There are already websited where people can ask other to buy things for them in a certain country and then sent it.
Your idea goes one step further...

Hi,

I like your idea. Like you I have friends pick up many things for me around the world.

The only concern I have; is to find a way to protect your idea from exploitation by the "Drugs Trade" and or Terrorists.

Together with Airlines and others, I would be concerned about carrying packages for complete strangers.

I would be interested in hearing any constructive thoughts with regards to my concerns, as otherwise I think that this could be a great idea.

Good Luck.

@CharonV:
Thanks for the encouragement! I thought about the exploitation issue, too. I came up with two ideas on how to minimize the risks:

1. Appeal to common sense
Travellers would have to choose wisely if they were to accept or decline a given request for a specific item. So, just as in your average airport near checkin, we'd give people some guidelines like:
- Never accept to transport something that you didn't buy yourself (on behalf of the recipient).
- If you really can't help it, examine the item closely, package it yourself or have it checked by customs prior to departure.
Etc. etc., you know what I mean.

2. Implement rules
Why not just ban requests for anything that can't be purchased in a shop or may not be exported / imported from / to a given country? If a user tries to place a request violating that rule and someone reports him, have him expelled.

This would take some doing though, assembling and maintaining a list of banned goods for any given country.

So best have people sign that they'll keep themselves informed on what they are allowed to carry around with them. Which brings me back to option 1.

The portal also would need a lot of legalese stating that the provider can't be held liable in case someone really can't resist the urge to help the nice young columbian lady out with that packet of confectioners' sugar she so badly has to get to her auntie in the U.S.

@vanhees:
I didn't check first, but I already suspected something like this would have to be already up and running.
So the added value of my idea compared to those sites probably only exists (if at all) in densely populated areas where the chance to find someone capable of bringing the desired thing back and is living near you is high, because only in these circumstances shipping would be cheaper yet.

I think it's a great basis for a social network. You'd probably want some kind of bid-ask system where person A posted an item they wanted and person B, C, and D could post responses saying they would get the item for cost + specified handling + specified shipping. Person A would then accept one of those bids. That kind of structure would eliminate situations where Person A got deluged with too many fulfillments.

The infrastructure could look almost exactly like eBay, but instead of posting things for sale people would post things they wanted and other people would post bids that included the date they could provide the item and the markup they'd want for shipping and handling. An eBay-like structure would also let you charge a listing fee so the site gets a cut.

I wouldn't worry too much about drug trafficking and terrorists. They have their own distribution channels and don't really need to use low-frequency unknown couriers like this service offers. Obviously you'd need to moderate the listings to check for illegal items just like eBay does. You would have a problem if your service facilitated things like "pick up a box from my grandmother" which would lead to carrying packages from strangers like CharonV mentions, but if you focus on consumer items that a traveller would purchase at some store they chose, then you should have no problem with airlines or customs since it's no different than if the tourist bought that item for themselves.

@micco

Yep, that's exactly what I had in mind, only you describe it with far greater accuracy. Mhoty. Care to do the modeling'n framework? ;-)

How would you rate the benefit of such a network compared to the kind of site vanhees mentioned above?

I haven't looked around to see if anyone has tried it, but I think a reverse-eBay might be very popular in general, not just for the travel application you describe. I've got a lot of junk I haven't bothered to put on eBay because it's not worth my time to sell it for pennies and ship it, but if someone posted a "want" for it, that might prod me into offering it up. That would open up a big market in addition to the travel option.

Even if you just restrict it to the travel application, I think it's a lot better than a simple bulletin board type site. A lot of people on both sides of the transaction might have more confidence in not getting ripped off if the site had a framework to treat this like actual transactions and provided some of the feedback features that eBay has.

e*bay!

You titled it "Shipping", but you focus on "Importing". Please decide which (or both) and develop your idea accordingly. At face level, it is interesting.

