[rpriedhorsky]

Hi,

I received the following PM a few days ago:

Hi, The message is old but it's been deleted from the sale thread on the 10-17mm. Forum rules are no price comments in the FS marketplace.

Having been around for only a couple of months here, I'm interested in the reasoning behind this rule.

Much appreciated,

Reid

[stevebrot]

Hi,

I received the following PM a few days ago:



Having been around for only a couple of months here, I'm interested in the reasoning behind this rule.

Much appreciated,

Reid

The general etiquette for the Marketplace is that we avoid disparaging the item, the price, or the seller. If you feel that the seller might be better served with a different price, you can PM him/her with your concern. I have done that in the past when an item was priced within a few dollars of current street pricing for the item new. In that case the seller was unaware and was thankful for the heads-up.

On the other hand, I can see that our Marketplace might be used to artificially inflate the "Web" value of an item prior to posting the same item at auction. There is also the risk of a noob paying an inflated price out of ignorance.

Steve

[Adam]

That's it, in a nutshell. Please note that if you feel a thread is a potential scam attempt, you may ignore the rule and post anyway so that you alert others.

[wlank]

Having been around for only a couple of months here, I'm interested in the reasoning behind this rule.

Part of the reasoning is that allowing "reasonable" comments would be impossible to manage. Who decides what is reasonable? Well it's me, the other moderators, and ultimately Adam and Ole. There is plenty of other stuff to do without getting into decisions like this. This is part time volunteer work for all of us.

The general etiquette for the Marketplace is that we avoid disparaging the item, the price, or the seller. If you feel that the seller might be better served with a different price, you can PM him/her with your concern. I have done that in the past when an item was priced within a few dollars of current street pricing for the item new. In that case the seller was unaware and was thankful for the heads-up.

On the other hand, I can see that our Marketplace might be used to artificially inflate the "Web" value of an item prior to posting the same item at auction. There is also the risk of a noob paying an inflated price out of ignorance.

Steve

Well said Steve. Saved me a good bit of typing.

[rpriedhorsky]

The general etiquette for the Marketplace is that we avoid disparaging the item, the price, or the seller. If you feel that the seller might be better served with a different price, you can PM him/her with your concern. I have done that in the past when an item was priced within a few dollars of current street pricing for the item new. In that case the seller was unaware and was thankful for the heads-up.

On the other hand, I can see that our Marketplace might be used to artificially inflate the "Web" value of an item prior to posting the same item at auction. There is also the risk of a noob paying an inflated price out of ignorance.

OK, that makes sense. Given that, I wonder if the wording of the rule ("Do not publicly comment on others' asking prices") is incongruent with its intent (the seller gets to set the asking price, and no one should hassle him/her about it)?

I see public comments on asking prices all the time; they seem to take two forms:

(a) "great price for a great lens"

(b) a note that the item is available new for less or not much more than the asking price.

Both of these run afoul of the rule's wording, but IMO neither run afoul of its intent. In the particular case of (b), I can see that that might be closer to being afoul of the intent, but when I've seen it, it seemed welcome, and in the interest of transparency, I'd argue that such notes should be allowed to be public.

Reid

[rpriedhorsky]

Bump; any thoughts on this?

Thanks,

Reid

[Adam]

I think a little common sense is needed to interpret the rule at this time. I may re-word it so that it is more explicit later on.

Obviously, the rule is aimed at negative comments that may hurt sales, rather than at positive comments such as (a). We've been letting those slide due to their harmless nature. However, comments such as (b) would not be allowed as per the rule.

Adam
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[rpriedhorsky]

Well, I was suggesting that the rule itself be changed: that the value of transparency in letting people make comments of type (b) in public outweighs the value of requiring that they be kept private.

It isn't 100% clear to me what makes keeping type (b) comments private valuable. Perhaps if this reasoning were explained more I might feel differently.

[Adam]

The reasoning is simple, and I will phrase it in simple terms.

We don't want people to screw up others' sales on the basis of pricing. The Marketplace is intended to be a flexible place for photographers to sell their old gear, and not one forces them to sell at pre-determined average market value.

For example, let's say I want to sell my 1-year-old 77mm Limited lens, originally priced at $600, for $550. While you may obviously be able to find a better deal, if I feel that the lens is worth $550, I'll list it for that amount, and see if anyone is interested. Factors such as condition, for instance, could then potentially sway a buyer to buy my lens over someone else's listed at a lower price.

Now, let's say that Person A enters my thread and replies with "But after mailing in a rebate, a new copy of that lens would be cheaper." This comment would likely ruin my sale. Worst of all, it's all thanks to his ignorance, because in his argument, he fails to realize that not everyone access to mail-in rebates!

This is yet another one of those matters that vary by case, and no seller wants to put up with BS such as what's above. Furthermore, I don't want to make any exceptions, since that would just lead to flaming. Consistency is key, and in this case, we don't want commenting to negatively interfere with honest sales on the marketplace.

[Adam]

Here are your updated rules. Basically, they're saying the same thing, while closing the loopholes that you extrapolated above.

Replies made in Marketplace threads may not negatively influence sales except when the trustworthiness of the seller is in question
False advertising or false promotion via replies is not permitted
Public commenting on or comparison of asking prices is not allowed

[Marc Langille]

To add to Adam's comments:

If you are willing to sell overseas, having a "near new" price is not unreasonable if the item is in excellent shape. If anything, many folks outside the US would really like to buy US based seller's items. One example is that the Euro is working in our EU friend's advantage, so they can actually pay less with the exchange rate and shipping!

Similar situation to Australia...

Regards,
Marc

[Nowhere Matt]

Can we at least banish the word "minty" from use in the Marketplace?

Can we at least banish the word "minty" from use in the Marketplace?

It does keep your breath fresh.

[Adam]

I've been stressing the use of "Like New" over Mint, but it seems people people still misjudge item quality. A quality key is found in the marketplace info sticky.