Listia (YC S09) Is An Awesome Way To Give And Get Free Stuff

[adamhowell]

I must be missing something, why are so many people seemingly willing to ship anywhere in the U.S.?

You're giving away a DVD and on top of that you're going to pay for the shipping?

[diN0bot]

this confuses me, too. plus, you have to go to a post office.

on the other hand, if someone saw something he really wanted it might seem worthwhile to do extra work in exchange.

[wizardhead]

A couple questions...Why would i buy more points when i can re-register and get points for free? And what if i made referrals to myself to accumulate points?

[jamesfong]

I think this is the coolest thing on there ...

"Signed copy of On Lisp" http://www.listia.com/auction/207

[cpach]

Now that's a clever way to support and promote Listia!

I guess books would be the things I would list most frequently if I were to sign up. I always try to get rid of some books when I move to a new flat (which I seem to do every (second) year or so). I'm not sure my books would get as many bids as this little gem though :)

[100k]

I didn't bring my copy because I didn't want to seem like a fanboi! Damn, I could've got it autographed!

Heh. That would be pretty fanboi of me...

[wglb]

Bet that won't last long.

[modsearch]

this is out of print and very rare :-)

[100k]

Congrats on the extremely positive writeup. You got the full Arrington!

[lzhou]

Listia is extremely fun. Just paging through some of the auctions, you see the goofiest stuff. Ex: PG's dracula cape (I think worth at least 10 credits...). http://www.listia.com/auction/197

[leelin]

I'll bet the YC "Make Something People Want" T-shirts would sell for lots of credits (with pickup at YC HQ)!

[jasonlbaptiste]

The "I Made Something People Want" t-shirts are actually for purchase. You have to be Google,etc. and armed with 7-8 figures :-D. Shipping is free at least.

[rms]

I like this a lot.

Feature requests: How can I report an auction that seems fake? This one seems very fake. http://www.listia.com/auction/276

Watch item.

More options for listing, like a 3 day auction instead of 7 day or making my item show up more prominently in listings for extra points.

[rms]

This is like a non-evil Swoopo. Entertainment shopping that creates money out of thin air by having people give stuff away.

[euroclydon]

How do they assign a dollar value to the points for tax purposes? It's my understanding that they would have to in this scenario.

[DTrejo]

"1. Sign up and get 500 free credits"

I signed up and got 100 credits.

Why????

[joepestro]

I think you need to list an item to get the 500 credits.

[socratees]

Just signed up and the site is cool.

[zach]

Listia is very qool, er, cool!

I really like the clean interface; this site is one I will put next to Etsy on my list of good content site designs.

[zackattack]

Congratulations.

1. Is there a way to sell your credits back? If not, won't black market deals just be created? e.g. creating an auction for a useless item?

2. If a new user signs up after viewing a listing for MY item, shouldn't I get the credit for the referral? Why not cookie them after they view my listing?

[diN0bot]

I agree with #2, since I think that is a large motivating factor for wanting to do the work to get more points.

[trefn]

#2 is definitely an interesting suggestion.

I don't quite get the black market thing though. If they can't trade the points for dollars, what's the motivation for creating useless auctions? Doesn't seem like a way to launder money.

[zackattack]

I want to buy $100 worth of credits from you guys. But what if I waste them bidding on items that never get delivered?

Also, do you cookie people once they click the referral link?

You have a bunch of typos on your About page

[zackattack]

There's no way to tell how many credits I currently have that are available for bidding.

I want to be able to get email notification when I get outbid.