@summertime
thanks for the info. Every once in a while there's a glitch in my foreign lingo skills :-) I meant to focus on 'getting things to people who want them' and don't see much difference between shipping and importing in that respect. Would you care to explain?

nostromo, simplistically, "importing" happens when "shipping" crosses a national border. I think you should focus on the "shipping" aspect since someone in New York may want something from Cleveland (or someone in Madrid want something from Seville) just as often as they'd want something from London or Tokyo.

Maybe a better term would be "courier", which is when you get a real person to hand carry a package instead of shipping it.

eBay does have a "Want it now" function for reverse auctions, but it seems designed more like a lazy search, intending to connect potential buyers with existing auctions. nostromo, maybe you can compare and contrast what they provide with what you envision.

Shipping or courier: It might be cheaper to send a package with a community member who happens to be flying from my area to the area I want to send to.

@micco
'simplistically, "importing" happens when "shipping" crosses a national border'
that's exactly what I thought it was like. Whew. :-)

@summertime
That should make clear why I labeled the idea 'shipping': It simply is the broader term. I mainly wrote a lot about imports because as a tech guy I am trained to focus on those parts of a given concept that might cause problems or failure, and while moving something around within the borders of any one country is not very likely to raise any legal issues, crossing borders very well might.
When trying to establish the feasibility of an idea, I think it's always a good idea to state how possible problem areas can be handled, so I started with that.
Besides, when you're living in western Europe you'd have to choose your traveling route very carefully if you wanted to carry something for, say, two thousand k's without suddenly having to import it somewhere ;-)

I like the expression 'courier' though and think this describes the idea better.

Concerning (reverse) ebay, the 'want it now' feature and discernment, I understand that I'll have to flesh out my idea a bit.

First of all, I'd like to stick to the courier / travel element of the idea. I don't see the need for a generalized reverse eBay since their 'want ad' feature seems to cover that .

The core functions of the portal would allow users on the crowdcourier site the following options:

They could post want ads stating where they are located, what they want, where it can be obtained from, the time frame in which they want to get it and the compensation they'd be willing to pay for, like micco stated, price of the item, handling and the couriers trouble.

Users could also offer their services as a courier, stating where they are located, when and where they travel, maybe what kind, amount or weight of goods they'd be willing to carry and what compensation they'd ask for apart from the price of any requested item.

An agent could automatically propose matches between requests and offers, but of course users would be provided with a search engine to find matches themselves.

Feedback mechanisms and a listing fee would admittedly function quite like eBay. User profiles would center round the traveling theme, of course.

Around that core, I could think of a variety of additions: Bulletin boards for special interest items ("where to get the best / cheapest / ....in the world"), maybe an added want/offer scheme for accomodation (yes, I know those things do already exist stand-alone, thats why I only think of them as additions), maybe a kind of gratification scheme (crowdcourier miles), activities like: Around the world in X days: Let's send this item round the world as fast as possible (could even be a guinness world's record in this), maybe send your autograph book on all the continents and collect entries from around the world, establish a 'get a postcard from anywhere' side track and so on.

Enough brainstorming for now, I hope I could make a bit of a distinction here.

Again, thanks for all the input!

Love this! I think that micco brings up some great input on creating a reverse ebay and having bids come in. That would definitely allow for some great business opportunities.

See Uship.com for one implementation in the US (international?).

I like it...

"eBay does have a "Want it now" function for reverse auctions,"
You make a good point micco.

Interesting link Summertime. I have found that they do in fact have international shipping to other country's.
On the page click on the tab called international at the far right:
http://www.uship.com/find

Looks to me like uship has this covered?

Truckers, airline workers, long distance commuters - I think there are a lot of conduits for this idea. It reminds me a bit of the Travelbugs in geocaching. Viral shipping - I love it.

What UShip doesn't have: I don't believe they will go out and shop for the items you seek. That function seems a little more like "importing" to me.

Maybe an escrow service would be needed.

The purchaser/traveller does not want to go on a long vaction, buy something I don't want and come back a month later and have the person not want it anymore.

