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British Dental Journal, 2000

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1...CQout is pronounced as in 'Seek You Out'. Our first choice, CQ.com was taken by the US Congress!

2...CQout Ltd. has grown primarily by word of mouth since it was founded in 1999 by three London Business School graduates.

3...By number of items for sale, CQout is now the second largest online marketplace in the UK, passing ¼ million in December 2006, half a million in  September 2007 and over a million in March 2009

4...CQout charges new users a one-off registration fee of £2.00 ($3.50 USD) which reflects the actual administrative costs of validating user details to create and maintain a secure environment in which buyers and sellers can trust that goods will be delivered, items paid for, and that time wasting frivolous bids will not be made.

5...We operate a 'three strikes and you're out' policy on negative feedback. Three justified negative feedback comments from purchasers will have a seller banned for life. CQout's rigorous security routines prevent banned users from re-registering with different details.

6… CQout is a fully featured site without being too busy and ‘in your face’ visually. Users can ‘explore & discover’ in a way that is not overwhelming or daunting for the novice. We've opted for a fast loading, easy to view interface that makes life easy for buyers and sellers alike.

7… One of the reasons we're not yet a household name is that instead of putting a fortune into advertising, we’ve put our energy into providing first class customer service that we've been complimented on by satisfied users time and again. But we don’t get it right all the time, every time although we have the satisfaction of knowing that most of those that get angry and say rude things about us are those who have been caught trying to do something naughty!

8...CQout doesn't charge listing fees for standard listings, so 'no sale, no fee', and fees for all optional extras are all clearly visible. Contrast that with the hidden cost of selling on some other sites. New users coming to us from other auction sites can even take us up on our fee challenge.

9...CQout runs its own escrow system, called . When using this service, payment is not released to the seller until the goods have reached the buyer and been deemed satisfactory. CQout users are advised to use this 'in-house' system to avoid falling prey to the numerous scam escrow sites that have proliferated on the net. Acceptance of SecurePay is mandatory for sellers without at least 5 positive feedback ratings, and is paid for by the buyer as an optional added security measure. 

10...The issue of trust is an important one when buying online. Can you trust a seller based in another country? Can you trust a seller with little or no feedback to their name? CQout has addressed these issues with their scheme, which Sellers are only granted if (among other criteria):

a) the seller is known to CQout and/or has a good trading track record
b) the seller is known to be genuine and honest
c) the seller is reliable and provides above average customer service.

11...CQout runs its own payment system called but users are free to use whichever payment system they prefer. has also been integrated into CQout’s structure to enable immediate payment to be made for goods purchased on CQout quickly, easily and seamlessly. 

12…CQout runs an affiliates scheme which rewards users with £0.50 for each new user who registers with CQout on their recommendation.

13…CQout’s effective validation processes discourage the ‘£1 no reserve’ auctions that are so prevalent on other sites. These auctions initially appear attractive to buyers but are often not genuine, leading either to unfulfilled sales at impossibly low prices (and angry buyers) or to ‘shill bidding’ to artificially raise the bid price to an acceptable level.

14… is CQout’s fixed price, instant sale feature for those items that don’t lend themselves to the auction process. 

15… CQout does more to reduce to seller workload than any other online market place, with an Excel based bulk up-loader that can import listings from many other formats, automatic re-listing of unsold items and a comprehensive set of seller tools, including unique search stats.

16… CQout has a unique ‘anti-sniping’ feature that allows sellers to obtain the true value of their goods and avoids disadvantaging buyers using slower internet connections. By automatically extending the closing time of an auction by half an hour after the most recent bid, CQout more closely resembles a traditional auction house and is fairer to buyers and sellers alike.

17…CQout is family friendly. There is adult material on the site as we take the view that if it is legal for an adult to purchase such an item in a shop, then it is also reasonable that it should also be available for purchase online. CQout ensures that viewing and bidding access to adult material is restricted to logged in users only, all of whom are by definition over 18 years of age, as this is the minimum age at which a credit/debit card is granted, and such a card is necessary for validation on CQout. 

18...CQout is UK based but international in reach. We have users in over 80 countries, the majority of whom are in the UK. The USA is the second largest nationality represented, followed by Ireland and other European countries. Users can buy and sell in their own home currency, but also see all other sellers' items converted automatically into that currency.

19...Between them, CQout's sellers offer one of the largest selections of pre-owned CDs anywhere on the internet.

20...Why use CQout rather than one of the many 'free' sites? New online auction sites pop up all the time as part time ventures by hobbyists using 'out of the box' auction sites with limited 'back end' management capabilities that serious sellers require. Most last a few months with a few hundred items listed, then vanish once the operator realises the huge amount of 'behind the scenes' work necessary to regulate and manage a live online marketplace. The strategy of others seems to be either to offer a loss leading 'free' service to build up their user-base with the intention either of introducing selling fees once they have achieved critical mass (at which point, the users vanish because all they really wanted was that free service) or to offer that free service in the hope of being bought out (unlikely in the post-dot.com era): both of these models are unsustainable. Any responsible online marketplace has to take hour by hour care of its security, its customer service and its connectivity: all these need a real person at the helm, and that has to be paid for. CQout's nominal registration fee pays for the verification work needed to identify and deter fraudsters and scammers. Our free listing and 'no sale, no fee' policy means that customers only reward us for success. There really is no such thing as a free lunch.