If you've used Coinguard.org for escrow how did it go?  Are they legit?  Are they scammers?  How was the customer service?

BitMit shut down after the site lost 15 coins due to someone at their hosting company "hacking" them.  However, I think that offering an unlicensed escrow service may have been another reason that they shut down.  If you want to know more about the closure of BitMit this article has the info http://www.coindesk.com/bitmit-bitcoin-auction-sale-after-theft/

I was surprised to learn that BitMit only had about 30,000 activated accounts.  Seems like a pretty low number.  But it's hard to say how many people would be signing up now due to the increased media attention to Bitcoin.  BitMit definitely missed a lot of potential by closing when it did.

I think BitMit should have just stayed open after the hack but disabled escrow and referred users to a 3rd party escrow provider.  However, the government may have also caught up with BitMit and forced them to close due to the company not having an escrow license.

I agree that users should not trust the new BTC auction sites with their coins.  That's why halfpricedigital.com doesn't offer an escrow service.  Of course, you can always use a trusted 3rd party escrow service, if you'd like.  Since we never store any of your coins in escrow, there's not much you need to trust us with.  The same cannot be said for the other auction sites, or coingig for that matter.

I think the other domains you are seeing when you check our SSL cert are coming from Cloudflare, which we are using.

Security is our top concern on halfpricedigital.com.  We are currently looking into allowing users to register with longer passwords.  As you saw, we do have a GeoTrust 256-bit SSL Certificate.

Our main security benefit is that we DO NOT offer an escrow service.  By not offering escrow, you don't have to worry about your escrow funds getting stolen by someone who hacks our site, since we never hold any of your funds.  We also don't run the risk of being shut down for regulatory reasons.  If you'd like to use a 3rd party escrow service for your auction, of course you still can.

As for the CMS, all the BTC auction sites (other than maybe bitmit) are running auction scripts that they've modified.  We chose an auction script that has been around for a long time to be sure that it was properly battle tested and then modified it to add a Coinbase payment gateway so you can buy/sell with BTC.

It'd be great to get your thoughts on the site after you register and give it a try.  Thanks for your feedback.

There's been a good bit of new user registration and a lot of our ads have just started to roll out, so there should be a lot more activity soon.  I encourage you to post some of your unwanted games, dvds and computer gear to help establish a new reputable BTC auction site that doesn't shut down every six months and leave customers in limbo.  My site is very transparent.  We have a registered company in the UK and comply with all UK government regulation.  Hopefully you will enjoy using halfpricedigital.com  Let me know if you have any feedback on the site or the listing process.

Or the seller could only choose Coinbase as their payment processor, in which case the auction would be for BTC only.

The seller chooses which payment processors they will accept - Coinbase, PayPal, and/or Skrill.  If the seller chooses all 3 options, the buyer could pay with either Coinbase, PayPal or Skrill.  If the buyer pays with Coinbase, they will be paying with BTC.

http://s9.postimg.org/5i1fp9q33/hpd_600x130_orange.png
With the recent news that Bitmit is closing/being sold, I thought you might want to know about our Bitcoin Auction site - halfpricedigital.com

halfpricedigital.com is unique in that you can buy & sell items for Bitcoin using your Coinbase account or you can buy/sell for fiat via Paypal or Skrill.  We are the only auction site allowing you to buy/sell for Bitcoin or fiat!

Features:
No listing fees to create an auction!
List your item as an auction or for a fixed "Buy Out" price
Prices are set as USD, then converted to BTC when you pay
Set a reserve price for your auction
Pay and get paid using Coinbase.com
Pay and get paid using PayPal or Skrill
 
Payment via Coinbase on our site works just like using PayPal on Ebay.  You can use Coinbase no matter what country you live in!

Let us know what you think by using our contact form http://www.halfpricedigital.co.uk/content_pages.php?page=contact_us

Follow us on Twitter @HalfPriceDigi

New items have been posted to halfpricedigital.com  Bid on Bioshock Infinite, Tombraider, Borderlands 2 and more all for BTC!  All items are starting at 1 cent USD!

Coingig is not an auction site.  It's more like amazon.  Auctions have the advantage of helping the buyer to determine the market price of a used item, like a used butterfly labs jalapeno miner.  How much is that worth?  Auctions are the best way to determine the price of used items with an uncertain value.  If you're looking for a BitMit replacement try halfpricedigital.com

On halfpricedigital.com you can list items for sale in USD, but you pay with BTC.  The conversion to BTC is done at the time you pay, so you never have to worry about the volatile price of BTC.

Try halfpricedigital.com We are a bitcoin auction site.  You can buy & sell with your Coinbase account.  You can set a reserve or a fixed price.  Let me know what you think.

Well, I vote for halfpricedigital.com but I'm biased  The reason that I think you all should use my site is because we don't offer escrow!  I know that sounds like a disadvantage, but think of it this way:  Since we don't hold your coins in escrow, there is no chance that we will be hacked and you will have your coins stolen!  Also, we won't be shut down for not having an escrow license, which is very difficult to obtain and most likely not carried by any of the other BTC auction sites that offer escrow.

Post some items on halfpricedigital.com and let's get this party started!

No, with escrow the buyer sends the money to the escrow company.  The escrow company then tells the seller "okay, we got the money, send the item." Buyer receives the item and tells the escrow company "everything is good, send the money to the seller."  If the buyer doesn't receive the item, then the escrow service sends the money back to the buyer. 

But the system is easily gamed.  The seller can send an empty box, and provide a tracking number to the escrow company to "prove" that they sent the item and then it is the seller's word against the buyers word about what was in the box.

I think it is better to just build up a reputable auction site that doesn't get shut down every year for offering escrow without a license.  Have that site build up user reputations via an ebay like user rating/review system.  If users want to sell with escrow for an item, then they can use a 3rd party escrow site that is licensed to provide escrow services.

Why does escrow need to be built into the auction site itself is my question?  Why not just use an external escrow system like BTCrow.com if the transaction calls for escrow?  Then BTC users don't have to deal with all the shady BTC auction sites that won't reveal their identity to consumers. 

Besides, it's not like escrow can't be gamed.  The seller ships a box of full of nothing to the buyer and provides a tracking number.  Or the buyer claims that he/she received a box of nothing when they actually got the item.