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ValueJockey – Find the Right Price for Saleable Items

Finding a website where you can sell your items is easy, but knowing the correct price to set on them is harder. ValueJockey is an interactive service that lets you list your item with a photo to get feedback on how much it’s worth, whether or not you want to sell it. Members include professional valuers as well as hobbyists, so this is a worthwhile service that would help avoid scam valuations from buyers. It should also help avoid underpricing or even overpricing an item, both of which mean losing out. The website has links to sales sites so you can carry on to list the items at a realistic price. It’s also possible to give links from ValueJockey to other sales sites of your choice including eBay and craigslist.

The site is as simple to use as the main sales sites, with a menu of categories to choose from in order to list your item. Then upload a photo and put some details to see it displayed. You can ask the particular questions you have about pricing in the short product description. The sales field will display valuations other ValueJockey members give as feedback. I’ve had a coin collection I’ve had trouble getting valued, and could see that this site provides the kind of detailed information I need even in this specialist niche.

The number of categories is comprehensive, and if you have expertise as an enthusiast or professional your valuations would add to the service. Professionals can list their details so it’s also an aid to promotion. Apart from valuations, members are encouraged to write and submit articles on their areas of expertise. Everybody has something they would like valued, whether they’re collectors or just rummaging through their attic, and ValueJockey provides a handy solution.

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WinWinBooks – Buy and Sell Books by Auction

This is a very new site which allows buyers and sellers to use the auction approach to negotiate a price to trade books. It can be used by private individuals and businesses alike. Although it’s very new it had a good number of users online and auctions in progress when I took a look so it seems to be starting off well.

The name is taken from the popular phrase ‘a win win situation’, with the idea being that the ability to negotiate a price helps a sale to progress. The site uses similar techniques to eBay to let you register and list an item for auction, while buyers can use similar search techniques to Amazon to find books by author, title, ISBN number and more.
Books are also listed under categories and genres, so it’s specifically for book buyers and sellers in a way eBay isn’t, and the ability to negotiate price makes it different from the other major online booksellers. A good idea and it will be interesting to see if it catches on.

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AdFlyer – Online Marketplace to Buy and Sell

adflyer-logoI immediately got caught up looking at the items advertised on this site so it must be effective. AdFlyer is an online marketplace where you can buy and sell a wide variety of goods and also tickets, property and pets. Whether you’re looking for a new puppy, a holiday villa with swimming pool, antiques or everday items, you’re likely to find them here.

The site is well organised with a full menu of goods listed by category, plus appealing pictures on the home page of the latest and most popular adverts. At the time of writing Christmas caused most popular gifts to appear and scroll through, giving plenty of ideas and opportunities for impulse buys. There’s a great selection in each category and clear options on the tags to go to the Buy or Sell sections.

Clicking on the Buy tag takes you to a full alphabetical list of items by category and by specific product type. Clicking on the Sell tag also brings up a full list of categories so you can choose where to advertise your item for free. There’s also a paid option which adds extra features for sellers. With so many websites around offering an online marketplace it’s a difficult place to succeed, but with free adverts and a good design this one has attracted a large number of sellers already.

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TeachersPayTeachers – Exchange of Teaching Materials

teacherspayteachers-comThis is one of those websites that immediately comes across as an excellent idea. It’s an open marketplace to let teachers buy and sell materials, from lesson plans to books. With teachers already on the website offering materials for all ages, from children to adults, it seems sure to do well. What a great time-saver it should be for teachers, and also an economical way to buy books and other goods. The chance to put those lesson plans to good use by sharing them seems like good use of time and effort, and why not make some extra income from them?

It’s well organised with bestselling items, newly added items, a full catalogue to browse, and ways to sort and search for exactly what you need. The website has been designed by teachers for teachers to use, and there’s no charge to list items for sale. Once sold the seller gets 60% of the price if they are using the free subscription. This rises to 85% if users pay an annual subscription fee of $59.95.

