HouseofPaign.com, a new online marketplace for Champaign-Urbana in the vein of eBay and Craigslist, is bringing a whole new face to e-commerce.

House of Paign provides local Champaign-Urbana residents a chance to buy and sell items and works locally to cut shipping, taxes and waiting time without creating any type of account. Buyers have the luxury of contacting any seller on House of Paign, showing interest in the item, and then immediately coming and picking up the item themselves.

“The main focus of House of Paign is providing residents of the Champaign-Urbana area with a completely free and easy way to buy and sell anything,” said Sam Evans, manager and creator of HouseofPaign.com.

Spurred by a dissatisfaction with local commerce Web sites, where residents of local areas must create an account and log in, Evans conceived the idea for HouseofPaign.com four months ago. The Web site, which offers its services free of cost, is now receiving approximately 200 unique hits a day.

“On Craigslist, once you log in, you post an ad, and it gets thrown into a complete list of everything else that everyone is selling,” Evans said. “So if you’re selling an ad for a table and chair, the ad right after it could be for rims and tires.”

A recent drawback in local commerce Web sites, such as Craigslist, is the posting of fraudulent items and spam to get visitors to view and click on what the company is advertising. House of Paign operates differently in that each posting is evaluated before it becomes available online, which helps to filter any deceptive ads.

Working alongside Sam Evans is his brother and University alumnus Jesse Evans, creative director of House of Paign and the California-based web design company 30Proof. It was Jesse Evans who implemented the latest in web design technology for HouseofPaign.com.

“We’re using AJAX, a new web programming language, so if you click on an individual listing, the image gets zoomed into it as if it is a pop-up window, but it isn’t,” Jesse Evans said.

HouseofPaign.com also offers visitors several different amenities, such as “Ask an Expert.” With this feature, people can post questions to a list of local professionals in Champaign-Urbana, including a pro sound and music expert or home improvement expert. House of Paign is also looking to acquire experts in relationships and in law.

Offered as well is a weekly ‘Hopcast’, a podcast produced by Sam Evans and Trevis Overocker, the sound and music specialist, covering topics largely related to local music. The first podcast received six listeners, while the sixth and most recent podcast received 518 distinct listeners.

The most unique function of House of Paign is the section entitled “Your Dirty Secret.” Individuals can access the section anonymously, and in a text box, type in things that they are not proud of, or confessions that they want to make.

Sam Evans is surprised over the immediate response and success the Web site has been receiving.

“People said it’s been done before with eBay, but we’re putting hours and hours into this, and never thought it would do this good,” Sam Evans said.