General discussion thread - keep the other threads clean 29 29

[joeypost]

Some serious threadcrapping going on here over nothing more than price and by folks that don't look like serious buyers.

 

I know that it can be hard to sell things here for anything other than a giveaway price, but when did that morph into it being illegal to ask whatever price you want for your own property?

 

I don't see how having 500 posts or 50,000 posts would make a difference if the only complaint is price.

 

Was there some claim against the seller other than a high price? When were the "Forum Price Police" appointed? I must have been in the bathroom.

 

I agree completely with what you say, but at what point do we allow common sense and decency to go out the window?

 

Joey, you hit the nail on the head. It would be against common sense not to say anything about that price

 

You guys know me on here...I don't threadcrap.

 

I feel his asking price was laughable and deserved to be called out on it.

 

Sorry some think what I did was out of line. We don't want this forum to turn into eBay with sales to take advantage of the unknowing (not saying this seller is doing that but interesting the grade wasn't mentioned although he had it graded in the forum). While most of us here know better...there could be a lurker or whoever that thinks that the book raw could be a higher grade and buy it....

 

It would need to be at least 9.0 graded for a 5k price tag...that book was in the grading forum and the average was 7.5 or so....a $1,800 book on a good day.

 

And, while we can ask what we want for the book...we should also be subjected to scrutiny if the price is in outer space. A premium is one thing...3x guide to me is a problem from anyone and not just a noob.

 

Sorry.

 

While I understand he did not, at that time do anything wrong in his thread, I felt the intent was there.

 

2 reasons why.

 

First. He listed a raw book as 9.4 that someone asked for a better picture of one of the corners. From what i could see in the sales thread it was maybe a 7.0. No biggie. Some people cannot grade

 

Second. When he was asked about the grade/price comparison he fell back to people pay a premium for better looking books. While that is true I would not spend $,5000.00 on a really nice 7.0 when I could buy a really nice 9.0. Seems simple to me. Instead of saying his pricing was aggressive he stood by people should pay more for a better presenting book.

 

Maybe him being asked that many questions in his sales thread was poor form. Maybe he did not do anything wrong at the time. I like to look at things from a better safe than sorry standpoint.

 

If someone is walking around looking into storefronts in the middle of the night, he has done no wrong. None whatsoever. If that same person was still looking but wearing a hat, hood and was carrying a crow bar he would be suspicious while still doing nothing wrong. How many police offers would walk by and say "Lets wait till he breaks into a store before we do or say anything to him"? None that I know of. They would ask questions and take action if necessary.

 

[comix4fun]

Joey, you hit the nail on the head. It would be against common sense not to say anything about that price

 

 

Can you explain why you think that common sense demanded that?

 

Knee jerk reaction to a price you think is high, and common sense are not necessarily the same thing, wouldn't you agree?

 

You guys know me on here...I don't threadcrap.

 

Yet there you were, pants around ankles, in full squat in his thread.

 

I feel his asking price was laughable and deserved to be called out on it.

 

Are there any other pet peeves you have that you feel deserve swift retribution?

 

 

A guy is in his thread, with his own books, not being accused of doing anything wrong according to the guidelines of this forum, and yet something as simple as an asking price is good enough to blast away? Wow.

 

Wouldn't the book NOT selling be good enough? Or is it the need to feel like you know more than the seller? Once the book doesn't sell, he'll know his price is too high.

 

Doing what you are doing is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, no?

 

 

Sorry some think what I did was out of line. We don't want this forum to turn into eBay with sales to take advantage of the unknowing (not saying this seller is doing that but interesting the grade wasn't mentioned although he had it graded in the forum). While most of us here know better...there could be a lurker or whoever that thinks that the book raw could be a higher grade and buy it....

 

 

Who are these unknowing people with $5k to spend on a single book? If they found a way to make $5k to burn, how is that they need a protector from someone that hasn't lied, or cheated, and whose only crime seems to be setting a price that seems above market?

 

Where's the line drawn, 10% premium over guide, 50%, 100%? Is it just a gut feeling, or something actually thought out?

 

We are getting further and further from a viable and defensible position vis-a-vis this silly and unjustified threadpooping.

 

 

It would need to be at least 9.0 graded for a 5k price tag...that book was in the grading forum and the average was 7.5 or so....a $1,800 book on a good day.

