Small annual fee for Buy and Sell?

[jlm]

fyi, i am typically seeing anywhere from 25-33% FS ads at any given time

 

[David Schneider]

With a yearly fee, if someone did not pay it would that mean:
1. they couldn't see any buy/sell posts, or
2. not be able to post an item for sale.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

2 we could lock them out. How it could be done those that pay than we put them in a certain class of member and you have access rights. So each member that pays would be in a group name like workshop member or something like that. We can make the buy and sell visible to all but the problem is you have to be a member to post. So in effect be it a buyer or seller you need to be a member in that group.

 

[David Schneider]

2 we could lock them out. How it could be done those that pay than we put them in a certain class of member and you have access rights. So each member that pays would be in a group name like workshop member or something like that. We can make the buy and sell visible to all but the problem is you have to be a member to post. So in effect be it a buyer or seller you need to be a member in that group.

Guy,

Would that mean that all those buy/sell post wouldn't come up when I click on Today's Posts to see what's been posted lately? They would be in their own section and I wouldn't have to scroll through them to see non-buy/sell posts? Or if you were a member of the buy/sell you'd still have to wade through them?

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

FM forums instituted a fee for their B&S and the entire B&S section went pear shaped, became saturated with the 'professionals' that we are only seeing a few of here. People who don't contribute to the forum in general but sell a huge amount including the buy newly announced gear and sell for a substantial price hike. Not sure of the connection but..

 

[Vivek]

2 we could lock them out. How it could be done those that pay than we put them in a certain class of member and you have access rights. So each member that pays would be in a group name like workshop member or something like that. We can make the buy and sell visible to all but the problem is you have to be a member to post. So in effect be it a buyer or seller you need to be a member in that group.

So, essentially it is a fee for the sellers?

Someone who wants to sell a M9M for $9,000/- at the risk of forfeiting a $10 fee..in what way it would deter the "undesirables"?

 

[Guy Mancuso]

So, essentially it is a fee for the sellers?

Someone who wants to sell a M9M for $9,000/- at the risk of forfeiting a $10 fee..in what way it would deter the "undesirables"?

Yes it would be a fee paid to Jack which in turn we would classify a member a certain way through the back end of the software but you as a buyer would still have to be a member to post in that thread. I have to look to see exactly how this all works within the current software as is. Now we may actually depending on how we want it than hire someone to write a custom code. There are some basic things we can do without having to write code for it as its already built in. For instance I could right now just turn off the buy and sell but the forum itself would still function. I know by class I can tick some buttons and only workshop members since they are a class see and post only to buy and sell. So some things we can do but it's limited also. Jack knows the backend much better than I do. So I don't want to get too deep on its functions. But outside what tricks we can do than we could also hire someone to change things . Our sponsor buttons was all custom made for instance.

 

[ecsh]

An annual fee is not going to stop a seller if he wants to sell something, especially at a large profit. One of the Nikon forums do not let you sell something until you have 300 posts. I have been part of that for three years, and still cannot see the B&S. If you initiate a 50 post minimum before being able to see and post in the B&S, you will get rid of the "quick" kind of posts from the 1-10 post posters which seem to plague this forum. Otherwise, just charge an annual fee if you need funds to help with the server, and institute a post count. YMMV
Joe.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

There maybe a way again to do that by making a limit say 150 posts your classification can change to let's say a regular member which than kicks in the buy and sell as it sees that title as regular member. Under 150 your a new member and it's possible to lock out just the buy and sell. Going by this poll 63 percent want it for free, what else is new. This ain't Facebook folks. LOL

Honestly if we left this up to donations to maintain this site which we have done since day 1 than 98 percent of the members don't donate. I'm just telling you all the facts, for those that have thanks again.

 

[Stuart Richardson]

I have not been around as much these days, but personally, I think that making the buy and sell a paid service is a bit risky, depending on how your organize it. If you do charge for it, certainly do not make a post threshold or charge to even see it. As a seller, I think most would prefer to cast as wide a net as possible, rather than just limit it to the very active members. I know I probably would not bother to list things here if I had to pay for it and if only active members could see it. I have used the buy and sell forum in the past, and many of my buyers were members from around the world who did not actively post. Some felt uncomfortable because of a language barrier or other reason, but all of the transactions were fine. This is especially true for someone like me who is not in the US, as most of the active members are in the US and not interested in buying things outside the US. As someone said above, it's really common sense that is going to keep you away from bad transactions, not hiding the buy and sell from inactive members.

So, if there is a fee for buy and sell, at least make it to sell only, not to view the forum. I don't think a fee to sell would bother me much, though I think I would rather have it be general (such as X per year), not on a per transaction basis. I think if it gets too high, however, you will lose a lot of the interesting gear. If I had to sell one or two things, I probably would not pay a yearly fee of 20-30+ just to list an item, especially when there are still other free classifieds with similar readerships (LuLa etc). By charging a high yearly fee, you push the buy and sell forum over to people who are either real buy/sell junkies or professional sellers (in amateur guise, at times). But listing a number of items each with individual 2-5 dollar listing fees, such as at Rangefinder Forum is also a bit of a pain. There is not really an easy solution!

 

[Dan Ortego]

Strange the voting was closed after only 43 votes as I'm not sure how that could provide any useful baseline. Anywho, I'd gladly pay 10-bucks a year and I haven't listed anything yet. Too lazy I suppose ~

 

[bradhusick]

Dan, I created the poll and kept it open for a month.