Dawdle launches auction site dedicated to gamers

Riding today's economic rollercoaster is absolutely no fun, especially if you're a fan of playing cutting-edge video games. At $60 a pop, that's a pricey habit.

Enter Dawdle.com. Launched at the beginning of October, the new auction site hopes to help gamers cash in on their used games and gear by offering a targeted way to sell old products for profit and grab new ones at a fraction of the price.

So what makes Dawdle any different from, say, eBay or GameStop? According to CEO Sachin Agarwal, plenty.

"We've spent a lot of time listening to the needs of buyers and sellers," he said in a recent release. "They've universally been clamoring for an online solution that was safe and easy to use, without the hassles of image management, hunting down payment, or juggling the risks of other marketplace platforms. Dawdle.com meets that vision of a 'moronically easy' place to buy and sell games and gear online."

In practice, Dawdle fixes some of the most common gripes about eBay. They've gotten rid of those pesky listing fees, plus offer direct deposit instead of forcing vendors to run everything through Paypal. Then there's the "Standing Offer" -- you set the price you want to pay for something, and if/when it's listed under that price, you'll automatically buy it. So if you refuse to pay more than $275 for a Wii, go ahead and let the system know, and if someone sells one for that price, it's yours. It's a slick way to erase the hassle of constantly checking and rechecking to see if you've been outbid, as well as empowering the buyer rather than the seller to set their price.

Via partnerships with Extreme Point of Sale and Wolftrack Software, Dawdle also lets independent retail store owners list their stock on the site in order to better compete with the likes of EB Games and GameStop. And the inclusion of a built-in used games price guide provided by BRE Software should help keep the prices reasonable throughout.

Dawdle's biggest hurdle, however, is somehow reaching cash-strapped consumers who have grown comfy after years of using eBay or Amazon. Whether or not they can win that game remains to be seen.

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