selling etiquette

[plasticpigeon]

Hello. Does anyone know the etiquette for selling/disposing of stuff on here. I see there is a classified bit, but it seems nobody uses it. I'm sure that members on here often have useful bits and bobs left over and would prefer to exchange, give away or sell at a good price to other members than put on ebay or the like.

 

[DJH]

Hmm. That might be useful for Mrs DJH when I drop off the perch..

 

[LadyArowana]

Hmm. That might be useful for Mrs DJH when I drop off the perch..

I don't think that's legal, but let's hope she doesn't need to for a long time.

 

[JoceAndChris]

The etiquette is that we don't sell to eachother on here - sorry! Although things have been given which is arranged through PM. I can't imagine the mods being all that pleased at people using the forum for free advertising when as you point out there is a shop.

Fleabay?

 

[DJH]

Hmm. That might be useful for Mrs DJH when I drop off the perch..

I don't think that's legal, but let's hope she doesn't need to for a long time.

I'm worried that she might not know the value of what she will be stuck with. I've already got shot of all the Ferguson implements I had because my health doesn't let me make full use of them, that explains why I'm on here all the time........

 

[Jellyfire]

Sounds like a nice leisurely project in the making to me! Make an inventory of all your collection, photograph and describe it all, that way if anything bad ever did happen it would make life much easier for your good lady, and primarily it would be intersting for you to know what you have and therefore more importantly, what you need to expand your eclectic collection!

 

[DJH]

Thanks for that Jellyfire. I've made a start on the cataloging hundreds of photos I have of all the jobs I've done over the last forty years or so and I'm on the lookout, as Christmas and my birthday are getting close, for something simple I can scan the photos on to a disc. Hint to Mrs DJH
I've also a library of books which I'm also cataloging but I need a simpler programmer than the one I got from Microsoft Works to speed things up. That perch is standing in the corner.

 

[Jellyfire]

I'm sincerely sorry to hear your not in the best of health DJH, you have my heartfelt sympathies for what it's worth. Well we are all benefitting on here from your joining up, your posts, work and collection of stuff is all truly fascinating!
In terms of books, if you or a family member have access to a smart phone such as an iPhone, you can scan the barcode on them on some websites, which will offer you a derisory price for them, but will also conveniently create you a nice catalogued list to print out!

 

[skier-hughes]

The etiquette is that we don't sell to eachother on here - sorry! Although things have been given which is arranged through PM. I can't imagine the mods being all that pleased at people using the forum for free advertising when as you point out there is a shop.

Fleabay?

Odd, as I've bought stuff off other members here and I'm sure others have also done the same. I've also taken some stuff in exchange for jam and fruit. It's hardly going to take trade from the shop an odd couple of 2nd hand items, we don't even know what they have, the shop may not even sell it!!

I'd advertise it here and see what take up there is, or if you want to be polite, ask Simon first.

 

[Jellyfire]

The listings would be a great feature but unfortunately they tend to be empty, as a consequence I don't imagine anybody ever looks on there, so if anybody is advertise items for sale I imagine nobody would know. Maybe the classified listings could also be featured on an items for sale thread on here or something along those lines? Just a thought

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Odd, as I've bought stuff off other members here and I'm sure others have also done the same. I've also taken some stuff in exchange for jam and fruit. It's hardly going to take trade from the shop an odd couple of 2nd hand items, we don't even know what they have, the shop may not even sell it!!

I'd advertise it here and see what take up there is, or if you want to be polite, ask Simon first.

Yep - I once bought some oak saplings from a dodgy chap on here.... :wink:

Although come to think of it, they were free for a charity donation.

 

[JoceAndChris]

The trouble with selling between friends and acquaintances is that all manner of emotions come in that ought not be there. I bought a bowl from a friend which retails on EBay at around 60, new, it's £80. I bought it for £45. When I got it home ( and she'd wrapped it so carefully in bubble) the footed section was badly chipped. This means the value is probably more like £20. She probably didn't see it, I bought it after we'd been drinking wine and her kitchen was dimly lit. I should have checked it more carefully. I'm far too polite and embarrassed to say anything about it, but it puts a little sour mark on our friendship.

