[jroseattle]

Interesting concept, but I question how defensible this service would be. It seems both Amazon and Ebay could simply offer this as an add-on service, and really...who is going to be better positioned to develop recommendation algorithms for marketing products?

[eru]

Customer service will make a huge difference. So that could be their moat.

[jroseattle]

I'm not sure I would expect customer service to be the difference maker in terms of separation from the competition. With Amazon, you're talking about existing world-class customer service. And doing customer service well at scale is a capital-intensive business.

The separation from competition that I would see as valuable are the two other aspects of the service: algorithmic sales and logistical support.

Great ideas from these guys, but in terms of the resources to work with, all things considered I'd rather be in the position of the incumbents than the scrappy startup.