 

The seller did include this in his thread, in post #1:

 

the buyer has seven days from the day of receipt to inspect purchases of raw books and books must be returned in exactly the same condition as when they were shipped for a full refund.

 

What's the danger again to the buyer? Can you explain it? If you are accusing the seller of something other than just having a price you think is too high, please elaborate because I can't see another issue so far.

 

 

 

 

And, while we can ask what we want for the book...we should also be subjected to scrutiny if the price is in outer space. A premium is one thing...3x guide to me is a problem from anyone and not just a noob.

 

Sorry.

 

So to simplify: "You can ask what you want for your books except in those situations where you can't ask what you want for your books?"*

 

 

 

* I'll decide when that time is.

 

When a price is in "outer space" the market will determine whether it sells or sits...that's how market scrutiny works.

 

I have owned pedigree books where I have gotten 5-7 times guide. Do you know why? Because a guide is just that "a guide", not the bible, not the law, and not binding.

 

If everyone priced their books by guide, prices would never move...and all the books we love would still be 10-12cents. I'd love that as a buyer, but it's ANYTHING BUT common sense.

[comix4fun]

 

While I understand he did not, at that time do anything wrong in his thread, I felt the intent was there.

 

2 reasons why.

 

First. He listed a raw book as 9.4 that someone asked for a better picture of one of the corners. From what i could see in the sales thread it was maybe a 7.0. No biggie. Some people cannot grade

 

Second. When he was asked about the grade/price comparison he fell back to people pay a premium for better looking books. While that is true I would not spend $,5000.00 on a really nice 7.0 when I could buy a really nice 9.0. Seems simple to me. Instead of saying his pricing was aggressive he stood by people should pay more for a better presenting book.

 

Maybe him being asked that many questions in his sales thread was poor form. Maybe he did not do anything wrong at the time. I like to look at things from a better safe than sorry standpoint.

 

If someone is walking around looking into storefronts in the middle of the night, he has done no wrong. None whatsoever. If that same person was still looking but wearing a hat, hood and was carrying a crow bar he would be suspicious while still doing nothing wrong. How many police offers would walk by and say "Lets wait till he breaks into a store before we do or say anything to him"? None that I know of. They would ask questions and take action if necessary.

 

 

 

So it wasn't the price then? Why didn't you say that before?

If you think his intent was dishonest, why not say that? Why stick to this "common sense" says the price is too high schtick?

 

If you think he's shady, just say so and tell us why. You've usually got good common sense skills, and you aren't bad at business. It did NOT make sense that you'd call a guy out on price alone.

 

Side bar:

ALL police officers would wait for an actual crime to be committed before taking action, otherwise with no crime being committed they've got nothing but a profile, and they fail at probable cause and their crow bar wielding friend will be out that same night, in another part of town, maybe plotting to break in somewhere where no one is looking or maybe calling his lawyer to file that false arrest claim.

 

 

 

[Mark 1]

Joey, you hit the nail on the head. It would be against common sense not to say anything about that price

 

 

Can you explain why you think that common sense demanded that?

 

Knee jerk reaction to a price you think is high, and common sense are not necessarily the same thing, wouldn't you agree?

 

You guys know me on here...I don't threadcrap.

 

Yet there you were, pants around ankles, in full squat in his thread.

 

I feel his asking price was laughable and deserved to be called out on it.

 

Are there any other pet peeves you have that you feel deserve swift retribution?

 

 

A guy is in his thread, with his own books, not being accused of doing anything wrong according to the guidelines of this forum, and yet something as simple as an asking price is good enough to blast away? Wow.

 

Wouldn't the book NOT selling be good enough? Or is it the need to feel like you know more than the seller? Once the book doesn't sell, he'll know his price is too high.

 

Doing what you are doing is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, no?

 

 

Sorry some think what I did was out of line. We don't want this forum to turn into eBay with sales to take advantage of the unknowing (not saying this seller is doing that but interesting the grade wasn't mentioned although he had it graded in the forum). While most of us here know better...there could be a lurker or whoever that thinks that the book raw could be a higher grade and buy it....

 

 

Who are these unknowing people with $5k to spend on a single book? If they found a way to make $5k to burn, how is that they need a protector from someone that hasn't lied, or cheated, and whose only crime seems to be setting a price that seems above market?

