Forum Commerce Rules: EVERYONE MUST READ

[nash]

Re: Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

Good rules dave. would you be able to elaborate on " 2) Scalping (buying items solely with the intention of immediately selling them to other collectors) is discouraged." a little more?

What is seen as unacceptable? There is definitely a fine line between scalping and selling. Say Joe Schmoe gets his Duel of Fates Faux Bronze Dio and tries to sell it on this forum very shortly after he receives it for more than retail. What would be considered "scalping" at this point? Is $80 more than retail any more respected than $200 more than retail?

 

[Buttmunch]

Re: Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

Great to see some more rules put into place. Seems to have gotten a little crazy lately.

Shouldn't this be stickied too?

 

[Amir]

Re: Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

Good rules dave. would you be able to elaborate on " 2) Scalping (buying items solely with the intention of immediately selling them to other collectors) is discouraged." a little more?

What is seen as unacceptable? There is definitely a fine line between scalping and selling. Say Joe Schmoe gets his Duel of Fates Faux Bronze Dio and tries to sell it on this forum very shortly after he receives it for more than retail. What would be considered "scalping" at this point? Is $80 more than retail any more respected than $200 more than retail?

Good question, I think it would help to clarify in more detail this one rule.

 

[tomandshell]

Re: Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

Shouldn't this be stickied too?

The sticky thread/announcement has a link to this thread.

 

[Buttmunch]

Re: Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

The sticky thread/announcement has a link to this thread.

Oh, just spotted it

Is there anyway this can be emailed or sent to someone when they registar with the board? I think it would be helpful for a lot of newcomers to have this sent to them upon registering instead of stumbling upon it.

 

[Darklord Dave]

Re: New Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

Crap. I closed and stickied the wrong thread. So I merged them. Feel free to comment I guess.

 

[EVILFACE]

Re: Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

If you don't mind me sharing an opinion or two on this one.

I think it would be much much easier for everyone involved if the seller added a disclaimer in their sale post, as such,

"I'm selling Item X at Y percent under the average current secondary market value of the item on Ebay. I'm doing this here to simplify my sale and to help fellow SSF collectors find those tough last few pieces at a price that won't break their hobby budgets. I would ask anyone who offers to buy these item(s) agrees to not immediately resell the item here or on Ebay as that is not the intent of my listing it here under market value, it's meant to help another member of the community while helping increase my own hobby budget to buy new and cool things."

No disclaimer - then the seller washes their hand of the item post sale and what the new person does is up to them with no prejudice nor grudges held.

With disclaimer - if the seller has a problem, then the burden on them is to report the offender to the Staff here with a link to the offense. After all, is there any point in having Staff enforce something where the seller just doesn't care?

Then create a "Flip List" in the Trade References area. Can be added into it by denoting a members name in a reply to the thread with a " +$ " versus a +1 or -1 for regular references. The Flip List is neutral feedback, neither positive nor negative, it's just an indicator to other members that the person is a flipper and the incentives to give them a price break in an informal board to board community sale over tossing it on Ebay isn't a fruitful proposition.

Again, if there is no public disclaimer with the sale listing, then there is no cause to complain in the present or future. Nothing said = Do what you want once it's yours after a customary and proper community transaction.

If the sale originates from Ebay and only the link to the Ebay was listed here and not a full on sale post, then it's not a flip under any circumstances.

If it's a lot of items, anything sold less than 50 percent of the total items is not considered a flip (I.E. if the lot is 3 things and the person flips one the next day, that's not a flip. If the person flips two things out of three, that is a flip)

If anything is sold within 10 percent of current secondary market value at the time of sale, then any resale at any time is not considered a flip. (i.e. sometimes people buy things and realize they need money for an emergency a few days later. Not many people are going to buy for 400 and sell for 420 a few days later to make 20 bucks)

After two months from date of completion of sale with disclaimer added, anything goes.

Place the burden on the original seller to make a complaint within guidelines ( again assume no disclaimer means do whatever you want with it) and it saves the Staff from having to make discretionary calls on this issue. It's a knotty thing, wanting to regulate what people do with someone once it's "theirs", whether most can agree with it or not.

Just some thoughts, not trying to overstep my bounds here, thanks for the nice board here,

GG

What is a disclaimer going to do? Nothing. Who enforces the disclaimer? Nobody.

Who cares what someone does with something they own. Especially the person who sold it to them.