And on the other side the wanter/buyer does not want to send someone money and hope they follow up and send it to me a month later.

Sorry to go back to the terminology issue again, but to my mind both 'shipping' [The commercial enterprise of **moving** goods and material] and 'couriering' imply picking up a package and simply transporting it. I think 'importing' [The commercial activity of **buying and bringing in** goods from a foreign country] is better.

Definitions from WordNet; emphases mine.

I am pretty sure you are not allowed to profit from buying and selling things internationally. I thought all purchases had to be for personal use only.

Domestically, this service seems useful.

Awesome bunch of ideas....

I have kids, we never have enough room in the car when travelling. If you wanted chocolates you'd get used wrappers. I don't think that I'm the demographic for your pursuit.
Still, there is always a lot of ad hoc transportation of goods taking place. Who am I to rule it out if done in a timely fashion it could be successful?

I like this idea as part of a community site, but not for a standalone site. It would work when you have a large network and people could post want ads...Like Micco's idea. I think this could work well within a community (repetitive? just trying to make more than a one liner)

nostromo@summertime
thanks for the info. Every once in a while there's a glitch in my foreign lingo skills :-) I meant to focus on 'getting things to people who want them' and don't see much difference between shipping and importing in that respect.

It tells a lot...

Thanks for all your valuable comments, each and every one is appreciated. Sorry for my remaining silent for the last few days, workload just killed me.

@motiggidy & summertime
What uship mainly seems to deal with is hauling the big stuff. My idea didn't so much center around cars, furniture, boats and so on but smaller commodities, I imagined more community fun and, as summertime states, they won't go buy the thing for you. Still, uship is quite close to my idea.

@LarsBell
Good point. There are some renowned ones the site could hook up with.

@PhilipH
Ok, I plead guilty, I should have looked it up myself.

@giganull
I know what you mean. But you just might take on requests for things your kids don't like, of course :-)

@DTINGG
You make a very good point. Just like with miccos idea for a reverse ebay feature I can see how the proposed service could both benefit from and add to an already existing community.

@jingle
Would you mind telling me what it tells, then? ;-)

I think CharonV's point about abuse is important not because we'd all be gullible enough to import a bomb or drugs, but rather a similar phishing ecosystem might spring up around such a site where enough abuses are attempted that some are clever, or target a new member and get through. It is certainly not a show stopper, but worth projecting where these kinds of services might lead.

It may be I don't do a lot of importing, but I'm having trouble coming up with enough examples of where this is advantageous. Used to being able to order stuff online, and shipping being just a natural cost added to any purchase.

Nostromo, could you cite some "perfect examples" of how this service would help people? For myself, the last thing I wanted really bad from the states was "rock band" because it couldn't be purchased in Canada as early as the states. So we bought one thru eBay. Was there an opportunity there for your proposal? I don't think so... because getting the game itself was a challenge too. Even if I'd lined up a purchase at an EB in the states where the game was waiting for this fellow, involving a 3rd party in the transaction seems like a recipe for confusion and liability.

I probably haven't done enough importing myself to see the the particular transactions this could be applied to yet.

Gord, here are a couple of examples. My father likes a particular kind of tea which is an inexpensive grocery-store brand in another country but impossible to get where he lives. He can buy it online, but the international shipping is several times more than the tea itself costs. That means he's willing to pay some tourist a pretty high margin to bring the tea back, and he's still saving money over having it shipped.

Another example is ordering music from other countries. In several cases, either I or my friends overseas have wanted minor indie releases that were not available. Some specialty sites provide indie imports, but the markup is very high and the shipping relatively expensive. Having a tourist hand-carry the selection across the border saves enormous cost and hassle.

will keep this in mind people are basicly honest if there apart of something

very good idea. the problem is to let everybody get everything after you came from the trip, because maybe they live in the other part of city.

Check out http://www.darrb.com/
This is probably closest to the implementation.
I've seen them present at several StartUp conferences in ME. Also see their videos (of presentation) on YouTube.