Classifieds Etiquette required

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Bigragu

Bigragu

Member
Jul 8, 2018
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CA, United States
I’ve never been one to biatch about going ons in the classifieds except tor the scammers, like most of us do.

I’ve never sided on sellers price vs buyers idea of a fair price, cause typically the few things I’ve bought thru the classifieds I have given what the seller was asking. I’m not a tire kicker, nor do I waste a sellers time trying to low ball him, and I have never ever bullied a seller into selling me something (I personally know of folks that have done this)

So today I tried helping a fellow member score on NV equipment, and dealt with a seller on numerous PM’s which led to personal texts. I asked for pics, he provided them. Meanwhile, I’m passing all this onto another member just being me, and assisting with the sale. Eventually I had gotten the two communicating by giving the buyer the sellers name(even linked the sellers ad to him) and contacted the seller and told him about the buyer.

I originally was looking at this item for myself, but caught myself and decided I didn’t need it, so I passed it on to the other member who I thought may be interested. So with all that said, that means between me and the seller, there was a lot of communications going on, back n forth.

Today the seller informs me he sold it to a guy who was ahead of me in inquiring about it. No where in all our communications was I told that I “was in line” for the item. I was led to feel like I was the first and only person even inquiring about it, as it was originally a gun sale that the seller decided to part all the add ons to the gun.

Sure enough, I check the sellers post count and it’s low at 38. So, my advice to all the newbie’s joining this great forum for the main purpose of benefiting from the classifieds, please show some courtesy and tell folks up front that there are other buyers ahead of you, so as not to waste time.

What’s even more messed up is when I told the guy if I would’ve known I would’ve just bought it out right like right now, and he tells me he wouldn’t have sold it to me anyway because of the previous inquirer of the product.

I have no problem with the “first come first serve”, just let the buyer know up front there are others that you promised the item to, instead of leading a person on and wasting his time.

Not including the scammer rants, this is my first true complaint about the classifieds, to just show some etiquette
 
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I think most guys just want the money and the thing gone. Make up an excuse to save face then rely on everyone who got mad to go back to burying their noses in their devices and forgetting by tomorrow. Its the world we live in now. Short attention spans mean shorter sentences for your indiscretions, so just do what you want, people will forget. Well, most people.
 
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Bigragu said:
I’ve never been one to biatch about going ons in the classifieds except tor the scammers, like most of us do.

I’ve never sided on sellers price vs buyers idea of a fair price, cause typically the few things I’ve bought thru the classifieds I have given what the seller was asking. I’m not a tire kicker, nor do I waste a sellers time trying to low ball him, and I have never ever bullied a seller into selling me something (I personally know of folks that have done this)

So today I tried helping a fellow member score on NV equipment, and dealt with a seller on numerous PM’s which led to personal texts. I asked for pics, he provided them. Meanwhile, I’m passing all this onto another member just being me, and assisting with the sale. Eventually I had gotten the two communicating by giving the buyer the sellers name(even linked the sellers ad to him) and contacted the seller and told him about the buyer.

I originally was looking at this item for myself, but caught myself and decided I didn’t need it, so I passed it on to the other member who I thought may be interested. So with all that said, that means between me and the seller, there was a lot of communications going on, back n forth.

Today the seller informs me he sold it to a guy who was ahead of me in inquiring about it. No where in all our communications was I told that I “was in line” for the item. I was led to feel like I was the first and only person even inquiring about it, as it was originally a gun sale that the seller decided to part all the add ons to the gun.

Sure enough, I check the sellers post count and it’s low at 38. So, my advice to all the newbie’s joining this great forum for the main purpose of benefiting from the classifieds, please show some courtesy and tell folks up front that there are other buyers ahead of you, so as not to waste time.

What’s even more messed up is when I told the guy if I would’ve known I would’ve just bought it out right like right now, and he tells me he wouldn’t have sold it to me anyway because of the previous inquirer of the product.

I have no problem with the “first come first serve”, just let the buyer know up front there are others that you promised the item to, instead of leading a person on and wasting his time.

Not including the scammer rants, this is my first true complaint about the classifieds, to just show some etiquette
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Great input. I will certainly take heed for future reference as I intend to purchase as well as sell used air rifles as well. This was helpful. Thank u
 
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That's just wrong, from ever angle.

When I've sold auto and motorcycle related parts, If a person inquires about an item, I ALWAYS let the people if there is anyone else interested in the part(s), but no money has been exchanged yet. First with the money in hand wins, but "everyone" knows up front that there may be more than one person interested.

