Introducing my new website Coins4u.net + a small giveaway

[Hussulo 6]

Friends, numismatists, fellow collectors lend me your support.

After hearing many stories of your disillusionment and plight with one of the leading online trading community websites, and due to the fact that the leading online company in question doesn't have much of a serious competitor, I have designed and built a new website where you can buy and sell your coins or numismatic items.

I have built this site from the ground up with you the numismatist in mind.

It is easy and fun to use, free to join and free to list items for sale. The only charge is a modest 4% to the seller on the final sale price of any items sold.

I think you'll agree that 4% is very reasonable and I plan to use most of any monies made to invest in advertising the site. Hopefully this will be the catalyst for a virtuous circle leading to increasing numbers of buyers and sellers.

I am currently going to have a banner on a few coin forums and a couple of dealer sites, and I am planning on a colour advertisement in Coin News (UK) in the next couple of months.

I am dedicated to this project 100% and with your backing I'm sure we can make it a success.

Now for the giveaway.

It is open to any member of the forum. To enter for a chance to win the coin pictured below:

simply post a comment in this thread.

The giveaway will this time next week, where I will put all the entry names into a hat and my wife will draw out one lucky winner.

Thank you,

Hus

[Hussulo 6]

In case anyone was wondering:

Current listing types are:

Auction Listing Format

Dutch Auction Listing Format

Reverse Auction Listing Format

Fixed Price Listing Format

Allow sellers to specify Start Date

You also get 6 free picture uploads.

Free to join.

As mentioned listing is free.

I have also a added a store option for those of you that would like to set up your own store.

Fee's for creating a store are:

Fee for creating a store front: 5 United Kingdom Pounds - GBP

Store Monthly (Monthly store fee): 5 United Kingdom Pounds - GBP

[Kronos 0]

I have just registered.

Sounds and looks very interesting.

Mark

[7255carl 0]

i will be registering in about 5 minutes, when i get a break at work , i think its a great idea, you have my full support

carl

[RLC35 289]

Huss,

I just registered. Good luck with your site. I am sure I will be using it soon.

Bob C.

[Red Riley 2]

Just done the job. Best of luck with the site.

[Hussulo 6]

Thank you all for your support. Hopefully many of you will use and enjoy it.

PLEASE NOTE:

For our foreign (non UK) members.

I have now added a currency converter to show you roughly how many Dollars, Euro's etc there are to the pound.

It can be accessed at the bottom of the homepage.

Although I can't guarantee it's 100% accurate, It will be updated daily.

Thanks,

Hus

[HistoricCoinage 160]

Keep up the good work Hus!!

[Jamesred 1]

I just registered as well - Good Luck with it all!!

Now someone get some farthings on there!

[freewheels 2]

I have registered,

What a great business concept!

Good luck: I shall check frequently.

freewheels

[Kronos 0]

Huss

I there anyway I can change the date format from USA to English. I can get to grips with the format from 13th day onwards of each month, before the 13th I have to think too much.

Thanks

Mark

[Hussulo 6]

Huss

I there anyway I can change the date format from USA to English. I can get to grips with the format from 13th day onwards of each month, before the 13th I have to think too much.

Thanks

Mark

I'll take a look Mark and thanks to all those who have registered. I think you'll agree its quite fun and easy to use, it may take a couple of months to get flowing once more members join and start selling and buying but please bear with me.

Regards,

Hus

[Russ777 0]

Huss

I there anyway I can change the date format from USA to English. I can get to grips with the format from 13th day onwards of each month, before the 13th I have to think too much.

Thanks

Mark

I'll take a look Mark and thanks to all those who have registered. I think you'll agree its quite fun and easy to use, it may take a couple of months to get flowing once more members join and start selling and buying but please bear with me.

Regards,

Hus

Looks excellent will be joining soon!!!

[Hussulo 6]

You can now list in different currencies including the US Dollar:

http://www.coins4u.net/detail.asp?id=147

http://www.coins4u.net/detail.asp?id=146

The GBP you see is only the rough conversion as the site's primary currency is the GBP. The bidders however can only bid using multiples of the currency stated by the seller.

Thanks,

Hus

Edited December 21, 2008 by Hussulo

[Hussulo 6]

CLOSED please no more entries. I am about to draw the lucky winner out of the hat and I will be announcing them soon.

Good luck!

[Hussulo 6]

And the winner is:

Mark Sarul

Congratulations I will PM you shortly to get your postage information to send you the coin.

I'd like to say a big thank you for everybody that took part and for all of your continued support.

Many thanks,

Hus

[Kronos 0]

And the winner is:

Mark Sarul

Congratulations I will PM you shortly to get your postage information to send you the coin.

I'd like to say a big thank you for everybody that took part and for all of your continued support.

Many thanks,

Hus

Thanks Hus

Never won a coin before. I have PM'd you my address.

Mark

[Jamesred 1]

And the winner is:

Mark Sarul

Congratulations I will PM you shortly to get your postage information to send you the coin.

