2006 June

June 2006

selling fakes on eBay

this is another in the Shame on eBay category…
eBay has become one of the main sources of counterfeit items, according to a story in today’s Wall Street Journal (D1 Personal section).

Wall Street Journal super-sleuth Loretta Chao buys five items on eBay: a Fendi Spy handbag, a Burberry cashmere scarf, Tiffany Elsa Peretti teardrop earrings, a Gucci Eclipse French flap wallet, and a Chloe Paddington handbag. turns out that the first four items were fakes. the last one (the Chloe Paddington) was unclear whether it was real or fake.

the article points out that eBay is not doing enough to stop sellers of counterfeit merchandise.

and counterfeiters are everywhere. but at least on the streets of NYC, most customers realize the stuff is fake. on eBay, “reputable” sellers are claiming their stuff is real. and as Loretta Chao found out, some of these sellers are allowed to continue selling even after it is discovered that they sold fakes.

of course, none of this is new. in 2004, Tiffany sued eBay over sales of fake goods. Tiffany bought 186 pieces of “Tiffany” jewelry on eBay and found that only 5% of them were real … the rest were fakes.

so while eBay says buyer beware and caveat emptor, the consumer suffers in the end. reputation is more than lip service. it is about promoting a world where it is more profitable to be ethical and a big negative to being a fraudster.

Gorilla Marketing

when we met up yesterday with Vivek Sodera, we were instead met by a gorilla in a Rapleaf shirt.

the gorilla rode into San Francisco on BART and got a lot of stares. it flirted with Faelpar. it caused a sensation. and it had some good things to say about Rapleaf.

moreover … then the gorilla went on a rampage, attacked Rapleaf super-engineer Manish Shah, and came up with an elite marketing strategy. all while i could barely finish my lo-mien (Hong-Kong-style of course).

so the next time you run into a gorilla in a Rapleaf shirt, beware and prepare to run for your life.

scams and fraud

scams suck. and they trap a lot of people.

some of my friends think that only “stupid people” fall for scams. the data suggests otherwise. often it is the “smart people” that fall for scams … because they can rationalize odd behavior.

Check out craigslist’s scams and fraud section for some good examples of what to avoid.

Rapleaf is looking for a few amazing software engineers

About the company:
Rapleaf (www.rapleaf.com) is a portable ratings system for commerce. We allow buyers and sellers on sites like craigslist to rate each other. In San Francisco, CA.

Rapleaf recently raised a $1 MM angel round from the top angels in Silicon Valley led by Peter Thiel (Fmr founder and CEO of PayPal) and Eric Di Benedetto, Jeff Clavier, Aydin Senkut, and Ron Conway. We are hiring 3 more people right now. So this is an opportunity for you to join the founding team. Ruby on Rails.

We’re a super small, nimble, and intense start-up. One of our founders has started and sold three Internet companies.

Our goal: to make it more profitable to be ethical

The role:

- building out Rapleaf’s next set of features

- building algorithms to detect and attack fraud

- building out marketing programs

- changing the world

Criteria:
- you’re a kick-butt coder. You take no prisoners. You’re a master of all things Internet. You’re one of the best coders you know.

- you can learn new languages fast (we use Ruby on Rails but if you don’t know this, you can learn it fast)
- you should have a strong desire to build a more ethical society

- intensely driven and proactive person
- extremely hard working. This is a start-up. We work 70-80 hour weeks – you should too.
- quick learner and real doer (and you err on execution over strategy)
- people like you and like working with you
- you thrive on chaos, risk, and uncertainty
- should be easy to get along with, nice, fun, smart, ethical, and low-maintenance
- all levels of experiences should apply

Location:
- you should want to live and work in San Francisco (we’ll move you if you’re not already here)

Compensation:
- high cash comp | high equity — we are willing to pay for the best talent
Our philosophy: A players rock. So have fewer people and pay them more.

