Why the classified price increase?

My preference would be for a relatively low yearly membership fee and going back to the $2.00 ad rate that was here when I joined.

This place used to have a very different feel to it in 2007 (12,000 members) and photography on the cheap was prevalent with FSU gear etc being used in abundance. Now we discuss X100s, Leica M9s and full frame DSLRs like they fall from the sky every other day!
 
But the difference between rff and ebay is that if your listing on ebay doesn't sell, it costs $0, and $0 to re list, whereas on RFF, if the item doesn't sell within about a week, you basically have to make a new ad, since you can't bump and your listing goes off the page so nobody can see it. For $7 per ad I would at least like to be able to bump every few days.
 
So for $7 you get an ad and you can list a whole lot of stuff - cameras selling for over a grand, a bunch of them, plus who knows what else. And you can post images in the comments section - beyond those allowed the "normal" way - if you know how. You can put a LOT of stuff in one $7 ad. And folks are complaining?
 
I have found the classified fees on this forum well worth the return—in part due to the excellent seller's controls over how the ad can be presented and edited over its run.

I am glad there is no bumping. I think the way the ads are categorized keeps the individual ad sufficiently prominent, especially for curious shoppers. The first photo in the ad that is displayed to the left of the column of ads is also helpful.
 
eBay is expensive. I sell a lot of stuff on eBay, and I pay them nearly a thousand dollars a month for the privilege. But, I do reach a very wide market, yesterday I shipped boxes to buyers in Austria, Estonia, India, and Singapore.

Listing fees are no big deal, but I pay about 7% in final value fees, and the fee also applies to shipping costs for domestic sales. Re-listing an item is not free, I have to pay an additional 20 cents each time I re-list an item.

Another benefit of eBay is buyer and seller protection. It is not as easy to get ripped off as it once was.

I have yet to sell anything at the RFF classifieds, though I have bought, sold, and traded gear with members here. $7 is not a bad deal,
 
Pablito said:
So for $7 you get an ad and you can list a whole lot of stuff - cameras selling for over a grand, a bunch of them, plus who knows what else. And you can post images in the comments section - beyond those allowed the "normal" way - if you know how. You can put a LOT of stuff in one $7 ad. And folks are complaining?
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You will always find a sale value that will justify even a very high entry fee.
I would be ready to pay 100$ if I would sell an M9 Ti kit, right?
the problem is: the higher the fee, the more people with low total sales won't buy an add.
Plus, if the fee is minimal, I would prefer to split items and to put each of them in the right category instead of putting a long list in the same add.

High fees may be fine if all you want is big ticket items or impressive lists of all kind of things in the classified.

I personally think it's too bad..
 
I dont like subscriptions like $25-30/year for unlimited auctions ala Fredmiranda. $7 is not a material amount when you're trading Crons, Luxes, M9, M8, M6 and all the black paint stuff. That's just me.

Try 2-tier: those who want to pony up $25/30 upfront; and the rest of us who prefer to pay as you go.
 
7 bucks is a great deal, to run an ad. Plus look what we all get out of this website. RFF is a great site, and you can sell to others who like what you like.
 
UK eBay listing fees are a full 10 per cent, to a maximum of $60.

eBay, lest we forget, also forces you to use certain postal services, charges extra for PayPal and doesn't let you have the option of charging a percentage of the cost, takes a percentage of postage IIRC, and puts its prices up every year or two, and leaves you little option about to whom you sell. Yes, it can achieve higher prices sometimes.

This RFF price increase is the first I can remember since Jorge started the site. I dread to think how much I've sold on here, perhaps $4,000, in the last few years, for an outlay of $50 or so. $70 wouldn't break me.
 
RFF I think is one of the better value ways to sell gear, and on top of that, you've probably got a more trusted group of buyers/sellers. $7 is fine for an item of any value, and aren't things under $100 free to sell?

My only problem with RFF is that I'm in the UK, and most readers would seem to be in the USA, making the potential market very small for my wares. I sell things much easier on eBay, and actually, probably for more money.

If you want a simple sale to someone you can likely trust, RFF. If you want a practically guaranteed sale, and make maybe a little more money, eBay.
 
I've sold quite a few items here and consider it great value. I've also had people enquire and buy unsold items a number of weeks after placing the ad so in my experience people are delving further into the ads than the first page as the OP implies. If something doesn't sell, which fortunately hasn't been my experience, then it's either over the price people are willing to pay or an item that very few people are looking for.

I'm also in the UK and although I can see the point that the majority of the ads are US based and therefore prohibitive for me to buy due to import taxes, etc, it's not a problem if I'm looking to sell. My first choice is to sell to a European buyer but I've also sold a number of items further afield. If people are happy to pay the shipping costs and insurance then I'm happy to sell to them.
I may well list my M9 shortly which will be expensive to insure for shipping overseas but if a buyer is happy to pay I'll ship!
 
There is a thread around here that's almost identical when the fees were upped to $5. :)

It's nice having alternatives, and $7 isn't much at all. When you sell your 35/2 cron for $1400, just sell it for $1410 now.
 
CameraQuest said:
The $2 fee increase is necessary to pay for the new servers, which came in higher than first anticipated. I think its a small price to pay for having a much faster and more reliable site.

Another possibility is having membership fees like most other large photo forums. For the people who want to load large pics and have large galleries, that might be the way to go.

Stephen
Click to expand...

Yes, people easily forgot that bandwidth and reliable servers are not free.
$2 fee increase per ad is very justifiable.

I'm surprised that quite a few members has a lopsided view on what they get vs what they have to pay.

I do not like APUG or Fred Miranda because of their subscription only policies.
 
Transactions here are higher quality, with more reliable and honest people, so I will pay a premium to trade here.

Large Format Forum is very good as well.

I got my screwing on the GetDPi forum of all things, and that's mostly $$$ digital.

Fred Miranda's Buy and Sell blows, I got a seriously crooked international buyer from there.

As for eBay, 1200 transactions, at least a dozen crooks.

So I prefer here.
 
It's surprising to hear anyone complain about a $7 per listing fee. Considering that only interested parties visit these classifieds It seems like a deal. $7 flat rate is easy. If you have a sales worthy item simply build the extra $2 (or all $7 for that matter) into your sale price. If your item is not sellable here than the point of how much it costs to list here is moot anyway.
 
I'm going to be listing ~$3k worth of stuff tonight or tomorrow. Given Ebay's policies now, I think I'd be on the hook for $200 worth of fees (each of four items should hit Ebay's $50 max final value fee).

$7 is a steal, and I'm pretty sure all four things will sell here. I'd pay for unlimited classifieds, but I have no beef with the current method.
 
shadowfox said:
Yes, people easily forgot that bandwidth and reliable servers are not free.
$2 fee increase per ad is very justifiable.

I'm surprised that quite a few members has a lopsided view on what they get vs what they have to pay.
I do not like APUG or Fred Miranda because of their subscription only policies.
Click to expand...

some people have a larger sense of entitlement...
 
I can live with $7, but I just bought an extra two weeks, and the ad is not bumped to the top of the list.

I think that would be the least one can expect, otherwise, in the future, I'll just make a "new" ad by copying and pasting from the old one.

Stefan.
 
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