Comments/Discussions on Sales Threads

[fleabag]

Cant remember when i last saw neg comments in For Sale threads.  The biggest faux pas seems always to be the lack of location.

IMO, this should be compulsory and listed on the left under Avatars

[ped]

2 minutes ago, fleabag said:

Cant remember when i last saw neg comments in For Sale threads.  The biggest faux pas seems always to be the lack of location.

IMO, this should be compulsory and listed on the left under Avatars

There’s no point in making it compulsory because it would be impossible to enforce. If people want to make selling something more difficult for themselves that’s up to them.. we just provide the platform. 

[Geek99]

why not a “mark as sold” function ?

[obi 2 kenobi]

Personally I think its ok to make comments on sale threads especially if you know from direct experience that the price is way out of line.

Case in point, the guy trying to shift a Ken Smith 5 string fretless. Been up for sale for 9 months or so.

Can we not time restrict items for sale? For example if not sold during 6 months or whatever then ad is taken off?

 

[CameronJ]

13 minutes ago, obi 2 kenobi said:

Can we not time restrict items for sale? For example if not sold during 6 months or whatever then ad is taken off?

But who would that benefit?

It doesn’t benefit the seller if the item is actually still for sale, and it doesn’t benefit a potential buyer who might log in 7 months after the ad was posted and never see it because it was auto-deleted.

If a seller wants an item to sell, it’s surely in their own best interests to bump the thread every couple of days. If they don’t, it goes to the bottom of the pile and doesn’t get seen by any but the most tenacious (read: willing to use the search function, or scroll through many pages) buyers.

[obi 2 kenobi]

"But who would that benefit? "

The members that are genuinely trying to sell.

There seems to be some "sellers" that set an unrealistic price, do not reduce it, and bump it overy few days for months on end. It clogs up the board. I don't think its fair or right on everyone else.

 

[fleabag]

1 hour ago, ped said:

There’s no point in making it compulsory because it would be impossible to enforce. If people want to make selling something more difficult for themselves that’s up to them.. we just provide the platform. 

Could it be made a condition of selling stuff then ? Maybe?  No one can post without a price, so why not make it another condition of selling.

[DoubleOhStephan]

I'd love to see hide functionality brought in so I can only show the ads I'm interested in. So, for example, any 5/6 strings would be hidden, as would fretless etc. 

[Paul S]

1 hour ago, obi 2 kenobi said:

"But who would that benefit? "

The members that are genuinely trying to sell.

There seems to be some "sellers" that set an unrealistic price, do not reduce it, and bump it overy few days for months on end. It clogs up the board. I don't think its fair or right on everyone else.

 

Could be that an item has limited appeal and so hangs around for a long while, not just inflated prices.

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, fleabag said:

Could it be made a condition of selling stuff then ? Maybe?  No one can post without a price, so why not make it another condition of selling.

Location is only really relevant if you are picking something up / dropping something off. If you are shipping something then it really doesn't matter where you are does it?

[Woodinblack]

SELECT * FROM Basschat WHERE Location < 50M AND Cost < 500 AND Cost > 500 AND Wear=notroadworn AND Weight < 10lb AND Wood.Neck=Rosewood AND  Wood.Cites=NO AND Heft=High AND AND Strings > 3 AND Strings < 6 AND GoodForMetal=No AND Overpriced=NO AND AgeOnForum < 7months

Edited April 15, 2019 by Woodinblack

[chris_b]

33 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Location is only really relevant if you are picking something up / dropping something off. If you are shipping something then it really doesn't matter where you are does it?

Location is relevant so you can decide whether to try it out or not.

Weight, photos and various questions on the spec are routinely asked. So routinely that it makes me wonder why people don't learn and put this info in the ad without having to be asked!

[fleabag]

Exactly.

[CameronJ]

4 hours ago, obi 2 kenobi said:

"But who would that benefit? "

The members that are genuinely trying to sell.

There seems to be some "sellers" that set an unrealistic price, do not reduce it, and bump it overy few days for months on end. It clogs up the board. I don't think its fair or right on everyone else.

 

Just because a bass is being sold for a high price doesn’t mean the seller isn’t trying to sell it - just means they have a price they would accept for it which they aren’t willing to go below. Not all sale ads are urgent and therefore some people are willing to hold out for the right price. Members are free to PM the seller and attempt to negotiate on price if they wish. Again, it’s up to the seller if they’re willing to go down or not. Also, the value of something in the UK doesn’t always translate directly to the value of something in mainland Europe, for example. Sometimes the exchange rate is a factor.

As far as I’m aware, there are no laws dictating what a “realistic” price is for an instrument. If the seller has paid their subscription fee then they have just as much right to sell a bass as anyone else, regardless of price. Surely to strip them of an ad that they’ve paid for would be unfair.

[Al Krow]

IMO an absolutely stunning bass!

But a couple of REALLY inappropriate comments by one individual.

I'm generally a fan of enthusiastic discussion on FS threads but this, for me, is a very good example of where a comment crosses the line:

 

[CameronJ]

40 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

IMO an absolutely stunning bass!

But a couple of REALLY inappropriate comments by one individual.

I'm generally a fan of enthusiastic discussion on FS threads but this, for me, is a very good example of where a comment crosses the line:

 

Totally agree.

[Mykesbass]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

IMO an absolutely stunning bass!

But a couple of REALLY inappropriate comments by one individual.

