Introducing GarageFind -- protected payments and marketplace for used BMW parts

If you've spent any time in the classifieds, you know the drill. Throwaway accounts. "Is this still available" followed by silence. PayPal F&F or nothing. And when a deal goes bad, your options are a chargeback fight or an angry thread the scammer will never read because they've already re-registered under a new name.

I've been here since '08 (E90 M3 track build thread, for those who remember it), I've built payment systems for a living for most of that time, and I finally got tired enough of all the above to do something about it. Quick disclosure: I signed up as a sponsor so I could post this properly.

GarageFind is a marketplace built specifically for used enthusiast parts, starting with BMW. Here's what it does differently:

Verified users. Every seller goes through real identity verification. A banned user stays banned.

Protected payments. Your money is held until the part arrives and you've had a chance to look it over. Sellers get paid once the buyer's had their inspection window. Nobody ships into the void, nobody pays into the void.

Disputes handled by people who speak the language. If something goes sideways, the person reviewing it knows the difference between IATs and an ICV, and can tell a core scratch from "destroyed in shipping."

Discounted shipping built in. ShipNerd/PirateShip-level rates with one-click label purchase right from the sale — address, tracking, and Purchase Protection delivery confirmation wired together automatically.

Full transparency: we just went live, and the first ~30 listings are literally me cleaning out my own garage. That's the point of this post — I'd rather grow this with people from this community than anywhere else. If you've got parts collecting dust, I'd love to have you as one of the founding sellers. I’m waiving all GarageFind fees for the first cohort of users plus issuing a $25 site credit per completed sale.

Site is garage-find.com. Kick the tires, list something, and tell me what's broken or missing -- direct feedback is the most useful thing you can give me right now. I'll be in this thread answering everything.

This is awesome. Thank you!

good idea, similar to KeySavvy almost.

Sellers can rest assured that you will get paid. It’s SafePay’s responsibility to collect payment from the buyer, and you’ll sign an agreement ensuring you receive payment.

Buyers can rest assured that you will get a clear title. SafePay will collect the title from the seller or the seller’s lienholder, and you’ll sign an agreement that ensures we send it to you.

omgzirra_exe wrote

good idea, similar to KeySavvy almost.

Sellers can rest assured that you will get paid. It’s SafePay’s responsibility to collect payment from the buyer, and you’ll sign an agreement ensuring you receive payment.

Buyers can rest assured that you will get a clear title. SafePay will collect the title from the seller or the seller’s lienholder, and you’ll sign an agreement that ensures we send it to you.

Thanks! Yeah I love KeySavvy for car purchases (except in Illinois but that’s a different story).
But agreed, it’s a similar approach. Ensure both parties are real people and be an independent third party holding payment until buyer confirms that they got what they paid for.

kolosy sounds promising, especially for e92 M3 platform as of late.
ALL the headaches, risks buying/selling seemingly solved with this marketplace approach.
May now have to purge my garage and get ta listing!

smokinjoe64 wrote

kolosy sounds promising, especially for e92 M3 platform as of late.
ALL the headaches, risks buying/selling seemingly solved with this marketplace approach.

> Perhaps missed when perusing site, what's the GarageFind fee structure?

May now have to purge my garage and get ta listing!

Please do! Right now the fees are set to zero. Eventually, it’ll charge a few percentage points of the sale, not unlike PayPal g&s

kolosy wrote

If you've spent any time in the classifieds, you know the drill. Throwaway accounts. "Is this still available" followed by silence. PayPal F&F or nothing. And when a deal goes bad, your options are a chargeback fight or an angry thread the scammer will never read because they've already re-registered under a new name.

I've been here since '08 (E90 M3 track build thread, for those who remember it), I've built payment systems for a living for most of that time, and I finally got tired enough of all the above to do something about it. Quick disclosure: I signed up as a sponsor so I could post this properly.

GarageFind is a marketplace built specifically for used enthusiast parts, starting with BMW. Here's what it does differently:

Verified users. Every seller goes through real identity verification. A banned user stays banned.

Protected payments. Your money is held until the part arrives and you've had a chance to look it over. Sellers get paid once the buyer's had their inspection window. Nobody ships into the void, nobody pays into the void.

Disputes handled by people who speak the language. If something goes sideways, the person reviewing it knows the difference between IATs and an ICV, and can tell a core scratch from "destroyed in shipping."

Discounted shipping built in. ShipNerd/PirateShip-level rates with one-click label purchase right from the sale — address, tracking, and Purchase [...]

You’re a saint

kolosy wrote

Please do! Right now the fees are set to zero. Eventually, it’ll charge a few percentage points of the sale, not unlike PayPal g&s

Coupla questions:
How-What's the financial/back-office mechanisms and protections work for the parties?
In other words, transactionally where do funds go and how distributed...financial institutions, clearinghouse, et all?

smokinjoe64 wrote

Coupla questions:
How-What's the financial/back-office mechanisms and protections work for the parties?
In other words, transactionally where do funds go and how distributed...financial institutions, clearinghouse, et all?

Everything is built on top of Stripe Connect. Stripe is one of (if not the) largest credit card processors in the world, and they handle the funds movement back and forth at the platform’s direction. GarageFind itself never takes your money, it just tells Stripe to charge the buyer and hold it for a few days, and then release it or refund it depending on outcome. That also means that GarageFind can’t decide to send the money elsewhere, it’s either back to the buyer or forward to the seller.

That works together with the shipping. When buyer checks out we buy a shipping label on their behalf, and capture the tracking number. Once tracking number shows delivered, we start a 3 day clock. During that time either the buyer says there is a problem, and we review, or they don’t and we release funds.

kolosy wrote

Everything is built on top of Stripe Connect. Stripe is one of (if not the) largest credit card processors in the world, and they handle the funds movement back and forth at the platform’s direction. GarageFind itself never takes your money, it just tells Stripe to charge the buyer and hold it for a few days, and then release it or refund it depending on outcome. That also means that GarageFind can’t decide to send the money elsewhere, it’s either back to the buyer or forward to the seller.

That works together with the shipping. When buyer checks out we buy a shipping label on their behalf, and capture the tracking number. Once tracking number shows delivered, we start a 3 day clock. During that time either the buyer says there is a problem, and we review, or they don’t and we release funds.

thx!