The site claims to be the first of its kind and states its aim as helping teachers to help each other succeed in their work, as well as making extra income. The materials are offered in various formats including PowerPoint presentations for the classroom. It’s easy to see how it could appeal to teachers wanting to sell their carefully developed lesson plans, and also those wanting to buy a prepared presentation.

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StuffBuff – New Approach to Auctions

stuffbufflogoThe designers of StuffBuff believe that sellers want more from an online auction than they’re getting from eBay and Craigslist. They are challenging these well-established services with StuffBuff, an auction that takes place in 10 minutes rather than days, and is interactive and real-time. The auction can also be embedded in your blogs and social networks, so it’s portable from one website to another, and this means it can go viral. With cataloguing software to organise items for sale, and easy ways to embed the auction on main networks and blogs, StuffBuff sounds prepared to make a strong attempt in this competitive market already dominated by the main auction sites.

Join up and list items then start to sell. Buyers can use LiveHaggle to chat to you to find out about the product and all buyers can see what’s being said. Buyers can also ask to be notified when a product becomes available, so they could be waiting for the goods you have to sell. StuffBuff also has a listing of new products as they come on to the market. Photos can be scanned in using webcam or any video camera to make the whole process quick and easy.

To get the site started it’s free to list items, but the standard fees in future will be $0.25 to set up an auction, $1.50 Reserve, and a 5% fee to StuffBuff for the final sale price received. Anyone who has found offputting sides to the main auction sites will be tempted to give StuffBuff a go. Like many sites starting up it takes a social network approach, letting users build up a network of fans and followers so that they can interact as a community

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StreetMavens – What’s Happening Near You

streetmavensThis is an international website that lets you search by country and city to find what’s going on locally for leisure and business. A search for events in London certainly turned up some interesting ones, and although not all cities are included yet there is already a good selection. It’s also possible to list your event, making this a useful place to promote an activity, and with the Southbank Centre and National Portrait Gallery among the first events listed it feels like a worthwhile resource for event promoters and those looking for something to do.

Businesses can use StreetMavens to list their activity, and the map at the top of the main page has a zoom-in feature that makes it a handy street map. Like many recent websites it includes community features, with a Street Talk page to let people make comments, a page for photos, and a final page where you can search for others on StreetMavens to friend them. It all feels very new and information needs to be added, but judging by the start this could build into a popular website as users keep adding content. It would also be a handy resource for researching cities before you travel.

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DroidWeek – Weekly Android Applications and Games News

droidweek-com

Keep up-to-date with the latest developments for Google Android applications, phones, games and extras with Droid Week and Android and Me. Although Droid Week is at the setting up stages it’s linked to Android and Me which is already full of information. At the time of writing Droid Week has active forums, a store full of accessories, and recommended launches. The connection with Android and Me makes it feel like the same website, and together they are certainly a useful resource for these increasingly popular products.

Android and Me is also being overhauled to sort out the wealth of information and to make it more easily accessible. Articles and a podcast add extra ways to keep Android users informed, and it’s also possible to submit articles. The recommended application on the main page at the time of writing was Flixster, a downloadable product which lets users find movie showtimes via a location based search and then take a look at full information and reviews. Visitors to the site can nominate applications and enter competitions as well as taking part in community discussions. I’ve been wanting to find out more about Android products and seeing all the information together in one place is a real bonus.

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Nuzart – Exhibit Buy and Sell Art

Nuzart is a visually attractive website, full of art in various forms created by artists and easy to find for buyers. Artists, including those using various media and photography, are invited to set up a gallery to display their work. Menu options take them through the steps to upload images, set a price, promote and sell. Buyers can search through these galleries to choose a piece of art, select the printing materials and size, and then buy. For those who create artwork on computer it’s also possible to upload the image, select the printing material and size, and purchase a copy.

