Flea Market

cfrizz

As was I! Thank you for letting us know Fgr41. I now know that I will never consider buying anything from you.

The Flea Market isn't about haggling, you state a firm offer & say whether or not it includes shipping.

This is why I will only do business with members who are in good standing on the list & have a decent # of sales to comfirm it!

brettw22 wrote:

That's what I was thinking as well Tour......not that it's as blantantly intentional as that sounded, but if you want a specific dollar amount, put a "FIRM" mention in your thread. If you want people to bid and thrash about because they're chomping at the bit for your item, haul it to Ebay and pay for that show.

reeltrouble1

Madmax and Tour have given me great deals in the FM. So have Doro, TroyD, RuSsman, Hoosier21, Shack, F1nut, Zero, SteveinAZ, Mantis and PolkManiac. George G, Emyln, and CRivera also post up great gear and deals, I have just missed some of them by a whisker, I am sure I missed mentioning someone who did me up right. Now I have a family member getting into the hobby and a couple of the oldtimers have already helped him along. See the one common thing, all of them are Senior/Hardcore members. Not a one ever cared about making a buck off me, they new gear was needed and offered up some great deals. Some of the pieces I still have, others I have passed on to newer members. I have returned the favors I received to other members here including some noobs, heck I was one, most all of us were. I have received things from newer members, I remember Willow doing me a favor off the top of my head.

I can live with the new FM post rules, we should use tact in posts, I care much more about CP, the FM was to me a shining example of all that was good about CP as polkies helped polkies. If your in it to make a bunch of dough (a little is cool) then you will be found out in short order. The deals I got, I am sure some of the guys took a loss, but they did not ever think of it in thoses terms. I dont think anyone should leave, I would never suggest it. There is room for all, even those I disagree with from time to time, but that does not mean a personal agenda/smear campaign needs to started, especially against the guys who built this place.

OK, I am done with this. I see some of the guys posting up fully disclosed deals with pics and good prices, now that is CP.

RT1--out

cfrizz

Outstanding post Ted! This is what CP is all about.

George Grand

Okay, it is not uncommon for me (and others here) to post stuff like "Free to a good home, local pick-up only." Usually this will be a nice piece that I did not pay a red cent for, and only needs a minimal amount of restoration/TLC. Let me tell you, the roaches really come out of the woodwork at times like that. People with ZERO posts start PMing you and stuff. Want to give away, or sell for bottom dollar, something really nice to a roach? I sure don't.

cfrizz

Nor should you George! The seller has every right to pick & choose who they want to sell to. The same way everyone has the right to choose who they want to buy from.

You want to sell to the real contributers of this board, and I will only trust & buy from the real contributers of this board who have the club as a whole in mind.

The only way to do that is to become a contributer themselves. In the end I think it works out just fine.

Tour2ma

Yup, thus my "tiered" approach to determining the Buyer...

The true bene's of investing oneself in CP are the friendships made. This includes not only those that have been reinforced through face-to-face encounters, e.g., F1, Russman, hoosier, doro, TroyD, brett, Big Ted, BMDP, etc., etc., but also those not yet consumated. The gear, the deals... they are just frosting on the cake.

Hell, even the members I "fight" with from time to time, e.g., Demi, Mac, among others, I respect for their contributions, even if I do not appreciate each and every one of them...

Any invested member is welcome in my home. Any that need help in my area know they have it available.

Thanks for the prop's, Ted.

Frank Z

Gotta admit that i like the Old Way of doing things around here. Seems that the word is out and people that have never contributed anything meaningfull are dumping their "Stuff" in the FM. Give me the good 'ol days when more than fair deals could be had because it was about helping someone out and not about lining ones pockets. Although I haven't purchased a great deal from the flea market...I'd say my buying days are over.

cfrizz

Actually Frank, all that is happening is that a lot of newbies are TRYING to dump their stuff in the FM. However, with the exception of a pair of SRT's that has had a lot of sqauwking in it, the rest have been completely ignored & are making their way out of sight!

Meanwhile established members have been posting good stuff & have been getting inquiries & such!

So the good deals are still there & the things that should be ignored are being ingnored! Life is good!:D

Frank Z wrote:

Gotta admit that i like the Old Way of doing things around here. Seems that the word is out and people that have never contributed anything meaningfull are dumping their "Stuff" in the FM. Give me the good 'ol days when more than fair deals could be had because it was about helping someone out and not about lining ones pockets. Although I haven't purchased a great deal from the flea market...I'd say my buying days are over.

HBombToo

Tour2ma wrote:

Any invested member is welcome in my home.

I'll be moving in next week;)

HBomb

reeltrouble1

I am packing the camel, please dont cut the grass, do you have a rather large shovel?

RT1

jdhdiggs

HBomb

Only 12 more posts until he gives you free beer there as well!

Tour2ma

I'm installing a lock on the liquor cabinet... as if that would do any good.

Tour2ma

Actually, I could use the help. Either of you know anything about working with HardiBoard?

I said you were welcome... Nothing about staying being free.

reeltrouble1

Just leave the light on..........

Mike682

Frank Z wrote:

Gotta admit that i like the Old Way of doing things around here. Seems that the word is out and people that have never contributed anything meaningfull are dumping their "Stuff" in the FM.

Exactly.

