New Y Combinator funded startup Listia launched this morning, and I already love it. It’s a really smart way to give stuff away for free.
We tend to give away a lot of the random stuff people send us at TechCrunch. Some of it is trivial – stickers, tshirts, etc. But sometimes it’s decent electronic stuff – we get a lot of iPod touches with demo apps to review, for example, and usually the company doesn’t want them back so we give them away to people. Earlier this week I gave away a wireless Google-branded mouse on Twitter, and pondered setting up a Twitter account just to give away all the test stuff cluttering our office.
Often people list free things on Craigslist or donate it to Goodwill, charities or churches.
But Craigslist isn’t a perfect solution, since you will get a mass of emails and need to deal with everyone. And often the winner doesn’t show up. And most charities and churches aren’t really interested in getting actual stuff that they then need to sell for cash. They’d rather just get the cash.
Listia makes it all a lot better. Users don’t bid cash for items, rather they bid points that they get for free for signing up, listing items and referring friends. That means the winner is the person who wanted the item the most and was willing to bid the most points. The lister doesn’t have to deal with a lot of emails, and the no-show risk is minimized.
And if a user really wants an item but doesn’t have enough points, they can buy more. That’s where the business model comes in, and the value to charities.
Points can be purchased at a rate of $5 for 50 points. And if a lister decides to donate the proceeds to charity, the charity gets 60% of any paid for points used by the winner.
If it sounds complicated, just see this listing that I created this morning giving away a Nokia N95 phone and donating the proceeds to the American Red Cross (yes, you can get that phone for free if you hurry).
The service is fully working now but a lot of features are still baking. The selection of charities is very limited (more being added soon, the company says). And soon Listia will let you add other charities, give accumulated points to charity, etc. It’s a no brainer for charities to encourage their supporters to use something like this to donate actual items, and Listia says they are busy creating features to accommodate that.
The company was founded by Gee Chuang and James Fong
Nice.
How are you getting it for free if you have to buy points?
agree .. not free, you’re basically paying for stuff that people would be willing to give away for free… sounds like a bad deal to me
You don’t HAVE to pay for points – you can always sell your own stuff first. You could get pretty far without paying a cent.
I think it’s an awesome idea. I’m gonna start using it. Congrats on the launch, guys.
its not exactly free if you have to do stuff to earn stuff
Now thats a nice concept, might not spread as wide as Twitter or FB does- – but this thing has potential…
Brilliant out of the box idea. I love it.
going to post both my Sony Minidisk players there – vintage electronics.
Amazing concept.. Fresh and new..
too bad for me, i just thought about this idea a few days back!
Mike, I don’t know why but on the main page this post is showing
“But Craigslist isn’t a perfect solution, since you will get a mass of emails and need to deal with everyone. And often the winner doesn’t show up. And most charities and churches aren’t really interested in getting actual stuff that they then need to sell for cash. They’d rather just get the cash.
But Craigslist isn’t a perfect solution, since you will get a mass of emails and need to deal with everyone. And often the winner doesn’t show up. And most charities and churches aren’t really interested in getting actual stuff that they then need to sell for cash. Listia makes it all a lot better.”
Otherwise seems fine on the actual post though.
yeah thanks. no idea what I did there, but it’s fixed now.
this service is going to spread virally really fast. I’m getting 50 points for every referral signup that then lists an item, for example, from twittering out this: http://twitter....atus/3144239338
no, it wont. it will die down dramatically in a few hours after your other stories push it out of the queue.
that’s a very positive attitude you have.
I think we’ll use this to give away a bunch of stuff we have at the office.
Its not meant to be negative, but I’m just saying, this thing will be big for a few days, then the novelty will where off, people will realize its full of junk, and go back to their trusted ebay (which isnt even an auction site anymore).
Cool, I am always a fan of sites that encourage charity. Giving makes the world a better place. Congrats on your launch, Listia.
That said, MA, did you really write that post? It sounded a little bit like copy/paste “canned” marketing.
i really wrote the post. i like this one.
Great to see a promising service for giving away stuff you don’t need. Its often more convenient to give things away than to sell it for a small fee. Its also great that the users bid on the stuff they want, then people who really wants and needs the stuff will get it.
“auctions for free stuff”… brilliant! And $15K in funding for a useful product. Love it. Good luck you guys!
Mike – Are you going to give away your iphone then?
yeah, i’m going to auction it off for charity, cracked screen and all, in a week or two.
I played around with creating various charity oriented products but every time I thought it was too cynical to create something to encourage charity and then take a cut of what people are donating for my own profit.
I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, it might boost donations, but personally I just couldn’t live with that.
i think it’s ok to pay these people to do charity. If not, they have to get other jobs that will take time away that could be spent on improvements.
