June 28th, 2009
Sellers can now list boxes by specifying exact dimensions. Boxes can still be listed using our box types.
We created box types to make it easy for sellers to classify a wide variety of boxes without having to do much sorting or measuring. Box types also help buyers purchase boxes that match their needs even if exact sizes are not available.
However, it can take new sellers time to find correct box types. This effort shouldn’t be required if they already have exact dimensions for their boxes – something that is more common than I thought it would be. Plus sellers with exact dimensions have to go through an extra step to add dimensions to their listing if they want to receive higher pricing and additional buyer interest that boxes with exact dimensions can generate.
No more. If sellers have exact dimensions BoxCycle will use them to automatically determine the correct box type. BoxCycle will also assign appropriate price premiums for listing boxes with exact dimensions transparently to the seller.
To see how it works check out the Sell Used Boxes page.
This feature should prove a useful and popular addition for existing and potential sellers. It was a pleasure to receive requests for this exact feature a few days before we were set to release it.
Posted in Site Updates | Comments
June 19th, 2009
Notification Edit Screen
allow buyers to make potential sellers aware of their needs. They also act as an alert for buyers by automatically notifying them when new boxes matching their criteria are listed near their location.
Today’s release makes it easy for buyers to modify their wanted listing if their box needs or contact information changes. Buyers can also delete their listing if they do not want to receive further notifications.
For security, buyers need a special edit link to modify their listing. The link is emailed upon creation of the wanted listing and is also included in emails notifying buyers of new boxes in their area.
Tags: boxes wanted, used boxes
Posted in Site Updates | Comments
June 10th, 2009
Tags: interview
Posted in Inside the Box | Comments
June 7th, 2009
We’ve added Live Chat to BoxCycle as another way for buyers and sellers to communicate with us. Simply click the ‘Chat With Us Live!’ button to the left of the phone number to be connected. If you don’t see a button then no one is available for Live Chat at the moment – call or email instead.
Posted in Site Updates | Comments
June 4th, 2009
Seller's Edit Box Screen
We’ve added the ability for sellers to specify wall thickness and color of their boxes. Along with providing buyers with additional information, this will allow better matching of new listings with Boxes Wanted requests.
Double-wall and triple-wall boxes are priced at a 35% and 50% premium over list price if automatic pricing is used.
We’ve removed the separate box types for Double-Wall boxes and updated existing listings to use the new property instead (prices were adjusted so seller profit will not change). I am quite happy to clean up the box type list a little bit.
Tags: sell used boxes
Posted in Site Updates | Comments
May 9th, 2009
I haven’t done a programming related blog entry until this one. Why? First, I want to keep this blog focused on BoxCycle and environmental issues. Second, I haven’t had much time, as is evident from lack of posts on environmental issues. Finally, I haven’t run into much that I couldn’t find an answer to with a few searches and I am not fond of duplicating effort just to get a post up. This time I think I have something to contribute to the Ruby on Rails community.
The issue is updating plugins. Initially, I simply did ‘plugin install’ and checked them into my svn repository not thinking much of it. My guess is, this is what most beginners to Subversion do. In passing I saw things about svn:externals, but figured it was advanced stuff and I’d sort it out later.
When it came time to update some of the plugins I did ‘plugin install’ again, and didn’t think much of it, again. That is, until I went to checkin the project. Subversion refused. It took me a while to figure out what’s going on and a lot of trial and error to be able to check in the project at all. I now know exactly how to do it:
- Delete the directory containing the plugin
- Checkin changes
- Install the new plugin
- Checkin changes
Quite annoying. Even worse if you made changes to the plugin code. Why is this necessary?
Subversion keeps state in hidden .svn directories in your local copy. It can’t checkin directories that are missing .svn folders because it can’t figure out their state. ‘plugin install’ removes the directory tree when it reinstalls the plugin. The only thing you can do is first checkin a version without the directory and then add the directory back in the next commit. Some good links on the topic: http://railsforum.com/viewtopic.php?id=24882 and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/119006/what-should-i-do-with-the-vendor-directory-with-respect-to-subversion .
Once I figured out the issue, I understood svn:externals and found tools like Piston to make management easier. However, by then, most of the Rails community has moved to Git version control which doesn’t work well with svn:externals or Piston. Piston has been promising to make a Git compatible version, but for much of BoxCycle’s existence it hasn’t occurred. Plugin updates have been a huge thorn in my side.
With large changes to Rails 2.3.2, most plugins needed to be updated. I was very excited to see that Piston 2.0.2 has finally been released and ‘gem install piston’ actually installed the right version, which has not been the case for me with 1.9.x releases. However, I did run into installation issues on Windows which took me a while to resolve. Sharing the solution is my primary motivation for this post.
So keep the following in mind when you install Piston 2.0.2 on a Windows XP machine (I presume Vista is similar):
- After ‘gem install piston’ type in the ‘piston’ command. If you get errors, read them carefully. Dependencies don’t seem to be well defined for the Piston gem and I had to install a number of gems separately before the ‘piston’ command displayed the usage help screen.