Has been more prevalent after the forum update months ago. I wonder if they are finding the flea market through that yahoo spider search engine you see when viewing who is online.

mrbigbluelight

Back in the "old days" of BBSing, good bulletin boards would have active forums for discussions, along with sections for downloads.

I loved posting on just about every forum because, well .... I have an opinion on everything, and felt it was my duty to humanity to share said opinions for the enlightenment of all (if you're from eastern Missouri and an old-timer, you
are familiar with the monicker "Ironman").

Unlike the Internet, of course, you had just one access to the Bulletin Board because there was just one phone number. Posters usually didn't spend too much time reading/posting, so they didn't tie up the phone line. Folks who dialed in to just download files, however, were notorious for tieing up the phone line for hours and could almost kill a board. The "download hogs" caused Board Operators to establish some rules to keep this from happening.

One of the rules was to set a "download/upload ratio".
You could only download if you uploaded. Board ops were fair, and didn't insist on a strict "One down for one up" ratio. Typical ratio would be 5 to 1.
If "download hogs" were infesting the board, though, the ratio would climb higher to 10 to 1 or 20 to 1. Whatever it took to keep access to the discussion boards reasonably open.

Now, we don't have downloads here but what's wrong with limiting "For Sale" posts based upon the number of discussions posts made.

A "Newbie" of less than, say, 200 posts would be limited to 2 items "For Sale" for every 100 posts.
For more than 200 posts and less than 400 posts, the "Newbie" could increase his "For Sale" posts to 3 per 100 posts.
And so on.
After a certain level of posts, the no-longer-a-"Newbie would have full posting rights to the "For Sale" section. This assumes that after 500 posts that the poster is no longer "in it for the money".

Now, from my BBSing days, I know that "Newbies" will try to skirt the system with such insightful posts as "Hi ! How are you ?" and "I agree" and "I don't think so".
So the "Old Timers" (posts greater than 1000) will warn the user in private mail. Continued "I disagree" posts will earn the "Newbie" negative consequences, ie, the ability to post "For Sale" is now raised to 1 for every 200 posts or some such.

I know folks pay extra for full access to the forums. I think I did. I can't remember (if I was more organized, I'd be dangerous). But a slight modification to the EULA or whatever-you-want-to-call it that incorporates agreement with a "If I'm a butthead, I can't sell my snow shovel" acknowledgement aborts a lot of whining.

Well, there's some food for thought. It might be junk food, but .... well it's a thought.

mrbigbluelight

Within 5 minutes of the "You've Won" notice from Ebay on my CS2, I had sent the buyer payment via Paypal.

After several weeks of delays, and inquiries on my part, I received a typical email from the seller:

"Shipment will be made just as soon as I aquire funds in my account. I know how you must feel and I have paid for many items that are not shipped out promtly, but with patience I do receive them, and in turn you will also. I'm fairly new at selling on ebay so when I was asked to add funds, I knew which wrong step I had taken. Your item is boxed, wrapped and only awaiting the shipping label. Please be patient, and I assure you once I get funds in my account it will be shipped out the same day. I'm confiedent you will be very pleased with the item. Thanks!
Gabriel"


Oh, as long as your new to selling on Ebay, why heck ! Just go ahead and take my money ! I didn't know !

Long story short, I put up with this "stuff" because I wanted my CS2. Finally got it. Wasn't wrapped worth a dog's ****, but the most important thing, the CS2, was happy to be "home".

polksda

Interesting thought on the posting ratio, but it might be hard to implement.

How I handle this on the message board I run is that in order to post in the Buy/Sell/Trade section, your post count has to be higher than 25 posts, meaning you at least have to make an attempt to participate in other areas of the forum first.

I don't know if it can be automated in vBulletin, but in Invision Power Board, I have it set up so that the user's group is initially set to "Members", and that group is defined to automatically "Promote" the user to group "More than 25 posts" upon making the 26th post, and the latter group is the one that has posting permission in the Buy/Sell/Trade area.

The automation is what makes it feasible; nothing for the moderators to have to do manually.

heiney9

polksda wrote:

Interesting thought on the posting ratio, but it might be hard to implement.

How I handle this on the message board I run is that in order to post in the Buy/Sell/Trade section, your post count has to be higher than 25 posts, meaning you at least have to make an attempt to participate in other areas of the forum first.

I don't know if it can be automated in vBulletin, but in Invision Power Board, I have it set up so that the user's group is initially set to "Members", and that group is defined to automatically "Promote" the user to group "More than 25 posts" upon making the 26th post, and the latter group is the one that has posting permission in the Buy/Sell/Trade area.

The automation is what makes it feasible; nothing for the moderators to have to do manually.

See post #26

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38824

H9

RuSsMaN

I say just roll with the punches, adapt, embrace, and move on.

This isn't the little corner pub it used to be, and never will be again. It's just too big now. Sure, it's lost a little of that close knit feel, but it means Polk is selling speakers, so rock on.

polksda

heiney9 wrote:

See post #26

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38824

H9

Hehehe, too may things happening at the same time...

Good move!

Frank Z

Never mind...new rule....

Tour2ma

Good suggestion, polksda, happily acted upon...

Shizelbs

Perhaps its time to resurrect that anything goes forum from a while back just to sell off gear.