I'd like to say a big thank you for everybody that took part and for all of your continued support.

Many thanks,

Hus

Thanks Hus

Never won a coin before. I have PM'd you my address.

Mark

Well Done Mark! and you too Hus, great way to start off the site!

[Kronos 0]

And the winner is:

Mark Sarul

Congratulations I will PM you shortly to get your postage information to send you the coin.

I'd like to say a big thank you for everybody that took part and for all of your continued support.

Many thanks,

Hus

Received the coin today Hus, thanks again.

Mark

[Hussulo 6]

And the winner is:

Mark Sarul

Congratulations I will PM you shortly to get your postage information to send you the coin.

I'd like to say a big thank you for everybody that took part and for all of your continued support.

Many thanks,

Hus

Received the coin today Hus, thanks again.

Mark

You're welcome.

[Q.E.D. 0]

Hi Hussulo,

good idea with website. Just a couple of comments: it's obvious that successful auction must have a large audience (meaning buyers). They are going to appear if there are good bargains available. Of course, advertising is a very good idea, but the key is to get dealers that will be selling their stock. I think (and this is just an opinion) that you have to drop your fees to 0% in the beginning. You can not compete with ebay now unless you offer your service for free since you simply don't have the audience. I think most of online auctions started like this and eventually introduced a fee for using it. Now, since you position your auction as a coin auction there must be more specific services available than in general online auction. Again ebay example, it is essentially online flea market and I don't expect people to put a good scan of the coin or put a fair grade. I also see a lot of fakes there and ebay does not do anything to stop it. I guess at this point you can offer more than ebay here.

[Hussulo 6]

Hi Hussulo,

good idea with website. Just a couple of comments: it's obvious that successful auction must have a large audience (meaning buyers). They are going to appear if there are good bargains available. Of course, advertising is a very good idea, but the key is to get dealers that will be selling their stock. I think (and this is just an opinion) that you have to drop your fees to 0% in the beginning. You can not compete with ebay now unless you offer your service for free since you simply don't have the audience. I think most of online auctions started like this and eventually introduced a fee for using it. Now, since you position your auction as a coin auction there must be more specific services available than in general online auction. Again ebay example, it is essentially online flea market and I don't expect people to put a good scan of the coin or put a fair grade. I also see a lot of fakes there and ebay does not do anything to stop it. I guess at this point you can offer more than ebay here.

Thank you for your suggestions Q.E.D.

We already have a couple of dealers listing and we have just started advertising, so we are hoping for a snowball affect. Whereby more people will join and when they do this will attract even more. We really need to get it out there and show people there is an alternative to eBay and it is specifically for coin collectors.

We could have had our fees set at 0% but felt it would be a bit underhanded to let users join and then bump the fees up later. The current fee is 4% which we don't plan on changing and you only have that to pay as a seller if you sell an item.

It costs you nothing to list an item if it doesn't sell, so you don't really stand much to loose. We feel that 4% is a very competitive figure, if you sell a coin for £10 it is only costing you 40p. There are no hidden fees. Some similar sites have a sliding percentage whereby depending on how much you sell an item for the percentage changes. On Coins4u.net it's a flat 4% regardless of how much your final sale price is.

We plan on using most of any profit made to invest in advertising the site. Hopefully this will be the catalyst for a virtuous circle leading to increasing numbers of buyers and sellers. If we charged 0% or advertising budget would be greatly reduced and this wouldn't benefit the site or the sellers.

It would be impossible for us to monitor every item listed. Essentially the site is an advertising platform for sellers to list and describe their own products. They can sell using a number of options including Purchase Now, or an auction format, although the site or Coins4u.net isn't an auction service. We do not handle any of the coins or goods at any time.

Current listing types are:

Auction Listing Format

Dutch Auction Listing Format

Reverse Auction Listing Format

Fixed Price Listing Format

Allow sellers to specify Start Date

You also get 6 free picture uploads.

Free to join and as mentioned listing is free.

I would recommend all sellers to use clear pictures and descriptions as it will help sell their products and minimise returns.

I would also recommend that buyers do their research and make sure what they are planning on buying has been graded accurately, they understand the description and buy from a seller with a good returns policy.

I am keen to keep the sale of forged, counterfeit and fake coins which are being sold as the real thing to a minimum. I realise it may be impossible to stop all such items being listed but as an when we are alerted to them we will make a judgement and if the item is indeed the above it will be removed, and the seller possibly warned, suspended or banned.

With that in mind if the site does get busy I would like to hire experienced collectors/ experts as a judge in their particular type of field, who could asses a coin and delete the said sale or auction if appropriate.

Kind regards,

Hus

[Q.E.D. 0]

Hi Hussulo,

thank you for the answer, I hope it will work out fine for you.

Best wishes,

Q.E.D.

[RLC35 289]

Merry Christmas to all on the Forum!

Bob C.

[Red Riley 2]

Merry Christmas to all on the Forum!

Bob C.

I would echo that. Given the time difference, you must only be half way through your lunch now, Bob!