Anyone use Popula?

[ktinkel]

I just registered at Popula, an online sales site specializing in vintage, antique, and collectible merchandise.

Its service is divided into Auctions or PopShops (like eBay’s Buy It Now) — probably for legal reasons. The categories are heavy on books but also include Hollywood, Vintage/designer, Erotica, and Antiques & Collectibles (with sub-categories including Kitsch), among others. (I was disappointed to see that Kitsch offers only Real Budweiser Shirts at this moment.)

The registration was so I could buy something. But looking around, I see it is at least potentially an interesting place, with fewer but more focused categories than eBay.

The terms seem better as well. For sellers in PopShop, there is a monthly fee of $10, and 10% commission on concluded sales. For auction sellers, listings are free so long as you have 100/month and commissions are 5% or less. They encourage sellers to promote their own sites.

There is also a forum called (ha-ha!) vox.popula. Looks dreadful (dark grey on black), and when I tried to read there, got an error message.

The terms and conditions are not only reasonable, as such things go; they are written in plain English.

The place is new; there isn’t much to buy at this point. And unless you can use MS Access to upload auction listings you must supply them in a database format they can translate from.

Still, there is something charming about the place. Reminds me of Trader Joe’s. Perhaps they will do well.