Purchasers are helped in their selection by choosing the colour they like to predominate, as well as the type of subject, genre, technique, and the shape of the artwork. This will be a particularly useful service for businesses looking to brighten up their offices, restaurants or other premises with art. It will also help headhunters looking for artists and provides a good way for artists to be spotted and hired. As a service to let computer artists produce printed copies of their work it could also prove popular.

The one suggestion I would make is that this is a professional site, beautifully produced visually, and yet the text isn’t quite in perfect English. It’s almost fluent, but for a site of this quality buyers and artists alike will want to see no errors in order to trust the service, so a proofreader is needed to polish it.

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SuddenlyDarling

l_01019ba7f8564bc693103f2bfdbcc80cWhat are teenage girls wearing? This is a question teenagers themselves, and their parents, really want to know the answer to. The SuddenlyDarling website gives all the answers, mostly presented by charming girl-next-door and 16-year-old model Katelyn Rose. The outfits presented really are attractive and reflect the latest fashions I see on teenagers in London every day. The unique point about SuddenlyDarling is that it aims to promote a positive self image in girls and young women and to put clothes together in a way that isn’t too provocative and inappropriate for teenagers.

The website is beautifully put together and it has clearly taken a great deal of professional work to back up the input from teenage Katelyn. It reads like the sort of teenage magazine parents will remember as their main source of information on keeping up with trends when they were younger. Of course, a website can present far more than a print publication could. Visitors can see the outfit Katelynn is wearing each day, plus a selection of the latest clothes for each season. This then links to a breakdown of where to find economical versions of each item of clothing.

Although Katelynn is the very likeable main face of SuddenlyDarling, her friends also appear in a variety of outfits to show good choices for varying hair colours and body shapes. The nice thing about the site is that they aren’t all impossibly beautiful, but look lovely and sound cheery with their advice which is presented in videos as well as text and photos. Make-up, hair, clothes, questions and answers – it’s all here. Although there’s a commercial feel to many parts of it, with specific products and shops mentioned, there are also tips on how to use household products to make your own cosmetics, and a variety of shops for teenagers on a budget.

It would be good to see a section for teenage boys, and also more of a racial mix with tips for different skin colours and hair types. Apart from that the website comes across as suitable for all teenagers, and the inclusion of the word ‘modesty’ on the logo would fit in with a variety of cultures. The About Us page points out that KateLyn is Christian and that the website is associated with CastFam Productions, which has a goal to ‘utilize the power of entertainment to make a positive, moral impact in the lives of today’s youth.’ This doesn’t come across too blatantly in the website, which just feels like an enjoyable teenage online magazine, and it could appeal in a much more multicultural way with some tweaks.

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ValueJockey – Find the Right Price for Saleable Items

Finding a website where you can sell your items is easy, but knowing the correct price to set on them is harder. ValueJockey is an interactive service that lets you list your item with a photo to get feedback on how much it’s worth, whether or not you want to sell it. Members include professional valuers as well as hobbyists, so this is a worthwhile service that would help avoid scam valuations from buyers. It should also help avoid underpricing or even overpricing an item, both of which mean losing out. The website has links to sales sites so you can carry on to list the items at a realistic price. It’s also possible to give links from ValueJockey to other sales sites of your choice including eBay and craigslist.

The site is as simple to use as the main sales sites, with a menu of categories to choose from in order to list your item. Then upload a photo and put some details to see it displayed. You can ask the particular questions you have about pricing in the short product description. The sales field will display valuations other ValueJockey members give as feedback. I’ve had a coin collection I’ve had trouble getting valued, and could see that this site provides the kind of detailed information I need even in this specialist niche.

The number of categories is comprehensive, and if you have expertise as an enthusiast or professional your valuations would add to the service. Professionals can list their details so it’s also an aid to promotion. Apart from valuations, members are encouraged to write and submit articles on their areas of expertise. Everybody has something they would like valued, whether they’re collectors or just rummaging through their attic, and ValueJockey provides a handy solution.

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