We’re only looking for people that really want to change the world.

interested? Please email jobs@rapleaf.com

(and be sure to sign up for Rapleaf if you are not already a member)

swaps and barter … a swapper or barterer?

we noticed that an increasing number of rapleaf members are using rapleaf to rate barter transactions. this is very interesting and not something we anticipated.

the amount of barter transactions has increased dramatically over the last few years. and the proliferation of barter sites like SwapThing has added to the barter madness.

so we’re going to add a swap/barter category to Rapleaf in the next week.

but what is the noun of someone that barters? a “barterer”?

we’re struggling with naming. someone who buys is a “buyer”, someone who sells is a “seller”, but is someone who swaps a “swapper”?

we’re going with “barterer” because there seems to be some precedent in The Free Dictionary … and there are some good examples if one does a Google search on “barterer” …

my second time on craigslist

Today i got to experience my second transaction on craigslist. I wrote about my first time here. This time i was the seller, selling an old monitor that belonged to my parents. I have to admit, some of the same uneasy feelings came back as it got closer to our agreed upon time.

The same paranoid wonderings about whether this person would show up, would they haggle with me, would they pay in quarters (i hate coins) were popping up in my head. Even brief thoughts about what if they held me up and took everything in the office (we agreed to meet at our office). Stupid yes, but i couldnt deny the possibility and the “what-if” factor.

I’m happy to say that it was a breeze. The person i sold the monitor too was very cool and really in need of a monitor. I was happy that i was able to help the guy out. The whole thing took about 5 minutes.

Of course i rated the person on rapleaf about the great transaction and he was kind of enough to respond. You can view my rating here:

http://www.rapleaf.com/profile/UxKVSVVc

You can view his rating about me here:

http://www.rapleaf.com/profile/5rMeGqiI

I was thinking about how many transactions it takes before i’ll feel totally comfortable buying and selling on sites like craigslist (during my 5 block commute to work). Maybe it varies per person. I think once i have a few more transactions under my belt, those thoughts will disappear.

I also think that a service like rapleaf can greatly reduce the number of transactions necessary before reaching the “comfort zone”. Hopefully it can help remove barriers from more people participating and adding value to communities like those on craigslist and other places.

socialroots integrates with Rapleaf APIs

Greg Narain is a star. he’s helping every writer, photographer, audio engineer, video person, etc. he’s helping them find gigs and cash … and helping willing companies find great people. he started Social Roots.

and he’s committed to making it more profitable to be ethical.

want to hire someone, check out Social Roots and search for a photographer in San Francisco or New York (you’ll already find some good ones). and when you get to their profile, you’ll see a link to Rapleaf. see Greg’s profile:
http://bureau.socialroots.com/provider/view/2

Social Roots will be very helpful to people … and we’re proud they chose to use Rapleaf to help convey trust and to help promote ethics.

George Osborne visits Rapleaf

George Osborne, British MP and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, paid a visit to Rapleaf (in San Francisco) on Monday. Osborne is one of the youngest members of parliament and the youngest person to ever be Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.

he stopped by to see what Silicon Valley was all about … and he was candid about wanting to instill more of the entrepreneurial spirit in the UK.

we were glad to host him at Rapleaf as many of our members are British … as the British, like the yankees, want a world where it is more profitable to be ethical.

Rapleaf in VentureWire today

VentureWire did a full write-up about Rapleaf today … unfortunately, i have no link to the full story (you need a subscription). but here is a quick quote:

The company is working with 46 various online ecommerce companies and Web sites to integrate Rapleaf’s technology. Rightcart.com and online classifieds site Edgeio.com are two of the start-ups that Rapleaf is working with currently. The market for portable ratings will likely continue to grow, especially as giants like Google Inc. launch their own marketplaces.

Hoffman said that he doesn’t view eBay as a competitor. “The people we are helping may be people that compete with eBay, but we don’t,” he said. “We are focused on classifieds sites and sites like Craigslist.org.”

the worst ebay seller ever

Hello all, i saw this on rocketboom about a week ago and i thought i would share it with you. Its actions like these that we should help each other look out for.

Apparently, this guy bought a laptop from someone on eBay. When he received the laptop (2 MONTHS LATE!!!!) it was broken and was not all the seller said it was (512mb RAM vs 2gb RAM stated, etc).

The buyer took action against the guy, but the seller said it wasnt him and then claimed to have moved to dubai.

This seller needs to be exposed outside of ebay. No one should ever do business with him because he is obviously dishonest and not trustworthy.