I'm generally a fan of enthusiastic discussion on FS threads but this, for me, is a very good example of where a comment crosses the line:

 

Yes, terrible (by a couple of contributors). I guess the silence on my thread is much better 😎

[mcnach]

On 29/03/2019 at 21:22, taunton-hobbit said:

Same on Ebay - zillions of views, no (sensible) offers & tw*ts who tell me they 'missed' one last week

at 200 quid cheaper ......... go figure................(like I care)

😎

 

Like the guy who was apparently interested in a bass I was selling a while ago on Gumtree... after a few texts, we're arranging to meet for him to try it, and he asks me if I could drop the price. I did, a bit, I am generally open to a bit of negotiation... then silence, and comes back the next day asking me to lower it further because he saw he could buy a new one for just £10 more than I was asking.

Of course, it was not true... so I replied very enthusiastically saying he found a really good deal and that he should go with it.

What did he expect?

He did buy my bass, at the price we agreed, but I was very close to ignoring him...

[Woodinblack]

46 minutes ago, CameronJ said:

Totally agree.

Agreed - I would have been a lot less polite with them. 

I hadn't seen that there. I had seen it a few times on the facebook bass players marketplace, which doesn't have a swear filter!

I have seen some basses that seemed overpriced and wasn't surprised that they hung round for a while, but I manage to deal with that by not buying them.

The only time I have commented on was when someone was selling some TC speakers at £100 off full price, where I sent a pm to notify them that they might be worth waiting as GAK had them on currently at half price (£200 off, new and posted), which I knew as I had bought some.

I have also had basses on here that havent sold (in fact most haven't here, the last ones all went on ebay and facebook), but with some of those, I haven't reduced them to a bargain price because I don't mind waiting and don't need the money, as is they have all gone apart from the epi, and frankly I am not unhappy about that!

[Woodinblack]

2 minutes ago, mcnach said:

... then silence, and comes back the next day asking me to lower it further because he saw he could buy a new one for just £10 more than I was asking.

I had one of those on my last ebay deal, someone said 'this sale here went for a lot less than you are selling for', to which he got a response of 'well, he got a bargain then, shame you didn't bid on that'. I don't think that is what he was hoping for.

[mcnach]

On 31/03/2019 at 07:12, Dan Dare said:

One man's "trolling" is another's fair comment. If you put something up for public sale, it is everyone's business. If it was advertised privately, you might have a point. 

 

How does it matter the way it's advertised? The owner of whatever item for sale has the right to name their price, and telling them it's too much, publicly, is tacky at best.

If someone is advertising something fraudulently, I understand getting involved (although reporting it to the mods is probable a better option), but otherwise, why would you want to contribute anything that potentially causes the seller to lose sales/money?  The old "If you don't have anything nice to say, best not to say anything" I think applies very nicely. 

When you see something on a High St shop that you think is overpriced, do you stand at their door telling everybody who walks in that the shop is charging too much? No, right? It would seem very weird... and the shop owner might want to come out and have an 'energic word' with you...

[blisters on my fingers]

A 51 Precision reissue appeared on the For Sale two hours ago, it has already had one comment that demonstrates the helpful spirit that is usually seen here on Basschat. Well done that person.

[mcnach]

13 hours ago, bazzbass said:

weight is the most important specification for a buyer sight unseen. Lot's of (older) players aquire back, neck and shoulder problems, thus the importance of knowing it's weight

 

Weight was completely and utterly irrelevant to me for a long time, so I very rarely thought of even mentioning it, let alone measuring it!

These days, without being exactly an old decrepitude of a man (yet  ) I do care: I like lighter basses as long as they balance well, so I'm more aware of it.

My point is: not everybody has the same idea of what's important, and trying to make everybody else comply with what we think is reasonable or even obvious is a frustrating path.

However, nothing stops us from asking questions and a seller who cares would happily answer those questions. 

I've often found the comments in for-sale items very informative. And the non informative ones? Easily ignored like a lot of other posts in any other thread. 

edit: harder to ignore are the rude comments like those found on the Ken Smith bass... what are they thinking?

Edited April 15, 2019 by mcnach

[mcnach]

7 hours ago, Geek99 said:

why not a “mark as sold” function ?

 

If someone doesn't bother to go back to the ad and edit the title to indicate it's sold, which only takes a few seconds, do you think they'd bother going back to it to click on a 'sold' button?

[mcnach]

7 hours ago, obi 2 kenobi said:

Personally I think its ok to make comments on sale threads especially if you know from direct experience that the price is way out of line.

Case in point, the guy trying to shift a Ken Smith 5 string fretless. Been up for sale for 9 months or so.

Can we not time restrict items for sale? For example if not sold during 6 months or whatever then ad is taken off?

 

 

Why?

It's not like we're running out of space.

Some items may be a bit more 'niche' and take more time, especially if they're not 'competitively priced', but I see no reason to want to interfere with anybody else's stuff for sale.

edit: telling the seller, publicly, what their price *you think* should be is downright rude.

 

An alternative could be an 'ignore' option on ads, so that you don't see the same ads again if you choose to ignore them. I doubt the software in use makes it easy to implement that, 'though.

 

I'd personally love to set a search to give me a notification when a new item is posted that meets my search criterion... But my bank balance is probably healthier leaving things as they are...

Edited April 15, 2019 by mcnach