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While Ebay markets its services to professional sellers and buyers, another internet startup is attempting to get back to the roots of Ebay’s success. The idea that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is the foundation of Ztail, a Palo Alto, CA based startup. A veteran of Google, Shopping.com (formerly ePinions.com), and Women.com, co-founder and CEO Bill Hudak wants to bring together the independent sellers on the web and help people find the forgotten value in their unused belongings.

Ztail favors a social networking model. The site aims to provide an “interactive pricing guide that answers the question of ‘What’s It Worth?’” Not only an auction environment for buyers and sellers, Ztail also acts as a kind of online Kelley Blue Book, giving people an idea of what others might pay for their unwanted items. Users who sign up for accounts can “get worth” by listing an item, “sell it”, or “give worth” by casually appraising other people’s listings.

Ztail enthusiasts can give worth one of four ways:

• suggesting a price you might pay within Ztail
• adding a polling-type widget to their social network profile (blog, Facebook, etc.)
• link to a similar item on a classifieds site, Craigslist, Amazon, etc.
• find historic sales info from Ebay to estimate a price

These methods hope to attract users by encouraging not only interaction within the site, but ties to other online communities. Ztail’s What’s It Worth function is available as a Facebook application, within Ztail’s site, and as a e-widget for a user’s blog or personal website. This allows Ztail to cultivate a presence outside of their home site, and it allows users to share their listings with friends and family. Perhaps your cousin has always admired that antique porcelain doll you’re selling, or a colleague is looking to buy your old iPhone when you upgrade. Ztail’s social environment makes it easier and more trustworthy to buy used items over the web.

The one shortcoming of Ztail is that it relies on “crowd sourcing” of a sort. The more people participate in the What’s It Worth rating system, the more accurate it will be. While one person might be eager to pay $750 for your cocktail napkin autographed by Don Johnson, someone else might think it worthless. However, the more people join the site, the better the appraisals will become. This is particularly true if the site can attract professional appraisers and auctioneers, which will lend credibility to the “Blue Book” values of various items.

While Ebay will continue to be home to unopened boxes of Wii consoles and used car dealerships, Ztail hopes to attract individual sellers who are looking to take their garage sales to the web. As they employ social networking to bring together buyers and sellers, their user base will expand and become what Ebay once was: an active and engaging way to make money from your unwanted junk.

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

By Haley January Eckels