could have features like variable or fixed expiry dates for the listings.
Posted by: Katie at Nov 2, 2003 10:53:41 PM
Check out http://www.freecycle.org for an implementation of a similar concept that's already underway.
Posted by: Doug at Nov 3, 2003 11:41:10 PM
sometime folks sell stuff at nearly free on ebay... i guess just to get rid of it
Posted by: street at Jan 27, 2004 4:15:16 AM
Hi all, it was funny that I stumbled onto your site while surfing. Check out my site at http://www.free-bay.com.au as an example of how while people are thinking one thing in one part of the world, others are thinking the exact same thing elsewhere.
Posted by: steve at May 25, 2004 6:23:42 AM
weight set for young teenager-weights,bench,2 or 3 bars, short bars for dumbells, low mileage
Posted by: Christine Astle at Sep 2, 2004 9:41:32 PM
is there even such a thing as freebay or a web site of any of the kind. i herd there was and i just wanted to know. i saw someting about freebay.com on the news but didn cath any of it. if yuo know anything let me know. thanks!
Posted by: steak jones at Nov 29, 2004 9:59:38 PM
Freebay is still under construction. I've been working on the freebay idea for some time now. It will incorporate some of the ideas found in this thread but expands on them to make it more worthwhile. What people have to understand is that Ebay, while certainly an effective auction site, is NOT customer oriented, but is profit oriented. Right now they have a monopoly style strangle hold on internet auction. This will come to an abrupt end once my web site is launched.
Ironically, I have suggested some of the very same features that you will find on Freebay to Ebay themselves, as added features, not only have they not implemented them, they never even sent me a courtesy letter saying "thanks for the suggestion but no thanks."
I hope you all keep looking for Freebay.com in the future, it will have a little something for everyone and will meet all the needs described in this thread plus MORE!
When I'm done, Ebay will either have to adapt some of the features offered, or see their business dwindle drastically overnight.
Posted by: Freebay at Dec 13, 2004 5:58:17 AM
I think this Freebay concept is so great! I really can't wait to see it get underway!
I saw a little bit about it on the news last night and thought it was up and running!
I hope it takes off because I have some things I would put on the site and I would also like to see what other people have!
Good Luck to you!
Vickie
Posted by: Vickie at Dec 21, 2004 12:06:02 AM
I have items i have wanted to give away . I know they would be usefull to some one elese.
Posted by: Mark at Dec 28, 2004 11:30:09 PM
I will support this scheme wholeheartedly!
Posted by: lesley.f at Feb 24, 2005 12:27:39 PM
how do i find the website called freebay.com to get a skate board
Posted by: cody at Mar 7, 2005 1:34:53 AM
I whant to find freebay to find free video games.
Posted by: Nathan at Apr 1, 2005 5:31:53 PM
A pure re-cycling section on FreeBay is great>> In fact I had a vision of FreeBay in the Real world, where people have a table in front of their houses/buildings, where they leave stuff they no longer need, and pick stuff they want. Then, after shopping on ebay for a while, I though>> "Why not create our own FreeBay where trading is FREE (Or at least Non-Profit), thus creating a 100% people-friendly interface. Then I thought we should also create a Free PayPal for sending and receiving money Free of Charge (Or at least, again, just Non-Profit). That's when I typed www.freebay.com and came to a Google page with this page as the 1st link.
Glad to see I'm not the only one thinking along those lines.
Good luck and thanks to the guys working on making this vision a reality.
Peace, naji (www.funkygandhi.com)
Posted by: Naji at Apr 10, 2005 6:58:42 PM
YA know, I quess I'm not the only one with this "Great Idea".
This thing should be global cause I know someones feeling a bit guilty about throwing away
something that could be used. Thats why my garage is so full of stuff!! I NEED HELP!!
Posted by: Don at Apr 12, 2005 6:15:54 PM
we need a couch or 2 recling chairs can someone let me know if they are getting rid of one. thank you, also we will pick it up.
Posted by: jackie at May 3, 2005 8:12:02 PM
i need a twin bed w/ mattress for my daughter, if anyone is getting rid of one i would pick it up if you could let me know, thank you.
Posted by: lindsay at May 3, 2005 8:16:04 PM
i am looking for patio furniture ex. table chairs and the umbrella oh and also a barbecue grill
Posted by: natalie marshall at May 12, 2005 3:46:16 AM
iam looking for bench weight set with bars and a abdominal exercise machine
Posted by: natalie at May 12, 2005 3:54:05 AM
iam looking for bench weight set with bars and a abdominal exercise machine
Posted by: natalie at May 12, 2005 3:54:52 AM
does anyone have a decent bed they're trying to get rid of? We will be happy to pick it up from you.
Posted by: Janeth at May 24, 2005 5:18:22 AM