MODERATORS: HEADS UP!!! TOO MANY SELLERS IN TWO MINDS!!

[Apothem]

"Oh, I have gigged it today and I have decided it is going nowhere..." "Oh, it was only a feeler, I was in two minds, so it is not up for sale anymore...." Nothing is more irritating than this!!!

Reading between the lines: nobody offered what I had in mind, so I 'll have to stick with it for the time being, but I will use a silly excuse... It's free!! I can!!

I would dare to suggest to moderators to charge a fee for putting a bass up for sale, e-bay style. No "feelers" allowed: either it is up for sale at a specific price or it is not. If you do not know what to charge, do some research first and avoid some embarrassment. I know this is a great community but the "For sale" section is the "For sale" section, not the smoochy-smoochy, "oh, lovely!!!! but I am skint " waste of bandwidth!!! Anywhere else you pay to advertise.

If you DEFINITELY want to sell it, be prepared and that's it!! Too many "I will try here, or it will go to e-bay" transformed into "... well, after all, I did not know what I was doing....". Very well, maybe there should be a charge upfront, to clear in advance the mind of people just testing the water. Attracted buyers will visit the site anyway.

In a few words: too many taking advantage of the (free) system.

Please do not flood my mail box with comments, I will not reply. If you want to add something, please do in the open thread. And before anybody asks: yes I have sold a bass here, a cheap one, and if I had known in advance about all the timewasters begging to reserve it for them for the next week/month, only to disappear in the blue yonder, I would have done otherwise. Surely not again.

All the best to convinced sellers that WANT a change and go for it!!

Thanx

[waynepunkdude]

If you don't like it f*ck off.

[Gwilym]

that's nice.

[stingrayfan]

Er - it's supposed to be a friendly forum, not Exchange and Mart.

Edit: that's directed at the OP - not Wayne.

Edited August 17, 2008 by stingrayfan

[pete.young]

I think waynepunkdude is out of order too. Please keep it civil.

The way to deal with people begging to reserve basses for a week/mpnth is to ignore them unless they pay a deposit.

I don't think the system is broken, and therefore it doesn't need fixing. You soon learn who the timewasters are.

[Oscar South]

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='264037' date='Aug 17 2008, 05:52 PM']If you don't like it f*ck off.[/quote]

I tried to come up with a reply to the first post that does a better job than this one, but couldn't. Direct, right to the point, clearly articulated. Well said.

Edited August 17, 2008 by Oscar South

[bnt]

I thought people came here for advice - and IMHO that includes advice on selling, even regarding the price. If I put something up for sale, I would like to know if other people think I'm asking too much or too little - and that actually has happened to me already, here. This is part of what makes this a community of bass players, and not a marketplace like eBay or Loot.

edit: I would make one suggestion: please think before rushing to reply to a "for sale" post. It should not be a "first come first served, at the stated price" situation - allow some time for discussion about the item and the price. When I tried to sell my Stick here, I got the price wrong at first, and got the impression that some here were rushing to take advantage of my inexperience at selling. I'm not a professional seller, and don't want to be.

Edited August 17, 2008 by bnt

[Clarky]

...and there are plenty of people that have legitimate reasons for testing the water and also for withdrawing items for sale, so IMHO your suggestion should be filed in the appropriate bin-shaped receptacle

[Josh]

Seem's a bit un-just to put a price on the freedom to list an item, even if the seller is not 100% sure but isn't 100% happy with the item at the moment. Alot of guys have found it a sobering process in which they actually find that what their selling is exactly what they want and that a brief GAS spike has sparked a little un-certainty, and now you want to put a price on that?


Your either a flawless robot or just plain intolerable.

[Dood]

If this is going to be a discussion I'd suggest keeping it civil, I'm in the right mood to dish out warnings.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Nothing wrong with the current system. Nothing wrong with feeler posts. Charging for placing for sale items will not help. I agree with the sentiment of Wayne's post, but maybe with less of the "punk" attittude

[Mr. Foxen]

I like the sale section just the way it is cheers. Never been too much stuff to trawl through, never had a withdrawl that I wasn't beaten to. Even when somethings withdrawn, its usually a relief to my bank account.

[BassBod]

It is annoying..but its also part of the local market. As said, you can pick out the serious buyers/sellers, and the timewasters, and there is feedback so use it. Evilbay is the place for real open market, and all that goes with it. I like to think people here are better informed and generally easy and polite to deal with.

That's not to say its all been easy...but reasonable.

BB

[Alastair]

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='264037' date='Aug 17 2008, 05:52 PM']If you don't like it f*ck off.[/quote]
Well said that man.

[Shockwave]

If the item is a feeler remember that when you inquire about it it might be withdrawn, so dont get emotionally attached to that one thing.

No deal is complete until cash and bass are transferred.

[wateroftyne]

[quote]ignore them unless they pay a deposit.[/quote]

Problem solved. As you were!

