Hi,

Who would like to see a "Ricardo style site" in English which could be geared towards English speakers here in Switzerland?

Thanks in advance for your input.

In response to your question: not me.

to go to the effort of establishing a site and then gearing it towards English speakers would from the offset alienate most of the potential client base. Sounds like duplicating a lot of work. Perhaps you'd like to see an English option on Ricardo? Then perhaps English speakers can just use the Ricardo interface and describe products in English.

There's a thread at the moment discussing pressurising Coop to provide an English option for their online grocery shopping. Maybe similar lobbying of Ricardo would have effect.

Thanks for your feedback.

No, I wouldn't like to see it in English. I've learnt lots of Swiss sayings from that site when writing/reading the comments for the stuff I've sold or bought.. you do not need to be completely fluent in German to use it and you can use Ricardo as a learning tool if you have e-mail correspondence from potential buyers.

Leave Ricardo alone, it's Swiss after all and written in German - it's fine!

Plus, you can always post your stuff in the EF . I like Ricardo because it gives you the chance to learn new expressions (as previous psoter noted).

Ricardo is a bit of a nightmare when it comes to searches since users are posting in 3 different languages, and together with mispellings and uses of local slang you sometimes completely miss out.

also very true

The sensible seller will put their items up in English anyway, given the unique nature of this country's languages....

The interface is horrible in any language but..... as they are an international company, it should be a low effort job to add a locale.... (in theory).

When I've sold on Ricardo I always simply listed in English. The items brought 'normal' prices compared to other auctions so I don't think it turned any buyers off (both French and German speaking bought).

It is a bear to search in German, as there can be several ways to call something not to mention slang.

The problem with starting a new auction site is it's totally dependent on traffic for success. As the user base would be quite small I think it would struggle.

Please no!! Communicating with buyers/sellers, reading descriptions and searching for items in 3 different languages is already enough trouble.

Someone in another part of Switzerland was the highest bidder in a recent auction of mine and he couldn't figure out how to pay with my IBAN 12 days later and us communicating in very bad French, he has finally paid me.

EDIT: actually, after looking at my bank account and translating his email, he has just paid at the post office, so still waiting.

In todays web space, it would be really easy for Ricardo to auto translate each language to your browser language. Granted the translation would not be perfect, you could easily follow along.

... or simply stick the auction page's URL into Google Translate. Agreeing with Mud, I don't think such a site would get the critical mass of users sufficient to make it worth browsing.

I think it's essential in Ricardo not to use the search function as you typically would in ebay. Just browse categories and you're far more precise.

yep - i'd rather have a wide audience than a small one.