 

Where's the line drawn, 10% premium over guide, 50%, 100%? Is it just a gut feeling, or something actually thought out?

 

We are getting further and further from a viable and defensible position vis-a-vis this silly and unjustified threadpooping.

 

 

It would need to be at least 9.0 graded for a 5k price tag...that book was in the grading forum and the average was 7.5 or so....a $1,800 book on a good day.

 

The seller did include this in his thread, in post #1:

 

the buyer has seven days from the day of receipt to inspect purchases of raw books and books must be returned in exactly the same condition as when they were shipped for a full refund.

 

What's the danger again to the buyer? Can you explain it? If you are accusing the seller of something other than just having a price you think is too high, please elaborate because I can't see another issue so far.

 

 

 

 

And, while we can ask what we want for the book...we should also be subjected to scrutiny if the price is in outer space. A premium is one thing...3x guide to me is a problem from anyone and not just a noob.

 

Sorry.

 

So to simplify: "You can ask what you want for your books except in those situations where you can't ask what you want for your books?"*

 

 

 

* I'll decide when that time is.

 

When a price is in "outer space" the market will determine whether it sells or sits...that's how market scrutiny works.

 

I have owned pedigree books where I have gotten 5-7 times guide. Do you know why? Because a guide is just that "a guide", not the bible, not the law, and not binding.

 

If everyone priced their books by guide, prices would never move...and all the books we love would still be 10-12cents. I'd love that as a buyer, but it's ANYTHING BUT common sense.

 

 

I don't have the time or patience to respond to all your points or questions.

 

We don't see eye to eye. He didn't do anything technically wrong yet the intent seemed questionable. He new the grade the forum gave it yet he didn't include that grade and reflect a price that resembles anything near that.

 

If I'm wrong for calling him out on it...I apologize. That's my second apology. I won't provide a third.

 

 

Edited January 30, 2012 by Mark 1

[comix4fun]

 

I don't have the time or patience to respond to all your points or questions.

 

We don't see eye to eye. He didn't do anything technically wrong yet the intent seemed questionable. He new the grade the forum gave it yet he didn't include that grade and reflect a price that resembles anything near that.

 

If I'm wrong for calling him out on it...I apologize. That's my second apology. I won't provide a third.

 

 

 

I don't want an apology, especially when you spent so much time defending what you apologized for.

 

I want to understand. If he's shady, then go for it. If he's dishonest, go for it. If the price is too high, I don't get it. That's all.

 

I am one of the first to jump on a guy who's shady, dishonest, wrong, or withholding key information. So I am not being facetious when I say I want to understand what's wrong with what he did here, aside from the price.

 

Saying, "A guy can ask what he wants for his books, except when he can't" is the logic bomb in the center of my Vulcan fugue state. It doesn't compute absent a claim of dishonesty.

 

If you are saying he's shady and that's why you did what you did then you have every right to pursue that end. I just hope you're right if you are willing to go out on that limb.

[PovertyRow]

[Bosco685]

If I'm wrong for calling him out on it...I apologize. That's my second apology. I won't provide a third.

Most probably the one apology that would be owed is to the seller. Other than high prices on his raw books, he did everything else to make people comfortable.

 

- Gave reasonable descriptions of books when additional questions came up.

 

- Sent detailed scans via PM when asked for such information.

 

- Identified his location (Virginia).

 

- Never lost his cool even when being challenged over prices in his sales thread.

 

If any post spelled out what the real concern/attention-getter is in that thread, it was this one.

 

Did you want to sell that Avengers 4 or sit on it for another 20 years? It ain't happening at 5K dude.

 

If that book was underpriced, nobody would have a problem. Then he'd be considered a new seller that didn't know the value of his key book, and the only posts that would show up would be "Nice pickup at a low price. You beat me to it!"

 

[nocutename]

Thanks for the update.

 

 

Neff had a thread up for awhile indicating that some books were at CGC and coming back soon. Sales would fund his charity called comics for kids. Also, he solicited additional donations from boardies.

 

Thread stayed pretty dormant for awhile (and think boardies went easy on him for a number of listing violations due to the charitable nature of the endeavor). Fast forward a week or two, I think and books are listed. Some books are listed as already sold (without prices and the previous indication of it being an auction).