As to those that don't have any integrity, a person is ONLY as good as his word.

Mike
 
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I feel your frustration Augie! Whenever I've sold stuff here one of the 1st things I tell a prospective buyer (if it applies) is how many other people showed interest & have "1st dibs" in order of contact. I think it's only right, that's the way Mom & Dad raised me. I really try in life to not make snap judgments of people but in the same respect, I believe I can tell a lot about a person by the way they conduct themselves when doing business. Really, bottom line is manners are manners & prospective buyers deserve consideration & honesty, commodities that are becoming more difficult to find today. Sad!
 
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MikeVV said:
That's just wrong, from ever angle.

When I've sold auto and motorcycle related parts, If a person inquires about an item, I ALWAYS let the people if there is anyone else interested in the part(s), but no money has been exchanged yet. First with the money in hand wins, but "everyone" knows up front that there may be more than one person interested.

As to those that don't have any integrity, a person is ONLY as good as his word.

Mike
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memories as a young man . My father said that same thing to me , "A man only has his word, once he breaks it it is gone ."
 
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Yeah I agree I had one guy who was asking about Texans and as soon as he had enough posts he went and put one up for sale then no more posts I hate that when they just join and only use the classifieds I have checked number of posts and have decided not to deal with people that have a low number of posts or hardly any feedback
 
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In the seller's defense, if he had 2 guys negotiating, or just discussing an item, IMO he should sell to the first one that says, "I'll take it".

It's fairly common on Internet hobby classifieds to get guys that message, or text on an item, sometimes multiple times, and then go "radio silent". It's all talk, until someone pulls the trigger (no pun intended).
 
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If a person inquires about my sale item, I let them know upfront if there are others looking at the deal.
Chicago rules; first to place any frog skins on the barrel head, buys themselves a spot of time with the deal.
Any failure to meet the terms or complete said deal. Will cost looker those barrel head frog skins and then gentlemen it's batter up.

My father said same thing to me , "A man only has his word"
Today sadly there are not many FATHERS with wisdom to bequeath or pass such pearls onto the next generation.
And this does not bode well for any future society in general.
 
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Hammer said:
In the seller's defense, if he had 2 guys negotiating, or just discussing an item, IMO he should sell to the first one that says, "I'll take it".

It's fairly common on Internet hobby classifieds to get guys that message, or text on an item, sometimes multiple times, and then go "radio silent". It's all talk, until someone pulls the trigger (no pun intended).
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Understandably. But the member I linked the seller with communicated and told the seller he was very interested and just wanted to research the NV item by watching a couple of YouTube vids so he understood how it worked. Between my friend the buyer, and myself helping to facilitate the sale, there was no “moment of silence” or “cricket time”. It was very obvious that it was being purchased by my friend.

So in this case, there is no “in sellers defense”. In fact, at the “moment of pause” with my friend telling the seller “hey, let me watch a couple of vids on these one leaf units so I know what they’re all about” that would’ve been an opportune time for the seller to make mention “uhhh, well, uhhh, if ya wait too long I may have it sold. Just sayin’”. But no we didn’t even get that.

I just revisited the ad. Every thing on that sale ad has been marked as sold except the NV, the scope, and FX no limit mounts. Weird
 
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Bigragu, while I largely agree with what you are saying I would make one distinction. He should have told you that there were others also looking at the item. He does not have to say you are first or second or fourteenth. I also think that he should make it clear that the first person to say “I’ll take it” will get the product.

I have always followed that principle when buying or selling. The first “I’ll take it” gets the deal, not the first person to contact me. At the same time I ALWAYS let everyone know that there are others looking. On some occasions I have told an individual that I wouldn’t sell an item until he gets back to me. In that case I will NOT sell it to someone else, even if they beat the other guy to “I’ll take it”. That has cost me sales on two occasions when the original person contacted me to say they would not be going forward and the other guy was pissed that I wouldn’t take their offer until I heard back from person 1, but I am fine with that since a promise is a promise.
 
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Perhaps it's the vastness of my experience in long-distance buying, selling and trading hundreds of airguns over some four decades that makes me think it goes without saying it's a big mistake to ASSUME anything when dealing with any stranger, any item is for sale until someone speaks for it, a seller bears no responsibility to inform a prospect about other prospects (that he knows not how serious ANY are), or hold an item unless he says he will. Pretty simple stuff really.

With those points in mind, did you ask if there were other interested prospects? Did you ask the seller to hold the item? If not, the seller did no wrong.
 
