Buying & Selling on the Yankee Trader

[rgordon939]

Amen.

Rich Gordon

[Phonofreak]

When someone posts an ad, I would like to see a price shown. When someone says "inquire" or make an "offer", I would like to see that practice eliminated. To me, this constitutes an impromptu auction, and that's not fair to other buyers. If someone cannot list a price and are fishing for a price, it should be listed on ebay. We have been down this rat hole before and causes animosity. Also, with a 4 page discussion on this, I think we make are making a mountain out of a mole hill. When I buy on the Forum, I'll make a PM, phone call, person's private email, and sometimes a public post. The reason I don't use the public notification, is because a while ago,I bought something on the Forum. I got a bunch of guff because I was ahead of that person. I don't need that type of bilge. It's nobody else's business what I buy or trade. That's why I do the other methods.
Harvey Kravitz

[zonophpones7]

Ok...
All of the talk about who is first to buy because they posted "sold" or "interested" is Tantamount to licking item to claim it... In my opinion, It is no one else's business who buys what... It is listed for sale in a public forum...but then the negotiations are between the seller and potential buyers. First to commit owns it in my opinion . Other public Forums such as Craig's list have no such provisions. If I am at Union and someone inquires about a machine I have for sale, and says I am interested, I will be back, am I Obligated to wait until he comes back to sell the machine to someone else? NO?.. They rarely do come back. If I were obligated, It would never sell. If there is a willing buyer and seller it always trumps the undecided. It was the same when we had the trading section in the Maps newsletter. First to commit, owned it.. I learned this the hard way asking for pictures that never came. Calling the seller back to find out they sold it to a willing buyer 10 minutes after I called... You snooze you loose!
If the seller lists the ad as " first to say Sold! Gets it!!!!" Then obviously, this would have to be adhered to. I am refering to listings for sale without these terms. I feel this is just a common sense way to approach this marketplace. Either correspond via PM or the seller should list their contact info and let it unfold from there. The role of the forum is to connect the potential buyer and seller...after that it is up to them to finish the deal.
Gregg

[rgordon939]

Harvey while I respect you opinion on this I think the rules that Brandon has in place are the fairest for all of us as a whole. I don't think we would get a unanimous agreement one way or the other. We are all different and have different beliefs on how things should be done.

Rich Gordon

[HisMastersVoice]

Ok...
All of the talk about who is first to buy because they posted "sold" or "interested" is Tantamount to licking item to claim it... In my opinion, It is no one else's business who buys what... It is listed for sale in a public forum...but then the negotiations are between the seller and potential buyers. First to commit owns it in my opinion . Other public Forums such as Craig's list have no such provisions. If I am at Union and someone inquires about a machine I have for sale, and says I am interested, I will be back, am I Obligated to wait until he comes back to sell the machine to someone else? NO?.. They rarely do come back. If I were obligated, It would never sell. If there is a willing buyer and seller it always trumps the undecided. It was the same when we had the trading section in the Maps newsletter. First to commit, owned it.. I learned this the hard way asking for pictures that never came. Calling the seller back to find out they sold it to a willing buyer 10 minutes after I called... You snooze you loose!
If the seller lists the ad as " first to say Sold! Gets it!!!!" Then obviously, this would have to be adhered to. I am refering to listings for sale without these terms. I feel this is just a common sense way to approach this marketplace. Either correspond via PM or the seller should list their contact info and let it unfold from there. The role of the forum is to connect the potential buyer and seller...after that it is up to them to finish the deal.
Gregg

The issue with your statement is this: the forum is not instant communication like being at Union. In the time it takes the seller to even realize they have PMs waiting, there could be 5 people who have sent messages or who have posted on the ad. This is why there needs to be a way to determine in which order these people have an opportunity to buy the item.


Obviously everyone has their own opinion on how this should work and there is no way to make everyone happy. We are fortunate that these issues rarely arise.

[Curt A]

Just my two cents...

