For communities that trade
Collectors, hobbyists, makers, restorers, builders, breeders, kit traders, mod sellers. Your community already has buyers and sellers. Today they meet on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, or a side-channel DM. On Mobieus, they trade with each other inside your community, where they know each other, where you set the rules, and where the conversation around the trade lives next door.
What this is, and isn't
The forums are the substance. The marketplace is one of the things members do together. Buyers and sellers are people who post in the same threads, ask each other questions, and have member histories you can look up.
Mobieus is not a payment intermediary. We do not hold funds. We do not guarantee transactions. Listings settle through Stripe between the buyer and the seller, the same as any modern commerce. The trust comes from reputation and moderation, not from us standing between the two of you.
If you need escrow, payouts to sellers, dispute arbitration, or a regulated payments platform, Mobieus is not that. We are honest about it. We pair a high-trust community with a high-trust marketplace.
Communities this fits
Watches, coins, cards, vinyl, vintage cameras, retro game cartridges. Communities where authenticity, provenance, and trust outweigh price discovery. Buying from a member you have seen post for two years beats buying from a username with no history.
Mechanical keyboards, custom knives, leatherwork, model rockets, drones, hand-built audio. People who buy parts, kits, and finished work from each other. The conversation about what you're building lives in the forum next door to the marketplace listing.
Vintage motorcycles, classic cars, antique furniture, old radios. Parts sourcing, donor finds, "I have a spare, who needs one" listings. The forums hold the knowledge; the marketplace circulates the inventory.
Long-running phpBB/vBulletin/XenForo communities that already run a classifieds sub-forum. Mobieus replaces both the forum software and the marketplace plug-in with one platform you don't have to host.
Wherever members regularly hand things to each other. Aquarium clubs, RC car groups, ham radio kit traders. The marketplace formalises what's already happening, with reputation on every transaction.
Photography groups selling prints to each other. Writing groups selling chapbooks. Music communities selling pedals. The forum is the reason people are there; the marketplace is something they grew into.
The trust model
The marketplace is safer not because of a Mobieus guarantee, but because of who is on either side of the listing.
Every member of your community went through whatever your join flow is. Email verification, ID checks, account age requirements, application questions. The people in the marketplace are the people you chose.
Members carry their full history into every listing: months or years of forum posts, the threads they participate in, past trades, how the community rates them. A new account with zero history looks new. A member with three years of contributions looks credible.
Buyers and sellers can DM, post in the marketplace thread, or open a discussion in the relevant forum. Disputes get aired in the open. Repeat scammers get exposed in public and removed by you.
You decide what verification is required, which categories are allowed, who can list, and what happens to bad actors. The marketplace itself runs on Pro and up. Listing fees (per listing or featured) are configurable on Creator Plus and up; on Pro mobieusMarket runs without owner listing fees. The marketplace is yours to govern, not a hands-off corporate platform.
Standard Stripe rails between buyer and seller, with the buyer's payment going to the seller's connected account. This is the same payment infrastructure used everywhere. Mobieus does not touch the funds.
If something goes wrong, members can reach you. The help desk is built in. Compare that to opening a Meta support ticket and waiting for an automated response.
What you stop paying for
phpBB, vBulletin, XenForo licensing, plus a VPS, plus plug-ins, plus backups, plus a sysadmin you trust. Replaced by a Mobieus tenant that runs in two minutes.
The forum plug-in that bolts on a basic marketplace for $30/month or a perpetual license you have to keep patched. Replaced by a first-class marketplace inside the same product.
The DM system stitched on top of the forum software, which is mostly fine until it isn't. Replaced by direct + group messaging built into the core engine.
The separate Zendesk/Intercom subscription members never want to log into. Replaced by mobieusHelp inside the same tenant.
Mailchimp/ConvertKit for the monthly newsletter. Replaced by the built-in email tooling.
The split-second trades with strangers who created an account yesterday. Replaced by trades with members you have moderated.
Coming from somewhere
The migration playbook covers what's possible, what's not, and how to make the cutover not feel like a wipe.
From a self-hosted forumCategories → forums, users → members, attachments → file library. The playbook for what's structurally different and what to test before launch.
All migration guidesIf you're coming from a paid platform, the existing playbooks are intact.
What you actually get
Photos, Q&A, watchlists, categories, search. See mobieusMarket.
Categories, threads, mentions, drafts, scheduled posts, paid forums, anonymous posting. See the engine.
Profile shows posts, listings, age of account, badges, the verifications they've completed.
Buyers and sellers DM each other or open a group chat about a multi-item lot.
Reports, AutoMod rules, IP tools, content filters, ban appeals, mod log. The full toolkit.
Members open a ticket without bouncing to a separate SaaS. See mobieusHelp.
The "is this real?" reference, the parts diagrams, the buying guides. See mobieusKnow.
community.yourbrand.com. Your colors, your logo, your TLS. Custom domains on Pro and up.
New listing fires a webhook into your CRM or Slack. See the API.
Own it, don't rent it
No credit card. Bring your own Stripe. Cancel any time. Your data stays yours.