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AirNGasman said:
Perhaps it's the vastness of my experience in long-distance buying, selling and trading hundreds of airguns over some four decades that makes me think it goes without saying it's a big mistake to ASSUME anything when dealing with any stranger, any item is for sale until someone speaks for it, a seller bears no responsibility to inform a prospect about other prospects (that he knows not how serious ANY are), or hold an item unless he says he will. Pretty simple stuff really.

With those points in mind, did you ask if there were other interested prospects? Did you ask the seller to hold the item? If not, the seller did no wrong.
Click to expand...

Everything in bold is spot on. I run a side business where I deal with 50 messages a day on items, the majority of the "im serious ill take it" ghost me while hunting for better deals or closer items within a few days.

If I am dealing with multiple people first person that says Ill take it and shows up/pays , gets it and I will then let the other buyers know it is gone.
 
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AirNGasman said:
Perhaps it's the vastness of my experience in long-distance buying, selling and trading hundreds of airguns over some four decades that makes me think it goes without saying it's a big mistake to ASSUME anything when dealing with any stranger, any item is for sale until someone speaks for it, a seller bears no responsibility to inform a prospect about other prospects (that he knows not how serious ANY are), or hold an item unless he says he will. Pretty simple stuff really.

With those points in mind, did you ask if there were other interested prospects? Did you ask the seller to hold the item? If not, the seller did no wrong.
Click to expand...
That's my point, stated better. There are no hard and fast rules. I've done a lot of selling on other websites, and with due respect to your friend, "talker/researchers" are usually the worst. I've had guys message me 10 times, and even talk on the phone for 30 minutes, just to ghost me, or think about it, until someone else buys the item. If I see something that is a great deal, that I want, I immediately send "I'll take it", and send PM stating the same. I still lose out many times, no big deal.
 
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There probably wasn’t anyone ahead but someone came in and said I’ll take it and will send the money right away. They probably said this before anyone else committed beyond the asking and looking stage. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion. Money talks BS walks. 💩or get off the pot. Sometimes one needs to decide a little faster. From the original post it sounds like just the opposite was occurring.
 
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Bigragu said:
I’ve never been one to biatch about going ons in the classifieds except tor the scammers, like most of us do.

I’ve never sided on sellers price vs buyers idea of a fair price, cause typically the few things I’ve bought thru the classifieds I have given what the seller was asking. I’m not a tire kicker, nor do I waste a sellers time trying to low ball him, and I have never ever bullied a seller into selling me something (I personally know of folks that have done this)

So today I tried helping a fellow member score on NV equipment, and dealt with a seller on numerous PM’s which led to personal texts. I asked for pics, he provided them. Meanwhile, I’m passing all this onto another member just being me, and assisting with the sale. Eventually I had gotten the two communicating by giving the buyer the sellers name(even linked the sellers ad to him) and contacted the seller and told him about the buyer.

I originally was looking at this item for myself, but caught myself and decided I didn’t need it, so I passed it on to the other member who I thought may be interested. So with all that said, that means between me and the seller, there was a lot of communications going on, back n forth.

Today the seller informs me he sold it to a guy who was ahead of me in inquiring about it. No where in all our communications was I told that I “was in line” for the item. I was led to feel like I was the first and only person even inquiring about it, as it was originally a gun sale that the seller decided to part all the add ons to the gun.

Sure enough, I check the sellers post count and it’s low at 38. So, my advice to all the newbie’s joining this great forum for the main purpose of benefiting from the classifieds, please show some courtesy and tell folks up front that there are other buyers ahead of you, so as not to waste time.

What’s even more messed up is when I told the guy if I would’ve known I would’ve just bought it out right like right now, and he tells me he wouldn’t have sold it to me anyway because of the previous inquirer of the product.

I have no problem with the “first come first serve”, just let the buyer know up front there are others that you promised the item to, instead of leading a person on and wasting his time.

Not including the scammer rants, this is my first true complaint about the classifieds, to just show some etiquette
Click to expand...
My complaint is with a seller that won't even give you the courtesy of a reply. I literally had cash in hand and gas in the tank, he was 100 miles away. And not a darn thing after 4 attempts, I got the hint.
 
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There are precious few 'rules' to consider when offering something for sale but for the love of God, DO NOT increase the price after you post it because you get some hits and you think, "Hey, I can ***** these suckers now!".

Just happened with a scope that was offered for a good price and that, for me is a forever do not buy from, ever mark against the seller.

Then the invariable PM's to get all sassy about it.

Hit the ignore button. :sneaky:
 
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