StuffBuff is an application designed for people to use in buying and selling items on a fast, interactive auction platform. It melds aspects of traditional auction sites, fixed price sales, and social media applications with cutting edge technology. Founded by CEO Michael Langer in 2008, StuffBuff rapidly gained the attention at TechCrunch as well as a nomination for the PayPal X Innovate 2009 Developer Award. CEO Michael Langer calls StuffBuff “extreme auctions”, a combination of an auction and a social media site. The pace is fast and the auctions are in real-time, rather than over a period of weeks. Embeddable widgets are created for bidding to allow sellers to publicize auctions on social media and websites. These embeddable widgets are not simply links, they are connected into the real-time chat room and auction so that bids may be placed without actually having to be on the StuffBuff site. Auctions may be set for the future, allowing time to publicize on sites and blogs. StuffBuff has a FAQ link, but the limited information is offered in a forum style format. It is incomplete, and does not cover all the necessary information for a new user. Users will need to use trial and error to navigate and utilize the site. Only by navigating to Sell Item can a user find descriptions of the types of sales. A Tag Sale lists an item at a fixed price for 30 days. A LiveHaggle Auction is apparently similar to a regular online auction with the addition of a chat window. Bids appear along with chat that allows questions in a public forum. These are time-limited real-time auctions, so they may last 60 seconds or 3 hours. Auctions may be embedded in other websites or Facebook to share with friends, with the intent of creating viral auctions. Blink is another type of auction that challenges buyers to watch as the price of an item falls, and grab it before anyone else. The twist? The more people watching, the faster the price drops. One handy tool is the ability to use a cell phone, digital, or web camera to take a picture of an item’s barcode to streamline cataloging items, including shipping weight and dimensions from the database. This takes some of the guesswork out of estimating shipping costs. Cutting edge technology with the latest PayPal system, PayPal X, as well as Ape AJAX Push real-time data streaming makes this site high-tech and exciting. Registration requires full name, username, active email address, zip code, and date of birth. Initially free, the StuffBuff cost for sellers for auction setup is now $0.25 USD. To set a reserve price costs $1.50. Items incur a fee of 5% of the final selling value. Buyers are responsible for the cost of the purchased item and any shipping and handling costs. Anyone wanting to quickly buy or sell items in real-time would benefit from StuffBuff. This will be especially useful for those who use other social media platforms and can take advantage of the embeddable widgets. Those with large numbers of items may appreciate the cataloging via barcode assistance.

• Real-time interactive auctions
• Communication between buyers and sellers via chat during auctions
• Streamlined cataloging via barcode
• Flat rate shipping
• Set listing fees
• Embeddable auction pages to increase participation and bids
• Option to sell at fixed price

http://www.stuffbuff.com/