For Sale thread... qualifications...

[allthatwhichis]

I am not sure if qualifications is the word I am looking for. I have noticed several For Sale thread from members with no "experience" here at PL. At first it didn't really bother me, but there have been more and more lately.

So I figured I'd make a suggestion to see if it 1, bothered others, and 2, ask if there should be some... restrictions, or "qualifications" one must meet before being able to post an item for sale here. # of posts or something, maybe a little of both, time as a member and # of posts.

My mentality of it is, if I want to buy from a stranger, that is what eBay is for. when I go to a forum FS thread, I want to know a little more about the seller, have some confidence I will get support at that forum from the sell if I need it... maybe get a better deal as a fellow member and contributor to the "commmunity". If you are not a member of this community, I don't really care what you got for sale.

Just a thought I have been trying to forget... Figured I'd share and maybe it will stop bothering me.

[James Lehman]

I agree!

If you want to sell stuff here, you should be VERY supportive and answer all questions openly and publicly. People who do sell stuff should offer unusually good deals to PL members and expect to develop a reputation (good or bad).

I also recognize that it is this forum that has made laser projection art a much more popular idea. So I own something back to it for that!

James.

[thesk8nmidget]

i agree! sometimes random 1 line threads from a member with less than 5 posts talking about their site and what they have to offer is i dono the word.. selfish i guess.

they should really maybe spend some time browsing the forums making a few posts trying to help people and then try and sell they stuff. it seems like that is good customer service in my eyes

[soforene]

Yep.
Peeps whose join up and their first post is flogging something are always given a wide berth by me.
Maybe they don't have an agenda and have just joined the forum to flog some gear.
Maybe they are honourable and will become regular posters.
But the odds are stacked against that happening.

Perhaps PL is becoming more famous and hence, more attractive to some people who are out to make a quick buck with laser related gear.
Praise the Lord that I joined months ago.

Now, anyone interested in a 100 watt blue laser for a hundred quid sold as seen, Icky no come backs?

[James Lehman]

Now, anyone interested in a 100 watt blue laser for a hundred quid sold as seen, Icky no come backs?

How many do you have? I'll take 'em all!

James.

[thesk8nmidget]

i'll take 2.....hundred

[Pitts]

I'll play devils advocate here...

If they put it in the right place what is the issue ??

I well remember certain Chinese laser manufacturers having a low PL count but hey everyone just can't seem to get enough of these guys today !!!

Imagine of you had canned, based on PL contact lets say.. Bridge, CNI, Viasho(Frank),Jian725, heaven help, Bill (Pangolin) Greg at LSDI he has about one post .. do you want to hear from him again.. yep I sure do. and so on.......
give it some thought you might not like what you wish for.

I personally have bought from them all... all found on PL. worked for me

I say as long as they put it in the right place (buy sell and exchange?) .and they act honorably then go for it. Its how we find out about things.

Or say setup a commercial area for such threads.. maybe a small fee to Spec.

I do believe they should help Spec pay for this 'targeted' advertising by donating like the rest of us maybe even more as they earn money from trading on PL.

The arguement that they might be flawed or suspicious can apply to just about everywhere today unfortunately..... the price of using the internet.
"Buyer beware" no matter where you buy today.

At least here we all get to give "stars" or "Bullets" about a product or company... or even an individual.

Geez and you guys are from the land of the free....(excluding taxes) where has capitilism gone to ..

Cheers

Ray
NZ

[soforene]

... and you guys are from the land of the free....

Where is this magical land of which you speak?
Certainly not on my planet.

How many do you have? I'll take 'em all!

Umm.. they're in the post. Send me the dosh in unmarked low denomination bills.

i'll take 2.....hundred

Sorry, James took 'em all.
Oh wait.
I found another box of 200 under the bed. Must be your lucky day !!
Paypal your big wedge to oneborneveryminute@comcomdecomcom.com

[thesk8nmidget]

alright the 20,000 pounds have been sent to that address!

looking forward to my ultra bright 20 watt blue build

[Admin]

I really have no idea how this could be handled, much less should.

Every possible solution has a downside and no matter how well you setup a "traceable trust" system, there will be a way around it. Furthermore: The more complicated the verification system, the less likely people are to use it.

Say for example I start charging for access to BST for commercial entities, then the only real security you guys get is that I have been paid from a paypal account that could be fraudulent. Thats hardly reassuring.

As Soforene stated: the odds are stacked no matter how the issue is handled and it all comes down to how comfortable you feel with the potential seller.

I think James nailed it: A potential seller would, or at least should, be interested in selling his product and that might entail answering some tough questions about the product in public.

I tend to agree with Pitts here. Any arbitrary bar set by something like post count is just that: arbitrary.

Here are a couple ideas(and implementations taken from other boards):

Setup specific "Commercial Seller" and "Private seller" sections.
Require a price to be listed.
Filled out profile form(Which I will need to seriously rework)
Pictures of the actual item, not canner images.
Pictures of the actual item where the images contain a hand written copy of their username on a post-it note or something. This appears popular on ebay with high demand/high value items.

There are a couple of techniques that *might* work because the laserist community is pretty small all things considered:

A personal voucher system: Say "Jimmy new poster" is known by Pangolin to be trustworthy. Jimmy could ask Pangolin to reply to the thread as a personal reference. We, in short, inherit the equitable line of trust.

A link to the paypal vetting system where it lists their account status, but as we all know, that can be complete trash also.

In a perfect world(perfect as defined by absolute trust) everyone would submit to a credit and background check, provide references with two peer reviews for each reference, submit the product to a DBF(or equivalent) approved freight forwarder, contractual obligations would be signed in front of notaries, location information copied and verified, and finally the payment would be processed by an escrow service.