i think that would be fine, as i personally sell a decent bit in the classifieds, and also use it as my first source for buying items.

but at what point does the classifieds then become eBay? i think it's bad enough when people jump all over others for being mispriced based on eBay, but now is it too much to have similar seller ratings too? don't get me wrong, i point these things out to people too, but just to point out mkt pricing, not to demand they meet the price.

it drives me nuts when a transaction starts out as 'make me an offer'. it's a classifieds forum, not eBay. do we want it to be eBay?

trying to play devil's advocate here is all.

I'm in the same boat as you, as i buy and sell on here a lot , and use here first over ebay.

At this point the classifieds are far from ebay as slowman (currently) does not charge for the forum, although he could if he wanted to.

I see no other way to be able to leave feedback or get feedback on a person. If the person has been around for a while and posts often, then its probably not a big deal getting something from them.

I think using ebay as a reference for fair market value is fine.

I understand the "make me an offer/feeler" posts as sometimes you just don't know what the item is worth, although a quick search of ebay and "item name craigslist" in google will bring up all craigslist posts for it to get an idea. At the same time it might not be something that is currently being sold else where.

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ishi no ue ni san nen | Perseverance will win in the end. | Blog | @nebmot | Strava | Instagram |

price discovery is one thing. trying to put the onus on the buyer and start a bidding war is another. to my opinion, that is not how classifieds work. that's eBay.

i think people are pretty good about outting a scammer, and that person is generally fairly ostracized, as they well should be.

but this all started over a person who kinda got screwed on a purchase, but it was more of a discourtesy than an outright screwing.

granted, the guy should have honored the paid-for best offer, and the least he could have done is offer the original buyer the chance to match the price, but at least he returned the money. i wouldn't personally have been a d*ck over $20, but that's me. again, the money was in fact returned.

as i said initially, i think a feedback system could be good, but i think there are dangers there too, including false positive/negatives, and a false sense of security for buyers that don't do their homework. this is a classified board on an open forum, and it can not/should not have an recourse for a person being taken advantage of.

we are on the same page here, i'm just looking to talk it out.

I think it's a great idea. This is my first and primary source for buying and selling stuff, for both large and small items. For example, I have bought and sold race wheels here. Given the size of those transactions it would be helpful for my potential buyers to know how I am to deal with, and for me when I buy stuff to see if the seller is trustworthy. Since there is no buyer protection here (like ebay), pretty much all the transactions here are on the honor system. I've never had anything but smooth transactions here, but that's not to say someone may take advantage of that in the future.

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Fraser Bicycle | First Endurance

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I believe you get a better sense of the person through an inquiry of his relationship with slowtwitch- whether he is an active participant or has sold things before or into the duration of his membership- than with a voluntary, unvetted feedback system which will inevitably amplify the voices of rightfully and wrongfully disgruntled buyers to the detriment of both responsible and irresponsible sellers.

I think this is a great idea. However, I did get ripped off by a one time highly respected ST poster.

I think the best way to get feedback is to search a specific users Classified Forum Posts.

The only problem with searching for other classified listing is, very few people come back and post that they received the item and were happy with the transaction. I guess no feed back could be taken as positive feedback.

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ishi no ue ni san nen | Perseverance will win in the end. | Blog | @nebmot | Strava | Instagram |

Exactly check persons post's before buying from them. Man was I scared when I got my sub9 from here and traded my 1080 clincher blindly for a 1080 tubie. But it worked out well. I have gotten great deals on ebay because some jerk gave bad feedback to someone and other people balked at a good deal. I also got a bad feedback once when a guy got into a bidding war, then said item (Charles Eames chair like the one on Frasier.) was not as described when I had descibed every detail and had as many pics as ebay would allow at the time . Think it was six pictures and in the description it said chair needs work.

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Official Polar Ambassador
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The ST classifieds ain't that broke and any changes might make it worse.

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[ The sign of intelligence is you are constantly wondering. Idiots are always dead sure about every damn thing they are doing in their life. - Vasudev ]

HELL YES! I want this implemented. I don't want to have to sift through a bunch of crap trying to figure out if I might be dealing with a questionable guy. That's one reason I go with ebay instead. I have ratings to look at, buyer protection, and better legal recourses at my disposal.

-Paul

Is there any way to go back and see the edits someone makes? If someone lists something for $100, and then changes the price in the listing, is there any way to tell?

Other than the this post was edited on date and time at the bottom of the post, no. I haven't seen anything that shows the history of posts like that on here.

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ishi no ue ni san nen | Perseverance will win in the end. | Blog | @nebmot | Strava | Instagram |

Not happening. After a long time poster scammed a bunch of users and didn't get banned, it became more important do your homework.

I vote yes

Just copy the Softball Fans system -- marketplace board with a feedback subforum, where members leave GTG, NGTG, or Buyer Beware threads. Feedback is easily searchable, outstanding bad deals are easily found, and members to be avoided can be discovered with minimal effort.

THis system was also employed in the Spike Forum over at Dyestat (RIP). It worked admirably well for a website that was primarily males between the ages of 14 and 21. They had one specific thread for this and called it the Master Good/Bad Seller Thread (very creative). Users would post a small comment in the thread for each transaction, both buyer and seller, and the list was updated on the frirst page with a score for all buyers and sellers. +1 for every good transaction, -1 for every bad. Repeat offenders (even those with overall positive scores) were highlighted. It worked well, both as a guide and a deterrent for people who might otherwise have been jerks.