Great question it's THE problem for any marketplace, and I won't pretend I've fully solved it. Here's my thinking:

1. Supply side first, and make it free. first 5 listing cost nothing small amount of sat thereafter to keep bots away , the platform never touches funds (buyers pay sellers directly via Lightning Address p2p fully non-custodial.
   So a seller risks nothing by posting.
   Craigslist won by being the lowest-friction place to list, and I'm copying that playbook. Listings have general zip code location to promote in person exchanges nothing precise, users can message each other privately
2. Niche before scale. I'm not trying to be eBay. The seed community already exists: bitcoiners constantly churn through mining gear, hardware wallets, signing devices, books. Places like SN, Nostr, and X are where those people already hang out.
   A few hundred active bitcoiners is a viable marketplace; I don't need normies on day one or maybe ever it's not my plan to attract normies ulness they are willing to embrace ₿ fully lol
3. Invite-only Early Access. Rather than launching to an empty room, I'm growing it in controlled waves so the ratio of listings-to-browsers stays healthy.
4. Trust has to be earned in-protocol. Two-way ratings, seller badges based on completed sales, public profiles etc... and soon LTN wallet verification P2P classifieds live or die on trust, that's all ready to go .

And yeah I'm seeding it with my own gear too. Dogfooding all the way down.

What would make You list something on a site like this? Genuinely asking , that's the answer I'm trying to engineer.