 

Some questions ensue as to how this occurred. Answers were a bit dodgy. Further digging (once people's radars went up) found some weird eBay listings (including advertisment for some salacious materials including a young Traci Lords prior to the age of 18). Also, it became less clear if any funds were being used to pay for the charity itself or the poster's personal expenses on a trip to a Comic convention.

 

Some more , , and followed. Apparently, some other boardies had dealt with his charity before (or at least offered advise on making it an IRS friendly endeavor). More shifty responses from the OP and a cancellation of his sales moving everything to eBay. Further digging revealed links to an organization that is out of compliance/registeration with local authorities/agencies. Also, it has not been registered appropriately with the IRS to make donations tax deductible.

 

 

Now, keep in mind this was a process that evolved over a bit of time and my memory may be off...I am sure folks will correct any errors I made The long and the short of it is that reassuring answers never really were posted and the OP kept insisting on resolution through email/PM. So no real answers, but certainly some flags to be cautious in my opinion.

[Jeffro.]

Some serious threadcrapping going on here over nothing more than price and by folks that don't look like serious buyers.

 

I know that it can be hard to sell things here for anything other than a giveaway price, but when did that morph into it being illegal to ask whatever price you want for your own property?

 

I don't see how having 500 posts or 50,000 posts would make a difference if the only complaint is price.

 

Was there some claim against the seller other than a high price? When were the "Forum Price Police" appointed? I must have been in the bathroom.

 

I agree completely with what you say, but at what point do we allow common sense and decency to go out the window?

 

Joey, you hit the nail on the head. It would be against common sense not to say anything about that price

 

You guys know me on here...I don't threadcrap.

 

I feel his asking price was laughable and deserved to be called out on it.

 

Sorry some think what I did was out of line. We don't want this forum to turn into eBay with sales to take advantage of the unknowing (not saying this seller is doing that but interesting the grade wasn't mentioned although he had it graded in the forum). While most of us here know better...there could be a lurker or whoever that thinks that the book raw could be a higher grade and buy it....

 

It would need to be at least 9.0 graded for a 5k price tag...that book was in the grading forum and the average was 7.5 or so....a $1,800 book on a good day.

 

And, while we can ask what we want for the book...we should also be subjected to scrutiny if the price is in outer space. A premium is one thing...3x guide to me is a problem from anyone and not just a noob.

 

Sorry.

 

My take on it.

 

A person was once selling comics here. He was listing them at very aggressive prices. He wasn't selling much. He posts a comment something along the lines of, "no interest in these books?" I sent him a PM, quoting what he had just said with my response, "not at those prices"

 

I PMed him. I didn't post that comment in his sales thread.

 

To me, that's the difference and the collective board wisdom agrees with that.

[bababooey]

A person was once selling comics here. He was listing them at very aggressive prices. He wasn't selling much. He posts a comment something along the lines of, "no interest in these books?" I sent him a PM, quoting what he had just said with my response, "not at those prices"

 

I PMed him. I didn't post that comment in his sales thread.

 

To me, that's the difference and the collective board wisdom agrees with that.

Yet you and RMA remain friends to this day.

 

 

 

 

[bababooey]

So what's the community standard that everyone is supposed to follow? Everyone seems to be protective of the common good except when it comes to someone getting 'overpaid' (for lack of a better term) when it comes to selling their books. By association, "grade comments" are also frowned upon since we're on a forum where grade is the main only determining factor for price.

 

Why is asking about price/grade so frowned upon here? Is it because the majority of participants here are collector/dealers?

 

Many here praise or quote GPA regularly and those selling will selectively choose the data that best supports their 'ask prices' - I'd think a community minded person would be within their rights to offer the broader GPA picture for the benefit of non-subscribers in a sellers thread but that doesn't happen here. Is that seller offering limited favourable data misleading people enough to get called out in his own thread?

 

Also, you can't ask for GPA on a book publicly but if you post GPA data in your sales thread, it's valuable data to 'help buyers' make an informed buying decision. If a seller can quote GPA, why can't a buyer ask for it in the sales thread - is that an acceptable thread-krap tactic?

 

When it comes to lying, cheating or fraud the community acts for the greater good of all parties - when it comes to market pricing and information within the sales forum the "collective board wisdom" demands discretion on behalf of the sellers. I don't disagree with maintaining a dealer friendly forum by having this kind of etiquette in place but I am usually entertained when someone chooses to ignore it so I'm not complaining.

