Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: lazyjunkie on February 03, 2012, 03:46 pm

Title: Idea: Tiered account structure for buyers and sellers
Post by: lazyjunkie on February 03, 2012, 03:46 pm
I was reading a thread regarding paying for buyer accounts, which inspired a few ideas. The original thread  was http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=8535.15 (Poll: pay for a buyer account to fund early release pool for sellers). Over 50% of respondents did not want to pay for a buyer account, which is understandable, which lead me to the following ideas.

Consider this: Tiered accounts

Buyers could still register and purchase for free, and be protected by escrow as usual. The option exists, however, to upgrade your account to "preferred buyer". The proceeds of this account upgrade purchase could be used to fund the pool TravellingWithoutMoving suggested. The benefit to this account would be to establish a level of trust from the seller, knowing the buyer had to pay $100 for example to get this status, and is a lot less likely to screw around with them in escrow, and the potential to be able to be paid early from the pool. As a bonus to the buyer/seller, each could receive a discount on the commission/sale price

Tiered seller accounts:
Anyone can register and sell for free - but pay a higher commission on all sales - say 20%. This would discourage use of the free account, but would allow people to try their hand at selling (there would be an inevitable high risk of scamming using this account, but a seller could establish themselves over time with feedback - or upgrade their account)  The next tier could be the regular seller account, which the usual price applies and the standard fees apply. Business as usual. The third tier could be a premium seller - perhaps a $1000 account fee, but with greatly reduced commissions - say 1/2 - 1.5%. This person is obviously looking to move volume, so the benefit would be reduced cost over the long term, yet still a decent profit to the Silk Road itself (via volume), and a high level of trust shown to the buyer that this seller paid a hefty price to be here (and probably lower prices, which would increase sales in itself. This could cause quite a feedback loop)

What are your thoughts?
Title: Re: Idea: Tiered account structure for buyers and sellers
Post by: OldGuard on February 03, 2012, 06:29 pm
If the sellers want a pool then they can fund it themselves buy doubling or tripling the sellers fee to open an account. The sellers are the ones making all the money on here and the buyers already give their money to the sellers and now they want to charge the buyers even more just to help subsidize their little pool??

No thanks I will pass, and if SR thinks the pool is a good idea then they can take some of their new found wealth thanks to the new fee increases and use that to fund the sellers pool. I am not sure why the sellers think buyers have unlimited funds and that they should be entitled to as much as they can get their hands on. Looks more and more like the 1%ers are taking over this place and want to squeeze ever penny they can out of the buyers just so they can make even more.