Idea: Use User Reference to create a multi-vendor store (Etsy-like)

Hi there,

Our company has been wrestling with a way to use ubercart for a multi-vendor store. While a module is potentially in the works according to forum searches, the idea hit me last night that a user reference application might also solve the problems.

As I see it, the problems are specifying who receives the payment, grouping the item by it's vendor, and all types of cross-linking between vendor/items (i.e. show other items by vendor, show vendor profile, etc)

It dawned on me that one could make use of the User Reference field, having it auto filled out with the user who created it, and then pull that for things like "other items by vendor" etc (essentially a view that shows all items created by the user that are the right content type). For payment, it would have to be modified someway to check which "user" it is, and by that, the money would be directed into the proper paypal account.

Does this sound like a workable idea? any problems you can see with it?

Edit: we're using ubercart for e-commerce, and UC Wish List for a registry. (it's a wedding store oriented site)