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Author: Subject: science madness swap sell and buy site
Praxichys
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[*] posted on 16-11-2015 at 05:37


@ Little_Ghost_again

Be careful. Skimming fees makes you liable for lots of stuff. Why do you think eBay/amazon are so draconian about their de-listing police? It's because if someone sells something illegal and you make money on it, you go to jail too. You could be wanted in random places if you're not careful. It could be something as simple as someone selling an Erlenmeyer flask to a Texas address without you knowing it. On top of that, unless you are a registered business with your state you'll eventually get nailed for tax evasion. It'll look even sketchier to be selling those kinds of things without having a legitimate business license.

Besides, all it takes is some meth head trying to get a reduced sentence to tell the cops about which site he got his glass/chems from and you get put away for aiding/abetting because you took a cut.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great idea. Just know that you're playing with fire.

[Edited on 16-11-2015 by Praxichys]




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Little_Ghost_again
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[*] posted on 16-11-2015 at 15:20


The fee idea is just to cover cost's, If people take the piss and try and sell phosgene etc the add will be removed.
I am setting up a payment gateway etc.

The other way I could do it is to add in affiliate adds from ebay or Amazon for common things people get. Tax if owed will be paid, I am speaking to companies like the one with cheap clamp and lab jacks. The idea will be too give me 10% discount and I will pass 5% of that on.

It would be great to do all this work and not make a penny from it, but then I would have little incentive to maintain the site and keep improving it.

Ebay is expensive and so is Amazon in fees, a couple of big ebay sellers I know have agreed to list thing once I am up and running and will adjust the price because it will be cheaper for them in fees. So the savings get passed on.

The software is unfriendly to skin!

I also have another site I am setting up but this is mainly to do with my interest in hydroponics and plant compounds, this will be free and have a classified section.




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The Volatile Chemist
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[*] posted on 17-11-2015 at 19:42


I'd reccomend funding by ads. If you make money, 'donate' it. Really, having money go through your hands at all except for site payments would be undesirable.



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tekkado
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[*] posted on 17-11-2015 at 19:48


What about facebook? There are so many buying and selling pages on there?
Could make a private group and people post what they have to offer or need. I don't think it has payment functionality but people could work that out themselves??
The only downside would be for the users that have an inventory they want to list, that format wouldn't be very conducive for them.
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Little_Ghost_again
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[*] posted on 18-11-2015 at 01:35


I honestly dont see the problem, I am in the UK so selling glassware isnt a problem. As for chemicals I have no intention of selling or letting anything be sold that isnt legal to have.

Having spoken to Praxichys about what his site is costing there is no way I can cover that just to do people a favor. Adds are a bit of a nightmare, takes time to get the traffic to make it worth doing and finding people to advertise is alot of work.

If there are so many pitfalls I dont get why people like Blogfast were able to sell chemicals etc online, I have some other things non chemistry related I want to sell online so I might just leave it at that.

I can understand people not wanting to pay to sell things but the work involved and the cost isnt sustainable otherwise. I will see how Praxichys goes with his, if that works out ok I will just use mine for the other stuff I want to sell and the companies who have expressed an interest in selling on it.

Surely if it was that bad ebay wouldnt allow glassware to be sold at all to places like Texas, its a bit like saying if you sell a car to someone and they get drunk and kill somebody then you are also done for selling them the car.

Unless people think I had intended to sell conc nitric acid etc?? Which there is no way I would anyway, the idea was simply to mak it easier and cheaper for people with excess equipment etc to sell ect without using ebay.

Facebook pages dont seem to work that well and the person who set the page up would be as liable as the guy with the shop, charging a fee dosnt make any difference from a legal stand point.

Dosnt matter at the moment as it will be a while to sort out the software to get it to do what I want.




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Dr.Bob
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[*] posted on 19-11-2015 at 08:42


If Praxichys's site becomes busy enough, it could make a simple sales system. Once you have a seller and a buyer, the cost of doing the actual payment through paypal is about 3%, which is much less than Ebay (~15%) or Amazon (>15%), and can still provide buyer protections like Ebay. Plus Ebay and Amazon have many quirks that are hard to get around, like Amazon's set shipping costs for many items, limits on who can sell science supplies, and Ebay's complex shipping algorithms. With Amazon, many people pay more for shipping than the item costs, but get no break on multiple items. I charge actual shipping costs so that the more you buy, the less the cost per item is (USPS cost per pound goes down up to a certain number of pounds for many items.)

I have done 100+ transactions that way, and while there are some issues, most are not bad. The main limitations are that purchases are not instant, and that I cannot calculate shipping quickly since I must weigh the actual package to determine it. But for most people, they don't mind the savings off of Amazon or Ebay.
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The Volatile Chemist
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[*] posted on 19-11-2015 at 10:35


I see. I still think ads are the way to go. LG, I didn't realize your sites weren't connected. Perhaps, unless you want it to be your own, you could help Praxychis (I always butcher his name...) with his site. Less costly :)



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The Volatile Chemist
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[*] posted on 19-11-2015 at 10:37


I see. I still think ads are the way to go. LG, I didn't realize your sites weren't connected. Perhaps, unless you want it to be your own, you could help Praxychis (I always butcher his name...) with his site. Less costly :)
Somehow, I managed to send this post less than 1 minute before the last. I guess my typing speed is faster than I thought...




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