Feedback Complete.
Junkio is a Peer-To-Peer Network which allows you to sell your Junk to friends or anyone online.
Target Audience: Anyone with a computer and internet connection
Website URL: https://www.Junkio.com
No. of Feedback Providers Requested: 1
Using MacBook with OS 10.7.5 With Safari 6.0.2
1) Everyone has Junk they want to get rid of. Would you personally use this service?
 Personally, no. This is not because of any flaws within the service being offered, but because my own community already has a free-to-use local service that is very effective at meeting my needs. Of course, your lay-out is nicer (ours is a bare-bones site, but in that regards, it works great and does what it is suppose to).
2) Are you encouraged to (create a new account, subscribe, sign up for a free trial, etc.)? Can you tell us why (or why not)?
 I attempted to, but was asked to provide an invite code, which I do not have (numbers 1 to 10 do not work–too much effort to go further).
3) Simplicity is our goal. Compared to eBay, Craigslist, how does it compare?
 The service is fairly simple and easy to use. Search functions work very well, everything is laid out in a logical, easy to follow order. Fairly complete category lists (which no doubt will expand as more items find there way into the service).
The interface and pages are a lot cleaner and neater than eBay, and less overwhelming than Craigslist.
Junkio doesn’t seem to provide a geographical search/option (yet). One thing that makes eBay, Craigslist, and local/community lists great is that one can search for items within a geographical area, and have some idea of where the item they are getting is coming from. eBay also provides information regarding shipping costs, which can be rather substantial.
4) Functionally, was signing up, updating your profile and uploading Junk to sell easy, tedious, or impossible?
In signing up, I was asked for an invite code. As none was provided, I was unable to sign up and test the processes of updating/editing my profile. Sign up appears easy enough, however.Â
5) Please share any additional feedback/comments you may have.
 Landing page is clean, easy to look over, easy to see what your site is about.Â
Nice to see an app tie in.
Your Item Window (the image display the shows up when you click on an item) doesn’t seem to measure properly– the text description of the item covers the item’s image. Also, the Buy/Make An Offer button and the ‘Send Message’ button overlap. I am not sure if this issue is just with my computer system or not.Â
Product images could be bigger.Â
1. Probably not. When I want to get rid of something, I usually already know if I have a friend who needs it. If they don’t, I post it on Amazon, eBay, Craigslist or somewhere like that so it can get wide exposure. However, for people who have a very large circle of acquaintances, maybe this could be useful.
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2. Again, not personally. But I do think there’s a need for greater security in the online marketplace and that many people feel concerned about buying from or selling to strangers. On the other hand, eBay and Amazon seem to have fairly good systems in place for dealing with fraud. Just to test it out, I went ahead and attempted to sign up, but apparently I needed an invite code, which I don’t have.
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3. Your home page is obviously much simpler than the eBay home page. However, I find it to be a bit too simple (i.e., lacking in information). It’s hard for me to compare your listing process to eBay’s since I wasn’t able to set up an account at Junkio. However, your screenshots on the “About Junkio” page make it look like the process is much, much more user-friendly for sellers at Junkio. At eBay these days, it feels like you have to jump through hoops to list the smallest item. Craigslist, on the other hand, is about as bare-bones as a site can get, more so than yours even. Despite its status as a leader in the secondhand market, it remains a DIY-type site. I’d say that Junkio strikes a happy medium between Craigslist and eBay. However, as I said, I’d like to see more info on the Junkio site.
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4. I would have been happy to test this out, but I wasn’t able to. As I said above, I needed an invite code to sign up, and maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see one here or on the site. However, I was able to use the search feature to find items. I really liked that the listings popped up when I clicked on them so that I didn’t have to constantly backarrow between the listings and the search results. On the other hand, it wasn’t intuitive to get back to the main search page from the search results; I found that I had to click in the category box, which wasn’t what I would’ve expected. In addition, it was impossible to return to the home page from the search results. The back arrow didn’t work, and clicking the Junkio logo just refreshed the page. Even opening a new window and re-entering the URL just brought me back to my last search results. I’m wondering if you installed a cookie in my browser.
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5. I’m not a big fan of the home page. I find it to be too sparse. The main image, while attractive and eye-catching, is too far to the right and actually gets cut off in my browser. I also didn’t like the lack of a traditional navbar with informational pages. I noticed the link to your “About” page but not right away since it was so small. The “About” page, on the other hand, did a very nice job of detailing how your site works, and the screenshots were a nice illustration. It quickly cleared up any confusion I had. However, if I landed on the site randomly and didn’t take a few minutes to look around, I’m not sure I would’ve found it in the first place. I’d also like to see more pages about your pricing structure, shipping & handling expectations for sellers and return policies for buyers, your Amazon guarantee, contact info, and so on.
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My other concern about Junkio is its viability given that Amazon and eBay are already fairly trustworthy sites, and I don’t know that most people have a big enough “market” in their friends. You do have an option to list items publicly, but then that would defeat the purpose of listing them on Junkio as opposed to another, more established site, I’d think. In my mind, the main draw here is ease of the listing process, including the simpler fee structure. Your site would probably be competitive with eBay and Amazon for that reason alone. They’re charging quite an arm and a leg these days, and the listing process can take forever!
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Obviously, Junkio has some glitches right now also. My suggestion to you is to take care of those glitches, add some informational pages, and then return for another review. Good luck!