[Machines]

Sellers prerogative. We don't disallow it and nor do we intend to either. When dealing with people anonymously on the internet, you have to be cautious and weary, and expect people to be the same towards you.

People do change their mind as sometimes they don't get what they feel is a worthy offer for their equipment, this will never change.

[LukeFRC]

the beauty about basschat is that it a bunch of people who sit in front of their computers talking about something they enjoy, swappin tips and advice and that. That is priceless.
As part of that folk will sell and buy stuff they have and dont need, or need to get rid of. ITs a small highly specialised market. One that works as part of the original chat bit of the site.
So I could stick a bass up and its not just a 'sale' site its part of a bigger serise of conversations about basses.
How much have we all benefited from this? - access to more and a bigger range of stuff, and being able to buy it at cheap secondhand prices, or in many cases 'mates rates'.

Basschat for sale sections are great as long as we mentaly link them to the rest of basschat. They are full of idiots, timewasters and faffers. They are also full of people who care, are honest, and will go an extra mile (or more in the case of wawickhunt and my bluey wawick) for folk. Often all these caracteristics are in the same people.
JUst like every other walk of life.

[martthebass]

[quote name='bnt' post='264046' date='Aug 17 2008, 06:08 PM']I thought people came here for advice - and IMHO that includes advice on selling, even regarding the price. If I put something up for sale, I would like to know if other people think I'm asking too much or too little - and that actually has happened to me already, here. This is part of what makes this a community of bass players, and not a marketplace like eBay or Loot.[/quote]

Good point, and for this reason I think it's fine as is.
If you don't get offered what you believe it is worth then withdraw it.
If you feel someone (buyer or seller) is giving you the runaround move onto another punter.

[Johngh]

I've had a bass up for sale on here for the best part of a month, at what I would say is a very reasonable price, given it is about £1200 below list price, and I've had no takers.
So, I either carry on with bumping it up the forum, take a lower price (which is daft, as I don't need the dosh) or I withdraw it.
I recon that if its been on the forum for a few weeks and I decide to withdraw it, then its fair dinkum. If that upsets anybody, then I really don't give a toss.

[budget bassist]

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='264037' date='Aug 17 2008, 05:52 PM']If you don't like it f*ck off.[/quote]
+10000

I'll add some consistency to this post though. What keeps basschat running is that's it's a FREE forum, where people can say what they want near enough, it's a nice thing for the mods let us have a for sale forum and it's a privilege. I don't think that they should begin charging to list items for sale, that's the beginnings of a money making corporate machine, and that's not what this is, it's a nice place for us to discuss basses. I think if basschat did something like that, a lot of members would refuse to post here, and rightly so too. People have the right to withdraw their basses from sale, it's not an official marketplace like ebay, it doesn't have tight rules and it allows the space for the seller and other people to discuss the item in question, price etc, and if somebody realises they actually like that bass, or that it's not selling and they want to keep it or put it on ebay then that's their choice. This isn't communist russia and we're only human, we make mistakes/change our minds. And i think you'll find that 99% of the members on here are genuinely nice people and really don't care at all if somebody decides to withdraw an item from sale, and i think most would entirely understand. I don't think you have the right to complain, not having been a member for very long, not having very many posts and you can't have bought/attempted to buy many things from bass chatters with those 21 posts, much less had anyone withdraw something you wanted. So stop complaining about something that probably doesn't even affect you, particularly when you have so little experience of this forum.

[/rant]

Edited August 17, 2008 by budget bassist

[bnt]

If I was a moderator, I might be offended by the original post: it implies that they aren't running this forum properly, don't think about this kind of thing, and need someone else to come along and [b]SHOUT ORDERS AT THEM[/b].

[ziggydolphinboy]

got to disagree with first post,
this forum is the nuts
i put all my 3 basses up for sale had a little interest but nothing for sure ,
and also i am attached to them sad i know so its difficult to do deals.
the feedback on this forum is second to none .
people change their mind but this forum is the MOST fairest way to do buisness.
example no 1=
there is a bass on ebay for £1200 i checked the guys feed back and he bought it a few months ago for £875
ok so people make money on stuff but here i could probabaly get the bass for what he paid for it.
example no 2=
reserve not met etc, this is a bit of a con compared to this site as here people when they sell basss are also asking what peolpe think is a fait price at the same time, and people give back what they think is fair, we all knoiw what basses are worth but maybe im sad in saying that basses and their owners seem to be a bit more attahed.
so mate go somewhere else and get what you want.
wicked site!!!!!

[jakenewmanbass]

Apothem, I don't think the level of your anger is matched by problems here. As a community you might find more favour among us if you approach an issue with a more reasoned outlook, otherwise you will attract the likes of the first response.

[Jase]

I've bought and sold here, all transactions went great, all the people I've spoken to regarding buying and selling are great. If I did end up in a potential sale and the seller decides otherwise..... fine, all it takes is a quick pm...no harm done
I don't think there is anything wrong with the For Sale, trading, wanted etc forums here at all. For the majority of the time I'd say they were used sensibly.