 

 

[comix4fun]

So what's the community standard that everyone is supposed to follow? Everyone seems to be protective of the common good except when it comes to someone getting 'overpaid' (for lack of a better term) when it comes to selling their books. By association, "grade comments" are also frowned upon since we're on a forum where grade is the main only determining factor for price.

 

Why is asking about price/grade so frowned upon here? Is it because the majority of participants here are collector/dealers?

 

Many here praise or quote GPA regularly and those selling will selectively choose the data that best supports their 'ask prices' - I'd think a community minded person would be within their rights to offer the broader GPA picture for the benefit of non-subscribers in a sellers thread but that doesn't happen here. Is that seller offering limited favourable data misleading people enough to get called out in his own thread?

 

Also, you can't ask for GPA on a book publicly but if you post GPA data in your sales thread, it's valuable data to 'help buyers' make an informed buying decision. If a seller can quote GPA, why can't a buyer ask for it in the sales thread - is that an acceptable thread-krap tactic?

 

When it comes to lying, cheating or fraud the community acts for the greater good of all parties - when it comes to market pricing and information within the sales forum the "collective board wisdom" demands discretion on behalf of the sellers. I don't disagree with maintaining a dealer friendly forum by having this kind of etiquette in place but I am usually entertained when someone chooses to ignore it so I'm not complaining.

 

 

 

All very well said.

 

To answer the section in bold above, I subscribe to the "Tao of Fingh". Specifically, the 7th tenet which states: "Don't start none. Won't be none."

 

If a seller is lying, cheating, or a fraud, he has crossed all lines of respect, decency, and forum decorum and deserves to be met on his chosen field of battle.

 

If a seller simply has a different opinion of the value of his books, I don't see how it's anyone's place to derail and destroy a thread on those scant grounds. Especially when most of the people doing it would NEVER do the same thing at a convention, in a seller's space, and plenty of those people are friends with dealers who aren't afraid to put any price they choose on a book.

 

What a book is worth is an opinion, always has been. And without those opinions, and the people willing to share the same opinion, the market would have never moved. Unless the seller has crossed the lines mentioned above and has respected the board and its members in his posting he is entitled to have his sales thread, unmolested, and free to soar or fall on its own steam.

 

Praise be the Fingh, and his firm but learned iron fist.

[bababooey]

So what's the community standard that everyone is supposed to follow? Everyone seems to be protective of the common good except when it comes to someone getting 'overpaid' (for lack of a better term) when it comes to selling their books. By association, "grade comments" are also frowned upon since we're on a forum where grade is the main only determining factor for price.

 

Why is asking about price/grade so frowned upon here? Is it because the majority of participants here are collector/dealers?

 

Many here praise or quote GPA regularly and those selling will selectively choose the data that best supports their 'ask prices' - I'd think a community minded person would be within their rights to offer the broader GPA picture for the benefit of non-subscribers in a sellers thread but that doesn't happen here. Is that seller offering limited favourable data misleading people enough to get called out in his own thread?

 

Also, you can't ask for GPA on a book publicly but if you post GPA data in your sales thread, it's valuable data to 'help buyers' make an informed buying decision. If a seller can quote GPA, why can't a buyer ask for it in the sales thread - is that an acceptable thread-krap tactic?

 

When it comes to lying, cheating or fraud the community acts for the greater good of all parties - when it comes to market pricing and information within the sales forum the "collective board wisdom" demands discretion on behalf of the sellers. I don't disagree with maintaining a dealer friendly forum by having this kind of etiquette in place but I am usually entertained when someone chooses to ignore it so I'm not complaining.

 

 

 

All very well said.

 

To answer the section in bold above, I subscribe to the "Tao of Fingh". Specifically, the 7th tenet which states: "Don't start none. Won't be none."

 

If a seller is lying, cheating, or a fraud, he has crossed all lines of respect, decency, and forum decorum and deserves to be met on his chosen field of battle.

 

If a seller simply has a different opinion of the value of his books, I don't see how it's anyone's place to derail and destroy a thread on those scant grounds. Especially when most of the people doing it would NEVER do the same thing at a convention, in a seller's space, and plenty of those people are friends with dealers who aren't afraid to put any price they choose on a book.

