Why are sellers removing sale price?

[ampguy]

Sometimes when a deal is completed, or details are taken off of the ad, the details of the transaction may have been finalized in emails or PMs.

Perhaps a trade was involved, Perhaps services or bartering of goods or services were involved.

I remember seeing a old VW bus once with a bumper sticker on the back. It said "Gas, Grass, or *ss, Nobody rides for free"

I wish I had some Kodachrome to photograph that!

 

[Ezzie]

Up to the buyer, he/she owns the ad. I would of course like to se what things go for when comparing to similar items no on sale, but that is secondary.

 

[jonmanjiro]

and thanks to the OP for kindly linking to my ad to use me as an example.

LOL, I guess there's no such thing as bad advertising Ryan. No doubt your ad view count went through the roof thanks to this 🙂

 

[enochRoot]

you know, you're probably right jon 😉

LOL, I guess there's no such thing as bad advertising Ryan. No doubt your ad view count went through the roof thanks to this 🙂

 

[salcicce]

cripes... as a guy who recently bought an item from an ad that did not post the selling price... THANKS to the seller. Rest of you, mind your own f'n business. My $, my choice.

 

[salcicce]

PS. As a new user to the Rangefinder forums, y'all have successfully scared me off of posting classifieds here. Mission accomplished!

 

[Disaster_Area]

PS. As a new user to the Rangefinder forums, y'all have successfully scared me off of posting classifieds here. Mission accomplished!

Don't be scared 🙂 We may bark but never bite.

And as for keeping the terms private... I have no problem with my asking price being public... that's kind of the only way to get things done... but if I decide to be nice and knock a chunk off my asking price for a specific buyer I generally like that to stay between me and the buyer... I don't want it made public just so people won't assume I ALWAYS go lower than my asking price 🙂

And as for rooking newcomers... well.. the only time I would concider it "rooking" is if someone miss-represents the quality, condition or functionality of an item or pulls some kind of scam. Even the HIGHEST prices here are generally much lower than any vintage camera shop or eBay... 99% of the prices I see posted here are at most average, but usually way below what you'd pay anywhere else... and they usually come from actual photographers that can accurately describe the condition of the item. In all my time buying/selling here I've never been scammed by anyone... the few horror stories you hear definitely are a vast minority.

 

[JayC]

I like the "$SOLD" replacement price when a seller has a list of items for sale. I can quickly scan the items in the list to see what is sold and what is still available. It is much easier than reading through all the follow-up comments below the actual ad.

 

[Disaster_Area]

Yeah, I agree... so far. Which is why I didn't want to apply it specifically to anyone around here... so far. But RFF is quickly becoming a bigger place, and there seems to be a lot more shadiness in the classifieds lately so I wouldn't count on the "trust of a small community" model to keep working here. Just my .02.

I don't know about shadiness... but there's definitely been a lot of new sellers lately. I think this makes it more necessary than ever for people to use the feedback option when buying AND selling. I don't like going by number of posts to determine if a buyer is "trustworthy"... there's people that read this forum daily for years and never speak up but because the feedback system is a bit difficult to use this is the only way sometimes. For instance I've bought and sold at least 20-30 items on this forum over the past 3 years... but I think I only have about 2-3 feedback.... I'm starting to send the link to people I deal with to make it easier for them and make a point of posting feedback on their page as well.

***HINT*** for all those people that want to leave feedback but can't find the page to do it... here's what you do:

- go to the profile page of the person you want to leave feedback for... you'll see in the URL the last thing is a 6-7 digit number... that's their user ID number... copy that

- now go to ANY selling post and click on the posters name to bring up their "classifieds" profile... their user ID is the last thing in the URL here too... now just put the user ID from the persons profile you copied in step one instead of that user ID

- Bingo-presto!! you're on the "classifieds" profile page of the person you want to leave feedback for.


Maybe there's an easier way to get there.... but I haven't found it yet 🙂

 

[Paul T.]

I think this is the ONLY part of the buy/sell forum here (and other places) I don't like... if I want to post something for more than the "average" price that's my business... no one is forcing anyone to pay that price... if someone's in desperate need of the item and is willing to pay my price because there isn't one posted at the average price right then... that's their business. If they don't want to pay the price I'm asking and can wait for a cheaper one to come around... no skin off my back... that's their choice.

Like I said... there's only two values to an item... what I'm willing to part with it for... and what someone's willing to buy it for. Sometimes I price low because I need the cash or just want to get rid of the item... sometimes I price high because I'm on the fence about selling it and I'm willing to wait for someone willing to pay my asking price.

Really I think there's only four valid types of responses on classifieds, questions about the item or:

"I've dealt with this seller and he's a great guy to deal with"
"I've dealt with this guy and he ripped me off" (only if it's true)
"I'll take it"

Price is between the buyer and the seller and should stay that way.