Ok, it is Y-combinator app! Is it the reason why they get a post? I don’t think it is a big deal at all. It is very similar to Ebay and all the other auction site. It is an almost saturated market. The idea is not even close to being original and the technology is not sophisticated (any high school kid with some programming background can make this in a few weeks). What is the big deal?
The same thing could be said for Twitter. It is the idea here, not the technology that makes this site worthy.
You say the idea isn’t original, do you know of a similar site?
Great idea. http://AppUseful.com
doesn’t this sound similar to http://www.swoopo.com (shopping through bids) + ebay ? except with a charity twist !
No Swoopo is not this,on swoopo you can spend a fortune to get nothing. The way I see this, if you get rid of lots of your unwanted stuff you build up lots of credits and will not ever HAVE to spend a dime.
You know what’s funny ? Listia is the Greek word for “Robbery”.
Have you stopped using the iPhone already? If so, how’s it coming? Is the replacement meeting your expectations? Or is the iPhone that good?
Very Simple Idea with lots of potential provided they get the marketing right. Just look at twitter for example.
i got 6 packs of bubble gum flavored bubble gum…. it’s just going to waste
Great future ahead for this company.
I like this idea. thanks!
Hey Mike,
Have you checked out http://www.kashless.org? They’re already in 40-50 cities (CEO is Martin Tobias… formerly of Loudeye and Imperium).
Dave
“Hey, I’ve got an idea… let’s start a business that sells free stuff to people… For us to turn a profit all we have to do is find enough stupid people to give us free stuff, and enough stupid people who are interested in receiving free stuff… vicariously…
That’s a really stupid concept… Use a middle person to manage giving stuff away, and allow the middle person to charge what the market will bear for that stuff? By the time the stuff gets to the end user, it isn’t free anymore… far from it… if it is free, then it’s something that certainly has very little value, assuming this marketplace is efficient.
As for the charity angle…
“the charity gets 60% of any paid for points used by the winner.”
So first the user has to opt to donate to Charity…
…None of the cash spent by the user goes to Charity until the user actually spends the points.
…What money is given to a charity is given at a rate of only 60%.
What idiot uses a middle person to given money to a charity when that middle person takes a 40% cut?
Assuming this marketplace is implemented efficiently, the end result is NO DIFFERENT than if you took the item you are giving away, listed and sold it on ebay, and gave 50% of the proceeds to charity.
+1
I’m glad someone else sees the huge, gaping hole to this business plan. Looks like a charity leach, if anything. The only real winner in the process is Listia.
I really like the clean, simple user interface and old school yellow nav bar. Excellent design.
I do see a problem with “buy credits from us so you can get something that someone else wants to give away.” But hey, at least they have a business model.
These kinda ideas are what I want to see more of..too many people trying to change the world with the next big thing…too few trying to make the next great thing, not the biggest thing
Sounds like a pyramid scheme. The early adopters benefit and the late comers get screwed.
Definitely a cool application/portal. Something for companies to consider when it comes to promotional marketing, perhaps? Especially if they’re giving away things for free and trying to build a brand.
Monetizing points completely undermines the purpose of this site and, therefore, is a horrible idea.
I think it’s a great idea! (And potentially another Gumtree or Craigslist, if not an eBay)
Although the Maps mashup is used well, I think James & Gee would do well by starting to focus on specific regions, the way Gumtree and Craigslist did. I’d love to see stuff available in my own city that I can quickly pick up on the weekend.
You think this is the next Craigslist or Ebay? Really? Henk, you want free stuff to pickup go on craigslist, search Free. I bet you could pick it up today if you wanted.
I’ll take that bet Michael! Seeing as I’m in Cape Town, picking up something listed on Craigslist might be a bit difficult.
Solid idea. Seems like good execution. Installed base will be the likes of radio stations, student councils, swag departments, etc. Huge potential.
“Points” are interesting. Yahoo Answers motivates with them; and others. Economic theory can’t explain it, but is their a future FX between these types?
Freecycle.com
Freecycle is a free goods exchange site on yahoo.
It’s already far more efficient than Listia appears to be and is organized locally/regionally to facilitate
physical contact and exchange.
I’m not quite certain that Listia is an improvement on that…
Does it work within Europe?
I’m not sure I’d call this “a new idea”…looks more like someone took a good look at FreeCycle and decided to make a more Web 2.0/commercial version of it?
http://www.freecycle.org/
Definitely a nice concept
we will see how it works 
cheerio from Berlin
i like how some guy posted a really shitty movie dvd on there for free. good luck getting rid of that. hollywood, please take note!
This is a vertical of Craig’s free stuff??!
Let me know once this hits dead-pool
YCombinator, you guys are going broke soon… duh, are you using someone else’s doe?!
Marg
“most charities and churches aren’t really interested in getting actual stuff that they then need to sell for cash. They’d rather just get the cash.”