 

What a book is worth is an opinion, always has been. And without those opinions, and the people willing to share the same opinion, the market would have never moved. Unless the seller has crossed the lines mentioned above and has respected the board and its members in his posting he is entitled to have his sales thread, unmolested, and free to soar or fall on its own steam.

 

Praise be the Fingh, and his firm but learned iron fist.

You drank the Fingh-Aid !!!

 

[joeypost]

 

While I understand he did not, at that time do anything wrong in his thread, I felt the intent was there.

 

2 reasons why.

 

First. He listed a raw book as 9.4 that someone asked for a better picture of one of the corners. From what i could see in the sales thread it was maybe a 7.0. No biggie. Some people cannot grade

 

Second. When he was asked about the grade/price comparison he fell back to people pay a premium for better looking books. While that is true I would not spend $,5000.00 on a really nice 7.0 when I could buy a really nice 9.0. Seems simple to me. Instead of saying his pricing was aggressive he stood by people should pay more for a better presenting book.

 

Maybe him being asked that many questions in his sales thread was poor form. Maybe he did not do anything wrong at the time. I like to look at things from a better safe than sorry standpoint.

 

If someone is walking around looking into storefronts in the middle of the night, he has done no wrong. None whatsoever. If that same person was still looking but wearing a hat, hood and was carrying a crow bar he would be suspicious while still doing nothing wrong. How many police offers would walk by and say "Lets wait till he breaks into a store before we do or say anything to him"? None that I know of. They would ask questions and take action if necessary.

 

 

 

So it wasn't the price then? Why didn't you say that before?

If you think his intent was dishonest, why not say that? Why stick to this "common sense" says the price is too high schtick?

 

If you think he's shady, just say so and tell us why. You've usually got good common sense skills, and you aren't bad at business. It did NOT make sense that you'd call a guy out on price alone.

 

Side bar:

ALL police officers would wait for an actual crime to be committed before taking action, otherwise with no crime being committed they've got nothing but a profile, and they fail at probable cause and their crow bar wielding friend will be out that same night, in another part of town, maybe plotting to break in somewhere where no one is looking or maybe calling his lawyer to file that false arrest claim.

 

 

 

Not the police officers I knew as a kid. Maybe they have to be more PC today, but that has never been my experience.

 

You can ask whatever you want in your sales thread, ask too high and you won't be taken seriously, ask too little and you are the greatest seller on the earth. If you read the original part of the exchange I never called him out on price. I simply asked him if he would be willing to pay multiples of guide for a book that had better visual appeal. I don't remember receiving an answer other than a rehash of his earlier stance.

[comix4fun]

 

While I understand he did not, at that time do anything wrong in his thread, I felt the intent was there.

 

2 reasons why.

 

First. He listed a raw book as 9.4 that someone asked for a better picture of one of the corners. From what i could see in the sales thread it was maybe a 7.0. No biggie. Some people cannot grade

 

Second. When he was asked about the grade/price comparison he fell back to people pay a premium for better looking books. While that is true I would not spend $,5000.00 on a really nice 7.0 when I could buy a really nice 9.0. Seems simple to me. Instead of saying his pricing was aggressive he stood by people should pay more for a better presenting book.

 

Maybe him being asked that many questions in his sales thread was poor form. Maybe he did not do anything wrong at the time. I like to look at things from a better safe than sorry standpoint.

 

If someone is walking around looking into storefronts in the middle of the night, he has done no wrong. None whatsoever. If that same person was still looking but wearing a hat, hood and was carrying a crow bar he would be suspicious while still doing nothing wrong. How many police offers would walk by and say "Lets wait till he breaks into a store before we do or say anything to him"? None that I know of. They would ask questions and take action if necessary.

 

 

 

So it wasn't the price then? Why didn't you say that before?

If you think his intent was dishonest, why not say that? Why stick to this "common sense" says the price is too high schtick?

 

If you think he's shady, just say so and tell us why. You've usually got good common sense skills, and you aren't bad at business. It did NOT make sense that you'd call a guy out on price alone.

 

Side bar:

ALL police officers would wait for an actual crime to be committed before taking action, otherwise with no crime being committed they've got nothing but a profile, and they fail at probable cause and their crow bar wielding friend will be out that same night, in another part of town, maybe plotting to break in somewhere where no one is looking or maybe calling his lawyer to file that false arrest claim.

 

 

 

Not the police officers I knew as a kid. Maybe they have to be more PC today, but that has never been my experience.