- You need to have Git installed for Piston to work with Git repositories. I installed MSysGit .
- With Windows you are likely using InstantRails which runs in it’s own isolated environment. This means that Piston will not be aware that MSysGit is installed. You need to update the InstantRails PATH to include Git. Edit c:\InstantRails\use_ruby.cmd to have the PATH line include c:\Program Files\Git\cmd (or whatever your path to Git is). Also update the use_ruby.cmd template in conf_files directory.
Once I got Piston working I deleted existing plugins, hopefully for the last time, and did a checkin. Then I used ‘piston import’ to install new versions under Piston’s management. I am quite relieved to not have to dread updating plugins again!
Tags: git, piston, plugins, rails, subversion, windows
Posted in Programming | Comments
May 7th, 2009
Having pictures of boxes has been the plan since launch. People tend to have a hard time visualizing box sizes from types and dimensions alone. They need a point of reference – how big is the box compared to a person or a common object? We’ve had mistakes made by both buyers and sellers because of incorrect assumptions about box sizes.
Hopefully, no more. I am happy to say that the first batch of box pictures is up on BoxCycle and is integrated throughout the site – from listing to buying (click box name to see picture). All boxes pictured are typical used boxes sold on the site.
This should help sellers figure out what, say, Moving Box – Small means. It will also help buyers who aren’t familiar with moving boxes and may think that something like a 12″ shipping box would be large enough for moving (it isn’t).
Tags: box pictures, buy used boxes, sell used boxes
Posted in Site Updates | Comments
May 1st, 2009
We’ve added videos to the BoxCycle front page to help potential buyers and sellers understand the service. Videos go through the purchase and selling process so customers can see how everything works in advance. These screencasts also address common questions and misunderstandings we’ve seen so far.
You can also find and share these videos through the BoxCycle YouTube channel. We used the new ScreenToaster service to create them.
To the best of my knowledge, there isn’t anything like BoxCycle out there for either buyers or sellers. Even outside of the world of used boxes, the model we are using is rare, in part because it is quite time intensive for the business. However, we get lumped with existing models. This isn’t surprising or particularly bad, but it does cause confusion.
I hope that these screencasts, along with other steps we are taking, will help people understand BoxCycle better.
Tags: buy used boxes, sell used boxes
Posted in Site Updates | Comments
April 15th, 2009
BoxCycle has added an easy way to set box prices to meet seller’s specific profit requirements. The Edit Box screen now offers a Custom Profit pricing option along with Automatic and Custom Price options.
The seller simply enters the profit they need to earn to make selling the box worthwhile and BoxCycle will calculate the appropriate buyer price taking into account BoxCycle commission. The pricing option will then change to Custom Price so the seller can make final adjustments to the actual price buyer sees.
I hope this helps box resellers and manufacturers add BoxCycle as a sales channel for their products.
Posted in Site Updates | Comments
April 5th, 2009
BoxCycle launched with the focus of helping businesses and individuals with more or less regular supply of used boxes to connect with people who need boxes on occasion. A typical example would be a retail store with boxes and a person looking for moving boxes.
There is a related, but very different scenario that is quite common. To our knowledge it is also completely unserved: businesses with regular demand for specific boxes trying to find sellers with occasional supply. A typical example would be a fulfillment center that regularly needs specific shipping boxes and a box manufacturer with overruns.
It is difficult for sellers like the box manufacturer above to list their boxes and be found by buyers. Their inventory changes frequently and boxes often head to the recycling bin in days if not hours. What is needed is a way for sellers to find buyers who have immediate demand.
A major new section recently added to BoxCycle allows for exactly this functionality: Boxes Wanted.
Potential buyers can now indicate exactly what boxes they need including quantity, frequency, dimensions, color, wall thickness, printing, etc. The listings are visible to anyone and buyers are notified each time a matching seller lists boxes. Sellers can also respond to wanted listings without actually listing their boxes.
Boxes Wanted section is built on notification functionality we offered since launch and much of the current data comes from notification requests we received until now.
Buyers can still specify just their name and email address (or phone number) and be notified each time a new seller lists boxes near them. We’ve added the ability for them to enter more specifics about the boxes they need and to restrict notifications to only those listings that match these specifics.
Furthermore, notification requests are now automatically visible in Boxes Wanted. This allows occasional sellers to find regular buyers. It also makes buyer requests more influential since visible requests signal demand which may encourage new sellers to list boxes in the area.
I am quite excited about the Wanted section. It brings potential for efficiency and waste reduction to a complementary, but entirely new, audience. At the same time I hope that it will increase the number of notifications submitted and make demand more visible to potential sellers which in turn could help BoxCycle get through the initial ‘chicken or the egg’ problem of a completely new marketplace.
Tags: boxes wanted, buying used boxes, cheap boxes, shipping boxes, used boxes
Posted in Site Updates | Comments
