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Online Marketplace Execution

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Spikeroo

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Hello all, My names Brad. I'm really excited for my current project and decided to make a post with my milestones. So I've been paintballing for about 10 years now, and with any hobby theres always a community that buys, sells and trades gear. For years the paintball community only had 1 place where paintballers could do deals, which was PbNation.com. This site is an old forum which has quite a few flaws. You have to upload pics to a 3rd party site to post, theres constant ads in your face, searching for what your looking for can take forever. I can go on and on. I've had my fair share of getting scammed on this site a few times, but it was a price I and the paintball community had to pay given this was roughly the only place we could do deals. There is eBay which offered some protection, but with the fees being %10 and gear ranging between $50-$2000 they add up pretty quickly. Next comes facebook marketplace. Which can be good in some aspects, but has more issues than good. Theres no feedback system, so you don't know who you're dealing with, users can simply block you in the middle of a deal, and the payment system on facebook has no safety net. even when you do have an issue with payment, facebooks customer service is terrible. Last issue I had took me nearly a month to resolve.

I decided to take action and address all the issues with the community. I started BallerSwap.com. I've sourced a team of coders on Fiverr to help with the site build, since I'm not 100% fluent in coding. We are currently working on the backend and about %80 complete. I'm hoping to have the site Launched end of this month, or early September. This site will change the way the community does deals. It offers an easy search/filter system, authenticity process, (proves the user physically has the item) paypal only, and a bunch of other perks. I've done hours, if not days researching my competitors, ( PbNation, Facebook Marketplace, eBay, and Trademygun ) I've narrowed everything down to shipping and have all of them beat. My fee is only $10, which the buyer pays, so the seller has no fee to use the marketplace other than PayPal. I'm implementing a Mod system, so each listing is thoroughly reviewed before its published to the site so rule out any issues.

In the words of Mj, "Build it once, and it will work for you 24/7" Appreciate the feedback in advance!

P.S. If you're a paintballer, please comment! I'd love feedback, and curious to see how many of you are on here.
 
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Spikeroo

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Aug 17, 2011
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Merritt Island, Fl
Hey Brad
Why did you choose buyer pays fee?

The marketplace is aimed toward benefiting the buyer more than the seller. Considering there are many requirements for the seller to make before its published ie. Gear must be clean, but pass authenticity process, and more, it evens out having the buying eat the fee. This will also bring more sellers to the site if there are no fees.
 

Odysseus M Jones

[B...{r<°∆°>}--O--{<°∆°>k}...E]
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The marketplace is aimed toward benefiting the buyer more than the seller. Considering there are many requirements for the seller to make before its published ie. Gear must be clean, but pass authenticity process, and more, it evens out having the buying eat the fee. This will also bring more sellers to the site if there are no fees.
How does the seller prove they actually have the item they want to sell?
 
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Spikeroo

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Aug 17, 2011
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Merritt Island, Fl
How does the seller prove they actually have the item they want to sell?

When the listing is made, the seller is emailed a unique code, like QL5DE25 or something. Before its approved by the mod, every picture must have a piece of paper or something with that unique code in it next to the gear. It prevents scammers from creating listings for high dollar items they do not actually have, and keeps them from using stock photos, or photos taken from another source or listing. See below as an example.
34365
 

awestbro

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How do you plan to market your service?

What happens if pbnation/ facebook groups ban you for promoting?
 

Spikeroo

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Aug 17, 2011
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Merritt Island, Fl
How do you plan to market your service?

What happens if pbnation/ facebook groups ban you for promoting?

I've been promoting already on Facebook groups. They're not banning me because its benefiting the community, not the opposite. I'm very familiar with getting the word out through that platform, social media management is a side hustle for me. I'm confident when they use my marketplace once, they won't go anywhere else.

So word of mouth, sponsoring events, Targeted Facebook ads, etc.
 
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Odysseus M Jones

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Read Fastlane!
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Feb 2, 2020
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When the listing is made, the seller is emailed a unique code, like QL5DE25 or something. Before its approved by the mod, every picture must have a piece of paper or something with that unique code in it next to the gear. It prevents scammers from creating listings for high dollar items they do not actually have, and keeps them from using stock photos, or photos taken from another source or listing. See below as an example.
View attachment 34365
That's cool, especially the unique code.
The Facebook sneaker groups made sellers put their name on a card.
Buyers could comment "legit check" then other members who'd dealt with the seller before could verify whether or not the seller is honest.
Often the sneakers were in excess of $1000, usually posted overseas & paid PayPal friends & family.
Never saw any drama.
I don't know why other buy sell groups didn't do this, the car spares groups were rife with scams.
 

Spikeroo

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Aug 17, 2011
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Merritt Island, Fl
That's cool, especially the unique code.
The Facebook sneaker groups made sellers put their name on a card.
Buyers could comment "legit check" then other members who'd dealt with the seller before could verify whether or not the seller is honest.
Often the sneakers were in excess of $1000, usually posted overseas & paid PayPal friends & family.
Never saw any drama.
I don't know why other buy sell groups didn't do this, the car spares groups were rife with scams.

I've notice that. I've seen countless "legit checks" posted on the groups, but honestly its a huge waste of time. Those post get lost in the feed, and no one can keep track of feedback. Theres no track record or anything.

I don't plan on stopping at paintball. Once this marketplace is completely off the ground I want to research another marketplace I can clone this one off of.
 

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