 

You can ask whatever you want. If you ready the original part of the exchange I never called him out on price. I simply asked him if he would be willing to pay multiples of guide for a book that had better visual appeal.

 

And I am sure you realize that most of the other folks were not nearly as diplomatic as you were.

[miraclemet]

Especially when most of the people doing it would NEVER do the same thing at a convention, in a seller's space, and plenty of those people are friends with dealers who aren't afraid to put any price they choose on a book.

 

Amen: Treat a thread like a store or a con table. (the internet makes many fearless!)

 

If you are at a table and disagree with the prices or grades, you just keep moving to the next table. I don't know anyone who just stands at that table all day telling people that this guys books are overpriced or over graded. His books, his deal, his problem. If they are over prices/over graded the market will bear it out (and the crickets will be deafening).

 

Similarly you dont walk into a store and start yelling that the merchandise is overpriced and people can find it cheaper at WalMart...

 

thus I conclude, treat a thread like a store or a con-table.

 

On the GPA front. Anyone can get a GPA subscription, so its available data for anyone with $10-2 to use. I list what I think is relevant GPA data on my sales threads (the GPA data that helps me determine my price). If the 90 day average helps me determine the price, I include that, if it skewes the price one way or the other I dont, heck I've provided GPA prices before where I pulled out a HIGH price outlier that drove up the price! I don't provide a spreadsheet for every book I list, and I dont think anyone wants to spend their day looking up possible buyer GPA questions ("what did it sell for in 2006?, "how many sold last year?" what does the grade above sell for?) There are a myriad of ways to use GPA data, so if its important to you, get an account, if its not ignore the GPA info and go on your own pricing guideline.

 

Prices, like condition are subjective. Plus what they are subjective to cant be seen in a scan (what did the seller buy the book for originally? is there a particular $$ amount the buyer needs to make it worth selling the book? how quickly does it need to sell?) All these things can factor into a price setting, and none have to be disclosed.

[Transplant]

The only thing I would add is that people have blasted me for starting a discussion thread about a certain defect or book. Ex., I started a thread about tape and people railed that I was threadcrapping a book currently for sale on the boards. Worse, I think it happened once that someone knew an Ebay book was a boardie's and therefore I should delete any discussion of said book.

 

I think people are more forgiving of a seller's missteps if they have a long history or friendship with the seller.

[Mac Man]

The only thing I would add is that people have blasted me for starting a discussion thread about a certain defect or book. Ex., I started a thread about tape and people railed that I was threadcrapping a book currently for sale on the boards. Worse, I think it happened once that someone knew an Ebay book was a boardie's and therefore I should delete any discussion of said book.

 

I think people are more forgiving of a seller's missteps if they have a long history or friendship with the seller.

 

Mike, FWIW, if you took the discussion outside of the seller's thread, I think you did the right thing here. (thumbs u Take the analogy of booing someone's sales right in front of their booth, their aren't many of us who would demonstrate such poor social skills; however, that doesn't mean we would point it out to others when we walked away.

[Mac Man]

Seems like this got lost in the sauce, so to speak. I'd be interested in knowing what people think of simply applying a template response--like the one I've suggested--to threads where there is community concern to avoid threadkrapping while still dealing with marketplace concerns.

 

I'm not sure if my post count is high enough to comment, but shouldn't a simple, polite PM be sent to the seller expressing any concerns instead of bashing someone in their sales thread?

 

One would think. I might be recollecting incorrectly, but the one time I do think it's appropriate has been the way Mike/ Comicdonna has handled this when seeing a Probation List member selling in the marketplace. He'll post a template response notifying members that the seller has violated community rules about selling / buying in the marketplace, and that's about it.

 

Also, I'm fairly certain the reason we have a General Discussion thread in the marketplace was to be able to talk about the sales taking place without crowding out someone's individual sales thread. Perhaps, we should consider simply posting a polite link to this thread if someone's sales are under question? For example:

 

"There is a community discussion about this sales thread. If you are interested, please follow this link. [iNSERT LINK HERE]"

 

Then, there would be no need for threadkrapping, but members could still feel as though they've done due diligence in notifying other members of sales threads that may be of concern to the unsuspecting buyer.

 

Thoughts?

[Jeffro.]

Praise be the Fingh, and his firm but learned iron fist.

 

Can this go into the OOC thread?