 

[The Craw]

Re: New Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

after an item leaves my hands the buyer can do whatever the hell he wants with it. if he wants to try and sell it a week later for double, i say go right ahead.

 

[Darklord Dave]

Re: New Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

We're not going to police the scalpers, just be aware that it is discouraged.

If you scalp and take offense when people complain and you start mouthing off and insulting people in multiple threads, you just might get banned.

 

[915stag51]

Re: New Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

after an item leaves my hands the buyer can do whatever the hell he wants with it. if he wants to try and sell it a week later for double, i say go right ahead.

I totally agree with you.. I figure as long as I get my asking price, the buyer can do as he pleases IMO!

 

[EVILFACE]

Re: New Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

What about those that flame the scalper?

 

[quark]

Re: Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

Good rules dave. would you be able to elaborate on " 2) Scalping (buying items solely with the intention of immediately selling them to other collectors) is discouraged." a little more?

What is seen as unacceptable? There is definitely a fine line between scalping and selling. Say Joe Schmoe gets his Duel of Fates Faux Bronze Dio and tries to sell it on this forum very shortly after he receives it for more than retail. What would be considered "scalping" at this point? Is $80 more than retail any more respected than $200 more than retail?

As I don't think I'll be selling many things here because of the intent to price fix, I was wondering the same when first reading the new rules. What is considered scalping and who is to decide what something is worth? And how do you know what a seller's intention is? With the values of some items skyrocketing, will someone have their For Sale Balrog statue listing deleted because they asked more than the original MSRP of $300? Balrog is going for more than $2000 and I consider that a huge scalp. As no one sells an item for what they paid for it, I see a lot of potential problems with this rule. Best of luck gentlemen.

 

[quark]

Re: New Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

We're not going to police the scalpers, just be aware that it is discouraged.

If you scalp and take offense when people complain and you start mouthing off and insulting people in multiple threads, you just might get banned.

I am new and I don't wish to insult you, so my apologies to you in advance. just to point out the weakness with this philosophy, your new rules state that people are not allowed to complain or comment in the For Sale thread, but they can do so in another thread? Sounds like a contradiction that's apt to find trouble sooner or later. Good luck.

 

[ChrisCJ99]

Re: New Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

As much as I would like to see other members here try to help fellow freaks out, I don't see it happening I mean, do we think that someone is going to sell a PF Doom ex for $500? Or a Hulk PF for retail??? I doubt it Granted I TOTALLY agree that this community should be more "family oriented" and try to help each other out, it's just probably not realistically going to happen. I mean, if you can fetch more $ from an interested buyer elsewhere, why not right??? But being a member here, I would DEF like to see this more, as I would DEF participate in helping other fellow freaks out. I know I'm pretty new here, but this type of UNITY is something that I'd like to see..... NOT for my personal gain, but for the love of the hobby and for people with the same passion

I think the new rules are more than fair. Thank you Darklord Dave

 

[nash]

Re: New Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

What about those that flame the scalper?

I also wonder about this. It is said that no commentary should be in for sale threads. Isn't bad mouthing a scalper going to be going against that very rule? I don't think any "flaming" type of behavior from any side should be allowed. Not just prejudiced to one side.

I think most of the rules are very solid, such as the ones that say no "make an offer" type of sales and no selling of presale items for a profit etc. but one thing, if youre going to allow people to bad mouth others because someone feels he/she is "scalping" an item, youre leaving a loophole that will cause another ^^^^ storm on this forum. Everyone has their own tolerances and definitions of who is scalping and who isnt....therefore a seller may think they are doing something right, when a member here may be hypersensitive to anything over retail and starts a flame war.

It just seems to me that all the other rules are solid and clear cut. however the one rule about scalping on the forum leaves A LOT to interpretation of the mods, and members alike. This wouldnt make it so much a "rule" as more of an opinion for each individual person here.

As much as I would like to see other members here try to help fellow freaks out, I don't see it happening I mean, do we think that someone is going to sell a PF Doom ex for $500? Or a Hulk PF for retail??? I doubt it Granted I TOTALLY agree that this community should be more "family oriented" and try to help each other out, it's just probably not realistically going to happen. I mean, if you can fetch more $ from an interested buyer elsewhere, why not right??? But being a member here, I would DEF like to see this more, as I would DEF participate in helping other fellow freaks out. I know I'm pretty new here, but this type of UNITY is something that I'd like to see..... NOT for my personal gain, but for the love of the hobby and for people with the same passion

I think the new rules are more than fair. Thank you Darklord Dave

And dude, didnt you just try to sell your PF Spiderman for like $700+ here?

