Declining Interest In Our Classifieds Thread?

I think this is basically good advice if the item in question is widely available and not easily confused with similar items.

But the downside to buying on Amazon marketplace, and it is a significant one, is that Amazon has no control over the accuracy of independent seller listings. I can say from experience that if you order an XRCD version, or an SACD version, or a particular Japanese import version of a jazz title that is available in many forms, there is at least a 50% chance you will not get what you ordered. I think in most cases it is just laziness or inattentiveness on the part of whoever listed the item rather than overt attempts at deception, but it is a ubiquitous problem nonetheless.

Contacting the seller prior to purchasing to confirm item details sometimes helps, but just as often brings a response to the effect of "we have 1000's of items and can't check to verify the details you asked about."

I guess what I'm saying is that the above description of Amazon paints an overly rosy picture of ordering there, at least for the kinds of CDs I usually buy and sell.

What I sometimes do is offer to change my price if a buyer can demonstrate to me that the exact same item is available at a lower price, meaning IN STOCK and ready for shipment, through some other seller.

 

I would hope anyone who sees something I have for sale that they know is available for less elsewhere would let me know about it and give me a chance to meet the lower price. I know O.B.O.s are forbidden here (though I don't understand why), but surely communicating price info by P.M. is a wise thing to do. I get more money if I sell something here for $12 than for $15 on Amazon.

 

As far as I know OBOs are forbidden here because allowing them would turn a set-price sale into an auction and auctions are not allowed here.

 

I agree with that. I was on an SACD & DVDA buying kick a few months back. After receiving a standard CD in place of a SACD, I started contacting the Amazon seller to verify before ordering. Over half of the time, they would not respond. Then I started purchasing first, but would send the seller message asking them to verify the item before shipping. About 25% of the time I learned that the item was indeed wrong and I was refunded. I doubt that kind of thing happens much here in the classifieds.

 

Which would beg the question: Why aren't auctions allowed here?

 

We would need a team of Gorts just to monitor it 24/7. It's a music forum, not an auction house.

 

Or-best-offers (OBOs) are not allowed here because the deals would invariably be done under the table (by PM), and sellers could be unscrupulous regarding high bids. Consider that I have a rare CD that I know is in great demand. I list it at $500 OBO. The OBO part makes it an auction if just two people participate. Let's say Member 1 offers me $300. Member 2 comes along and offers $325. I turn around and tell Member 1 that Member 2 has offered $400 and ask Member 1 what he wants to do. Yes, I lie. Member 1 turns around and offers $425. On and on we go.

Don't think that the above scenario couldn't happen. We have had plenty of bad sellers here with simpler terms of sale. I am positive the above scenario would play out with OBOs on rare items.

To run real auctions here, a la eBay, would require significant modification of the software, if vBulletin could handle it in the first place. Keep in mind also that if bidders' IDs were made anonymous here like on eBay, the Gorts would have to have access to the actual IDs to keep track of things. This is a smaller community than eBay (eBay isn't a community, as I said before). Would you want the Gorts knowing your bidding habits? Nothing against the Gorts, but with our sense of community, you might not want folks knowing when and how much you are bidding.

As was already stated, the monitoring of auctions would be very time-consuming for the Gorts. Given how busy I was with the regular items when I was a Gort, I would want no part of auction monitoring. No thank you.

 

slightly off the subject but ..... it is very annoying when a potential buyer posts a 'I'll take it' in one of my sales thread and follows up with PM's haggling and trying to bring the price down

 

I've never had that happen, but yes, that would be annoying. Every so often, I see a post like "I'll take it" or "PM sent" and then see a post from the seller saying that the item is still available. It makes me wonder if the person needed to have questions answered before actually committing or if the person haggled and the seller wanted no part of it.

If a member has questions before committing to a purchase, then the member should post "PM with questions". At the same time, the seller should recognize that member as first in line to buy, should answer the questions, and then should give the member time to respond with a decision. I've had sellers here sell to the next person in line who had no questions and ignore my questions when I was first in line. A seller who posted in this thread pulled that B.S. on me in the last month. He told me so like it was no big deal and, while telling me, had the audacity to try to pick my brain for CD information. Like school on Saturday: No class. I told him to take a hike.

 

Fair enough.

 

As seller I don't think a "PM with question" necessarily makes the one who sends it the first in line. Yes, if the message is like "You graded the CD vg, does it play without problems? If yes, I'll take it!". No, if the message is "You graded the CD vg, could you please be more specific?".

Joachim

 

Hans, I honestly didn't notice until after Christmas last year. It seemed sales were just as busy for myself as previous years.

 

Exactly and when we created the Classifieds, back when I was on staff, Steve did not want animosity between friends that most certainly would happen if auctions were allowed.

 

That's happened? That's rude. I've actually thought about PMing someone to offer a lower price if it's a CD that's been offered and reoffered a jillion times, but I've never done it. Even if I did, I wouldn't say "MINE!" in the main thread and scare off those who might be willing to pay the asked-for price...

 

I guess I must have offered the wrong items then, or at prices that were too high to attract any interest... I shouldn't complain though, I have sold quite a few discs from my collection here.

My collection is now more or less "purged", so I don't think I'll be selling much anymore.

 

I seem to remember it is also viewed as a "priviledge" for the longer serving members to use the classifieds.

 

PMing with an offer isn't that bad but its when someone posts claiming the disc before they take a trip to haggle town

 

Right on the button.

 

"haggle town" , thats funnny!

 

I was assuming that the person asking the question clearly expressed an interest in the item, but the decision to buy or pass on the item depended on the answer to that question. In that case, I feel the seller owes the person the right of first refusal. The person is asking a legitimate question, and it should be answered. Then the person should be able to make more educated decision without the item being sold to someone else.

Along those lines, I don't waste a seller's time with questions by PM if I am merely curious about the item, meaning that I just want information but have no intention to buy. If I am curious and feel that others might benefit from the information, then I will post the question in the thread. If I am curious and feel that no one else will care, then I don't bother with the question.

 

I thought I'd keep it provincial

 

I think if we hung out, we would get along just fine.

 

I just ran across this post Hans, a little late (6 years) but thanks for the backup.....