It's a free world. I support your view, as a rule. Equally, I've seen posts on here where sellers ask more than the new price, or a new seller posts an item without guaranteeing it works and phrases like "sold as seen." I have only done this once in the last year, but I have no compunction whatseover about posting a note that says, in subtle terms, Buyer Beware. It's a free world, after all.

And yes, I don't like people removing prices, but that's their privilege.

 

[benlees]

Are you people serious with this whole privacy "this is between the buyer and the seller" only stuff? This is a public forum! The asking price has already been made public! We all know it sold for the asking price or a little less. Trades have their own characteristics (which, of course, depend on knowledgeable participants).
Having ''sold'' next to the item is great for scanning the ad to get on to the next thing you might be interested in, but a privacy thing?? Most of you don't even post with your real names!

Ebay is only good for ballpark amounts.

 

[dcsang]

Meh... I leave my prices but then again, I don't care - the price I leave is, as someone had said earlier, the ASKING price - doesn't mean it's the SOLD price 😀

I guess part of this whole thing is morbid curiosity - just wanting to find out if someone got a better deal than you COULD have had had you been awake/at home/online/etc. 😀 (and the corollary is wanting to find out if someone got a LOUSY deal based on the price).

In the end, it doesn't matter much but that's because here, we pay $5 to place each single ad and many people double/triple/etc. up the stuff they're selling to get their money's worth out of said ad. On other forums I frequent to sell (Toronto Photographic MeetUp Group mainly) there is a standing rule - prices are LEFT on the ad - but then again, they allow you to post for free. 😀

If you want to "complain" about stuff, take a look at what I now look to as the great leveller - Craigslist - deleted stuff (i.e. stuff that's usually been sold) goes away VERY quickly and you NEVER know how much something may have sold for because you'll NEVER know it was up for sale in the first place because the ad was deleted. 😀 That said, you're sure to see the same ads crop up again and again because, usually, the item is priced way too high 🙂

Go figure 🙂

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Landshark]

I've sold a couple of items here and once was TOLD to leave the price up by another member. Needless to say, I didn't! It may be a public forum, but it's a PRIVATE transaction. If the seller wants to post what a terrific/bad deal he got, that's his business & he must be related to my wife.
When you post on CL or in a newspaper people don't see the price it actually sold for, you simply delete the ad.
That said, it's no bodies business except the folks involved in the transaction what the final agreement was.

 

[dcsang]

Regarding "public forum" - well, ya but it's privately owned and run - so if Stephen Gandy decides that, in order to post in the classifieds you have to pay $10 AND leave your price AND pay homage to him, then he can do so and you either obey or don't post 😀 (or get your post deleted if you don't follow the rules) 😀

The true concept of public forums were long gone by 1996/7 with web v1.0 🙂

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Disaster_Area]

I do know RFF has gotten a lot more bitchy'er lately, and the sense of entitlement has changed.

Is it winter, the weather, the economy, or the new influx of folks?

HAHAHAHAHA.... I think you're right... this winter weather is making us all grumpy because we can't go out and shoot...and we're stuck inside grumbling at each other 🙂

I have noticed a bit more.... gruff... attitude lately and I'm all for blaming it on some kind of seasonal affective disorder... cabin fever whatever you want to call it.

 

[benlees]

Public, as in access, not ownership. I don't own the library or the parks but I can go there, meet people, get some new ideas, and generally see what is going on. I understand that when I go to these places there may be some rules that I have to abide but I also know that these public places are more open to more things than I might find at the parking lot at the local Best Buy.

Assumptions, of course!

 

[WalterM]

I used to think RFFers were a relatively relaxed bunch, but this issue just shows that the majority are paranoid and needlessly volatile.

'stay out of the sellers business' = we might as well be ebay, and do away with that whole silly "trust" thing.

 

[ampguy]

Here's a tip for you grumpy folks out there, maybe with mild cases of SAD, etc. from the weather -

Go to your local Costco or Home Depot, and replace all your bulbs with Daylight (~5000K) bulbs, save the cool light ones for summer.

Big difference. Your auto-WB may work better too 😀

 

[ferider]

I don't know about shadiness and ulterior motives on RFF classifieds, but I do know RFF has gotten a lot more bitchy'er lately, and the sense of entitlement has changed.

Is it winter, the weather, the economy, or the new influx of folks?

Noticed that too, and don't think it has to do with influx.

Look at the bright-side: the subject matter being discussed is becoming broader: more discussion of Leica gear, film vs. digital, gay marriage, American health-care ....

 

[back alley]

I used to think RFFers were a relatively relaxed bunch, but this issue just shows that the majority are paranoid and needlessly volatile.

'stay out of the sellers business' = we might as well be ebay, and do away with that whole silly "trust" thing.

i don't think its a majority at all.