Why not just use Ebay? They allow you to list items with the proceeds going to a nonprofit of your choosing and you can choose what % of the final sale goes to the charity. The beauty of it is that all the money is handled by ebay/paypal, and you as a seller get a credit on your account to cover the listing fee.
Seems like a decent way to do some relatively free marketing too
http://www.list...com/auction/421
Get it while it’s hot!
I’ve given away tons of items from desks, chairs, computers, servers, you name it.. all on Craigslist. Everyone showed up promptly.. it was usually picked up within 3 hours of me listing it.. and so long as i removed the item after someone agreed to pick it up the spam was never that bad.
I just don’t see this having legs.
Awesome investment by Y Combinator. They spent $15k to get 150,000 points to win other people’s garbage!
I am thinking FAIL because of their business model: monetizing through “points” with a altruistic quality like charity…
Can someone explain a typical listia user’s motivation (not Mike or some other big wig who gets a million freebies all the time)? It makes sense for them to want to use the system, but it doesn’t seem right for wanting to get rid of this hideous sofa in front of me that I have been trying to pawn off on every person that enters my home.
i hope the startup works out. but to honest, i smell epic failure. this web 2.0 site wants to change the world with this new idea. pretty soon, after techcrunch (and other blogs stop writing about it), the users will drain away and the site will amount to nothing.
this is just a copy of freenapkin.com the original term ebay of free was coined from freenapkin.com nice to see listia though even if they are copying freenapkin
Okay, here’s the problem with Listia – it’s founders conveniently ignored IRS regulations. See this page on IRS website:
http://www.irs....=113437,00.html
“Buyers” are really “barterers” using virtual currency, and both Listia and its customers are required to file 1099-Bs with their tax returns for each transaction. 1099Bs are best known for securities transactions, like stocks and bonds, but in fact apply to every exchange done on Listia because of their “points.” Only transactions done with legally tender money, like eBay sales, are exempt from 1099-B requirements, b/c they’re sales rather than bartering. Listia is a “barter exchange” and that means it should be collecting your social security number when you list an item and sending you an EOY 1099-B for whatever you give or get, and you have to pay taxes on that stuff. These days the gov’t is looking for all ways they can extract money from taxpayers, who needs this kind of headache? Now if they used real money, this would be coooooooool…but no, wah waaaaah.
I think this is a great idea. Pretty much taking the “one mans garbage is another mans gold” concept and creating a marketplace around it
While I applaud them for coming up with (or at least expanding on a previously existing) good idea, I agree with many others who have commented on the fact that monetizing points for free stuff seems to defeat the purpose of the site, at least from the user’s perspective.
A new site which takes the idea of the free section on craigslist and freecycle but expands upon it greatly, offering a number of additional features and a great user interface is Kashless.org. And in their case everything is and will always be free.
Kashless started in Seattle but is in the process of expanding to over 100 US metro areas within the coming weeks.
http://www.Kashless.org
As a user of listia and a developer, I find the site to be not even half baked. There is no FAQ! If you list an item, there is no way to set a reserve. If you want to edit your auction, the functionality does not exist. If you want to end your auction, no function to do so.
There are also bugs. The one person bidding on my DVD has his profile — and it states he is not bidding on anything.
There is no way to delete your account if you just want to bail. argggggg.
Then there is the 11 day auction on a nice TV (a promotional item)… you have to buy points to bid on it and those points are ONLY refundable within 7 days. So, if you bid early on you are stuck with your points. One member spent $70 on points, and got outbid… and now she can’t do anything to get her money back. Great for the owners, terrible for the customer.
Ok. so i wanted to check out the Listia solution this morning… I signed up and was going to bid for the free Techcrunch T-Shirt. I was given 500 credits as a new user on Listia but can only use 100 credits of these on each item i bid for. Since the current bit on the T Shirt was 251 credits i had to buy at least 160 credits in order to have a chance to bid… so here we are in a situation where totally free stuff is going for 16 Dollars or more(!)…I can get like
3 t-shirts at the mall for 16 bucks. This is just stupid. I honestly don’t think people will get rid of their stuff this way. I agree that there is a need for a service where you can get rid of stuff you no longer need. But Listia don’t seem to get how this should be done. Start a service that rather get this stuff out to people who really need it without some stupid bidding from people who didn’t need more stuff in the first place. Have charities sign up and list their needs and let people decide who they want to give their stuff to.
…and the whole idea of making money of of people that want to give away stuff is wrong.
Here’s an update for you folks. I wrote, sometime back, how bad this place was for various reasons. I had also warned my sister not to participate in this sham-site and today reinforced why: She won an item from an individual who then refused to honor the win because it wasn’t what she wanted. My sister reported it to Listia and they REFUSED to do anything to the individual. The individual even admitted to para-listing the item on eBay and getting $30 for it.
What KIND of site allows individuals like that to roam free there?
The place, like i said before, sucks.