Chris would have phoned her and got his money back at once without a single qualm - I think these scruples are largely female problems.

But it has taught me to never mix friendship with selling ( or borrowing, come to that). I like Jellyfire's idea of using the special area on this site to advertise and then alerting us here.

I also think that advertising for an exchange or charity donation type thing is different.

 

[worms]

Hmm. That might be useful for Mrs DJH when I drop off the perch..

I don't think that's legal, but let's hope she doesn't need to for a long time.

I'm worried that she might not know the value of what she will be stuck with. I've already got shot of all the Ferguson implements I had because my health doesn't let me make full use of them, that explains why I'm on here all the time........

I think I've spotted the plan... First you advertise the items under the thread "whatsit?", then you do a new thread entitled "antiques roadshow", where you invite people to guess the worth of various items, before finally going in for the kill with a pm to the most gullible/enthusiastic!

Oh, and can I bid £40 (delivered) for the barrel butter churn?

 

[DJH]

Ha ha, and I thought I was being subtle. You're like the lady who took an x-ray of me yesterday. You saw right through me :lol: :lol:

 

[Jellyfire]

It's a work of evil genius. I'm already starting to wonder what I'd pay for the clockwork nuclear reactor thingy on there and I don't even know what it is!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

It is a pity that the selling part of PPUK seems to be defunct. Particularly pertinent at the moment as I am currently listing items on e bay which i know PPUKers have been searching for over the past year or so.

The only way around it is to alert peeps that certain items are up for grabs and invite a private message enquiry to give the chance of first refusal before listing on fleabay or whatever.

This way has been successful for me a couple of times-- Joce, that was bad luck for you!!

However, it would make sense to try and revive our own PPUK advertisements------

 

[plasticpigeon]

Does anyone think it would be good to get the classified section working? I think it would. However for a basic ad it costs £4 for 30 days. This seems a silly way of doing things to me. It would be much better to pay per ad and have a free ad section for free stuff and swaps. I can tell Joce isn't too keen on the idea of potentially spoiling the friendly online community here, but I can't imagine anyone here getting into squabbles over a sale. If there was a consensus here perhaps a change could be suggested to the site moderators or whatever they are called. What do people think?? What changes would make people use the classified section.

 

[worms]

I can't imagine anyone here getting into squabbles over a sale.

:shock:
We've had a fair few squabbles, huffs and flounces on here over the years - often around issues of materialism! At the moment there are some old faithfuls who are "missing in action", hopefully still lurking and who will hopefully return to the fold, but sadly, I suspect others are off to pastures new or perhaps greener (building) forums!

Throw money into the mix and we'll be like ferrets in a sack!

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: :lol: :lol: I agree with you worms. I'd also hate to log on and see a great long string of advertisements on here - it's not as if our forum is divided into sections so you are really looking at the latest few threads. The odd thing from a regular like our plasticpigeon wouldn't bother me too much, and I'm now really curious to see what it is he has to sell!!

But yes, a consensus on how our marketplace might be usefully changed I'm sure would be interesting to dear Simon and Rob and little mentionings, on here, that regulars have got things for sale on there, wouldn't upset the apple cart, I'm sure. If enough people post in this thread then perhaps a message could be sent to Simon asking him to read through the forum's thinking on reviving that aspect of the site? I agree that paying per ad sounds better than £4 per 30 days. Or what about a percentage of the sale to go to PPUKe like Fleabay?

 

[AMc]

At http://www.avforums.com they run a lively set of classified forums which I've used to buy and sell, including a £1300 projector. They have a simple set of rules and it generally works very well selling from enthusiasts to enthusiasts. There is inevitably some dispute and they have moderators who work for free to deal with those problems. The site makes nothing from the sales and use it to drive membership and 3rd party advertising but their membership is many orders of magnitude larger than this forum.

Of course one way find a potential purchaser is to post a thread with lots of details of something you're looking to sell and asking how much you should ask and where to advertise it

I appreciate that the owners need to fund the site and I have not got a better idea to get the classifieds working as they are set up.
I hadn't looked in there in years and there appear to be no listings at the moment so it's not really working for anyone at the moment. To charge for placing an ad you need traffic and to get traffic you need ads.