Looking for a group purchasing website.

March 4, 2004 7:01 PM

There used to be a site where if you got enough people to commit to buying a particular product, the price would go down. So, if they got 200 orders for Product X, it cost $200/unit, and if they got 300 orders, it cost $175/unit, etc. Does anyone remember the name of the site or what this type of sales practice is called? Is this still around?
posted by UrbanFigaro to computers & internet (8 comments total)

The one I remember was called Mercata and it closed a few years ago. I believe "group buying" was a common description but the whole idea died so quickly, no one name ever stuck.
posted by alexfw at 7:07 PM on March 4, 2004

That's exactly the information I needed. In 6 minutes, too! Thank you so much!
posted by UrbanFigaro at 7:16 PM on March 4, 2004

I bought the DVD player I have right now from there... great deal, and lots of fun. Too bad they're not around.
posted by crawl at 7:39 PM on March 4, 2004

Mobshop was another such site. Man, I wish I got a taste of that burn rate.
posted by machaus at 7:53 PM on March 4, 2004

Just FYI : it's still huge in Korea, where net-shopping is several orders of magnitude (I mean that literally) as big as it is anywhere else that I know of. My wife buys most of our non-daily requirements that way, and saves a passel doing it.

But I don't suppose that you wanted anything in Korean, though.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:37 PM on March 4, 2004

There's still one around. It's called letsbuyit.com.
posted by timyang at 11:02 PM on March 4, 2004

letsbuyit.com

That site is full of bugs.

(Also, they're looking for a US sucker, er, franchisee.)
posted by kindall at 12:26 AM on March 5, 2004

I assume letsbuyit.com is dead, since the copyright notice at the bottom has the dates 1999-2003? Just like a tombstone.
posted by salmacis at 2:41 AM on March 5, 2004