Buying and selling stuff on teh Internets can be less than optimal sometimes. There’s all the hassle with searching, checking whether the other person is legit or not, not to mention shipping and payment. For some people all that work makes it more trouble than it’s worth to use auction and classified sales sites on the Web.
A new service called BidKat directly acknowledges one key part of the process which puts people off and promises to do something about it, by offering to conduct the price negotiation as a sale progresses. The idea is you create an auction listing of your product on the service, then take the supplied link and drop it into any standard classified listing on Craigslist, Gumtree or your social networks like Facebook.
Instead of just entering a set price, the seller puts in a max and min price, and from then on the service will start negotiating to try and get as close to your maximum price as possible. BidKat tracks all the offers and produces a nice listing of the bids for you to choose from. The seller can change the auction details and price range at any time.
It’s a nice idea and because it removes the one step that many people don’t like, haggling, it could have a real future as an online sales tool. The service also gives sellers a clean and tidy place to answer any questions prospective buyers may have about the item, which can help in encouraging interest while maintaining privacy. It’s a win-win.