When listing an item, be upfront and say that "SOLD" trumps "Interested" or "Need More Info". Be sure to list all of the details and pics necessary to give a complete description of the item. Skip the vague listings with "Inquire" - list your price or a ballpark of what you hope to get as a guideline for offers if that is what you are trying to do - like a minimum bid. You could say - "Offers over $xxxx will be considered" - just to let everyone know what your expectations are and to avoid needless communications or inquiries from unlikely buyers. Also, as a seller you should not "play favorites" when determining who the lucky buyer will be...

Forget about who knows you are interested in buying an item. What difference could that possibly make - who cares? If you want it, say "Sold" or "PM Sent-Sold" and post it as a reply for others to see, not just "PM Sent". Otherwise, it should be expected that the item is still available and until the seller gets a "Sold", he should not hold it for inquiries or consider the inquirer or "interested" party to be ahead of the line. A seller should look at all communication, but pay attention to only those emails, PMs, phone calls or text messages that say "Sold" in determining the buyer's status and then it should be first come, first served based on the date and time of the commitment.

Buyers, when communicating with sellers, let your intentions be known from the beginning. If you want questions asked, then "Sold, pending details" is sufficient to hold your position. Don't waste a sellers time by needless multiple inquiries with no intent to buy. Also, when replying or posting with "Sold", please also include the date and time in your posted reply so that it is obvious that you are noting your place in line... and sellers should pay attention to that information.

[Lucius1958]

In my humble opinion, "SOLD" should mean that the buyer has definitely contracted to send payment.

"PM sent" or "Interested" are conditional notices, depending on the seller's reply, and the potential buyer's response.

Bill

[Django]

In my humble opinion, "SOLD" should mean that the buyer has definitely contracted to send payment.

"PM sent" or "Interested" are conditional notices, depending on the seller's reply, and the potential buyer's response.

Bill

I agree completely. To me, unless I know the seller and the machine and have shipping information, committing to buy seems unwise, but if it is something that you are seriously interested in, I suppose you can back out if things can not be worked out.

[FellowCollector]

Sorry, but I remain steadfastly in the same boat with Harvey and Gregg and others who feel that it's absolutely no one else's business who purchases a given item for sale here on the Forum. This is not a 'live' on site auction setting.

I think it's pretty safe to acknowledge that we're all pretty honest and fair in our treatment of other members on this Forum. And that includes selling an item to the very first person who communicates with the seller by PM, email, telephone or publicly stating the item is sold and that same person pays for the item in a timely manner that the seller agrees with.

Take a look at the current listings of items for sale...How many items do you see that are now marked SOLD in the history of items sold without any public notification? I see plenty of them.

What this indicates to me is that lots of members contact the seller privately and there's not one reason that anyone should find anything wrong with that.

The item was sold to the first responder. Move on. I can vividly recall not too long ago where Brandon offered a really nice original Edisonic reproducer here on the Forum. I contacted him by sending a PM within about 5 minutes after the item was posted and he sent me a PM shortly thereafter indicating that someone else had just beat me to it by only seconds. I sent him a "Thank you anyway" message by PM and moved on. Not a big deal.

The item should be SOLD to the first person who responds with "SOLD", "I'll take it", or whatever the seller accepts as a firm commitment by the first buyer as being sold. Forget the required nonsense of publicly posting "SOLD", "INTERESTED" or whatever. We're all big boys and girls here.

The seller should update their item publicly with "Sale Pending" until they receive their payment within a reasonable time. And if it falls through the seller should publicly post that the item is still available.

Again, look at the Yankee Trader "SOLD" history... Many items are sold WITHOUT a public notification of SOLD or whatever. A recent example is Brandon's Triumph model D-2 which has no public indication of a member indicating "SOLD". He reduced it to $1200 with no public SOLD posting afterward and the item is now marked as SOLD.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. Please...let's keep buying and selling here simple.

Doug

[HisMastersVoice]

Hey, why are we using all of my stuff as an example??