 

[Adoptedscot]

Re: New Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

These new rules are being put in place to try to help protect the community as a whole.
We do not have to have a Commerce section but Dave kindly lets us.
We never used to have rules but as the hobby we all share has changed, so this forum has to,if only to try and help and protect us all.
Ok, I'll try answer a few things...try

The Comments issue is still under discussion on how best to implement it so you can please hold on for full answers to that one.

Flaming of any member in ANY thread across the board, be it a personal attack, vulgararity or just plain insulting, will not be tolerated. The posts will be removed and action may be taken against the posting member.

The fixed price listing is simply to post a price in your thread that you would like to get for your item. we have seen recently a number of threads increase that say 'make offers' or try and create a bidding war between potential buyers.This is not eBay. A seller knows what they want for their item so just list it. If a potential buyer pm's you with another offer, you can take it from there, but the intitial post has to have a set price. It is certainly not 'an intent to price fix'.

Scalping has been a problem for example when people have been advertising 'pre-orders' for sale with an asking price several hundred $$/££ above retail,so hopefully with the new rule of NO PRE-ORDER SALES, this may not be such of a big problem.

If a seller wants inflated higher than eBay prices, wants to auction items or wants to create a bidding war then their best bet is Ebay. The last 2 (auction/bidding war) formats are no longer allowed here and a higher price simply will not sell here, in most cases at least.

There are on occasion members who will offer an item at below its current marketed value which is very kind and generous.However we cannot ensure that,although it does happen, those days are not as frequent as they were, so again we have to adapt also to try and help everyone involved.
Hence the new rules.

This is primararily a collectors forum, a place we all come to discuss our hobby, meet like minded individuals who share in our passion of these collectables.
If we are lucky maybe we will find something in commerce that we were looking for but I will re-iterate what Dave said which I think is paramount:
This Forum is a priviledge, not a right.

Hope this helps a little
shell
x

 

[Shropt]

Re: New Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

Awesome! Now can we bump the post count minimum to 200?

 

[El Roranous]

Re: Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

Great new rules for the commerce section Dave and Mods!!! :chew



I hope Tylerd doesn't come back...

As I don't think I'll be selling many things here because of the intent to price fix, I was wondering the same when first reading the new rules. What is considered scalping and who is to decide what something is worth? And how do you know what a seller's intention is? With the values of some items skyrocketing, will someone have their For Sale Balrog statue listing deleted because they asked more than the original MSRP of $300? Balrog is going for more than $2000 and I consider that a huge scalp. As no one sells an item for what they paid for it, I see a lot of potential problems with this rule. Best of luck gentlemen.

 

[El Roranous]

Re: New Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

I really think, and please any mod correct me if I am wrong, but the term scalping really represents any seller trying to just make as much money as they can as quickly as they can. For example, say a piece is just released and it originally costs $200 but is selling for maybe close to $350 on ebay. Then a sellers tries to avoid ebay fees and still obtain maximum profit by selling it here, during the initial hype. I think these type of sales should be taken to ebay. If a product has genuinely increased in price and it's not due to hype then the sale should be allowed to take place here. It's a fine line I know but one seems in poor taste while the other is just how the game flows and people find it more acceptable.

I also still think flaming or protesting prices will not be allowed but the people who list absurd prices for their items will A) likely not be able to sell them on this board and B) be looked at as "that type of person". I just think the bay and this forum are two very unique and separate entities and should be regarded as so by sellers.

 

[Darth Loki]

Re: New Rules for the sale/trade forum - must read!

A lot of great new rules Dave but I do have one question regarding selling items before they are in hand.

A lot of us preorder almost everything we may be interested in knowing we can cancel without penalty from SS. Now if an item is sold out and I don't really want it anymore, why can't I offer it to a board member? I've had this happen at least a half dozen times where I kept my order and once I got my 10 day notice, posted that it was for sale and if no one took it, I'd cancel my order with SS. I honestly rarely make any money and usually offer at cost with these type of deals but I feel that they do help out other members who didn't get on the waitlist or missed out on an exclusive. So are sales like this OK or is it going to be judged on a case by case scenario?