Re:Ask HN: What service would you pay $1k/mo for?
by jdc0589 on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @04:44PM
(#13118606)
magic basic? I haven't seen any mention of that on their site anywhere.
Regarding markup, their FAQ even says the following:
> There is no markup on the purchases you make through Magic. You are charged the exact cost of the items plus the credit card processing fee. We find you the best deals that we can on every purchase, and we negotiate strongly with vendors. Often you will save more money using Magic than if you had done things yourself.
Re:Ask HN: What service would you pay $1k/mo for?
by Bartweiss on Wednesday December 07, 2016 @01:02PM
(#13124600)
When they first came through HN, there was an option for a one-off request conducted by text with a feee attached to it. It may even have been the only option, I'm not sure. I don't see it listed anymore.
I get the sense that they wanted to be a contract personal assistant and did the one-off thing to expose people to the service. Certainly it was a bit awkward since it required spending a bunch of time getting them set up with your info.
They were good at matching user preferences on simple stuff (get me a pizza), and had a healthy reluctance to go outside your stated preferences ("what with?" "surprise me" "are you sure, any specifics?"). The markup was substantial on a small purchase, but that's irrelevant for the hourly service. On the other hand, "get me a plane ticket from X to Y on Z day" quickly snowballed into enough expense and difficulty that my friend abandoned it and booked himself.