Gig Harbor has roughly 12,000 residents. Add Fox Island, Key Peninsula, Purdy, and the immediate area, you’re looking at 50,000+ people. That’s enough to support a real local marketplace — but only if it solves problems the existing options don’t.

What’s wrong with Facebook Marketplace

Facebook Marketplace is huge. It’s where most of the volume happens. But:

  1. No buyer protection. Pay in cash, hope for the best.
  2. Anonymous sellers. Anyone can create a profile in 2 minutes with a fake name.
  3. Endless lowball offers. Half your messages are “is this still available?” from someone who never plans to actually buy.
  4. Algorithm changes constantly. Your listing visibility is at Meta’s whim.
  5. Scam volume. Marketplace fraud reports have tripled since 2022.
  6. Privacy. Your full name, profile photo, and every other “Marketplace” interaction is visible to whoever messages you.

You can sell on FBM. We do too. But it’s not a great experience.

What’s wrong with Craigslist

Craigslist is still where serious peninsula sellers go for boats, vehicles, and high-value items. The traffic is older and more local. But:

  1. No payment platform. Cash-only meetups, sometimes with strangers, sometimes for $20,000+ items.
  2. Photos are an afterthought. You can upload them, but the layout makes them feel like an afterthought.
  3. Listing tools are stuck in 2010. No phone-friendly editing, no auto-suggestions, no AI-assisted anything.
  4. Trust is purely community-based. No verification, no rating system.
  5. The category structure is bizarre and getting worse.

What’s wrong with OfferUp / Mercari

OfferUp and Mercari are app-first, slick UX, decent for shipping protected sales. But:

  1. They’re national, not local. Buyers might be in Virginia. Listings get served to people who’ll never actually drive to Gig Harbor.
  2. Fees. OfferUp 12.9% on shipped, Mercari 10%. We’re 8%.
  3. Verification is optional and lightweight. A scammer can still operate.

So what does the Gig Harbor market need?

A platform that:

  1. Knows it’s hyperlocal. Every listing is for sale in Gig Harbor / Fox Island / Key Peninsula. No noise from non-local buyers.
  2. Verifies sellers. Phone verification mandatory before listing. Optional ID badges for higher-value sellers. Real names where possible.
  3. Has real moderation. A human in Gig Harbor reviews every new seller’s first 3 listings. Reports are answered in hours.
  4. Has payment protection. Stripe checkout, 48-hour buyer-protection window, mediation when things go wrong.
  5. Looks like a business cared about it. Beautiful photos, AI-assisted listings, fair pricing tool. Not “I’ll take it” + 47 messages.
  6. Is owned by a real local business. Not Meta. Not Craigslist’s parent. A real LLC with real customer support and real money on the line.

That’s what we’re building.

Why hyperlocal beats national

The case for hyperlocal is straightforward:

Cold start. A national platform needs millions of users to be useful in any single city. Facebook Marketplace took 4+ years to be useful. A hyperlocal platform can be useful at 5,000 users — as long as those users are actually in your town.

Trust. When the seller of a $400 dresser lives 6 miles from you, has a phone-verified Gig Harbor profile, and you can see their other 22 sales, you behave differently than when they’re “Marketplace User 4827.”

Pickup logistics. “Local pickup only, 98335” is a feature, not a limitation. No shipping fraud. No “my mover will come” scams. No 6-week waits for shipping.

Community signal. A platform with real Gig Harbor energy — boats and crab pots and kid bikes and consigned mid-century pieces — feels different from a generic platform. Your listings get more relevant attention.

The 8% commission

We take 8% on each completed sale. Cheaper than OfferUp (12.9%), Mercari (10%), eBay (13.25%). That money funds:

  • Hosting and infrastructure
  • Stripe processing fees
  • Customer support (one human, in town)
  • Active moderation (one human, in town)
  • AI auto-fill API costs (~$0.01/listing)
  • Marketing (so far: zero, all word of mouth)

We’re not VC-funded. We’re not optimizing for an exit. We’re building a real business that we want to operate for the next 30 years.

What’s next

We’re launching with the soft beta to ~500 invitees in May. Public open beta in June. Native mobile apps targeting end of year.

Roadmap (loosely):

  • V1: hyperlocal text + photos + Stripe checkout (now)
  • V1.5: AI auto-fill from photo (in beta)
  • V2: in-app shipping with USPS labels (Q3)
  • V2: Stripe Connect Express for instant seller payouts (Q4)
  • V3: Local Services category (Thumbtack-lite)
  • V3: Multi-community expansion (Puyallup, Tacoma, Bremerton)

Try it

List your first item → Browse all listings →

If you like what we’re building, tell a neighbor. The marketplace gets better with every additional seller and buyer in our specific neighborhoods.