A few years ago fm had a great buy and sell market. Lots of top end and used gear at good prices without the fees. Lately it's just jackels looking to low ball you.
Will you take 1/2 of your reduced asking price? I've gotten multiple PMs about this type of thing. I don't think my prices are that far out.
Anyone else notice this? I got a pm about it just the other day about how ruthless the buyers seem to be here now.
/rant

How "veteran" are the people who are lowballing? Do you think we should implement some type of rule to restrict newly registered members?

Not. Participate in Forums besides the B&S here, have lots of impeccable feedback, and they
will beat a path to your door to buy your gear. Sure, there are lots of noobs/eBay xplants...
but the majority of the B&S community still makes it the best B&S around. Price realistically and
include shipping/ins/PP fees, and you'll attract more of the 'cream' than the bottom feeders to your
thread. I hardly ever get lowballed, and if I do...simply ignore them. Deal with established members.

I kind of agree with the OP. The way it is now B&S should be more appropriately named B&RS (Buy and ReSell) because that seems to be more the game now than it was before. Obviously if your intention is to make a juicy profit on a quick turnover you can't do it at fair prices on posted sell items. Photo.net used to be a good place to buy & sell equipment but the wolves got to that outlet too. Some of this might be due to a depressed economy, but if you can avoid posting other stuff, and there is no rule saying you have to, then this trend will continue.

borderlight wrote:
I kind of agree with the OP. The way it is now B&S should be more appropriately named B&RS (Buy and ReSell) because that seems to be more the game now than it was before. Obviously if your intention is to make a juicy profit on a quick turnover you can't do it at fair prices on posted sell items. Photo.net used to be a good place to buy & sell equipment but the wolves got to that outlet too. Some of this might be due to a depressed economy, but if you can avoid posting other stuff, and there is no rule saying you have to, then this trend will continue.

I certainly would hate to see FM turn bad.

What about restricting PMs of new members until they have two positive feedback ratings OR 100 posts (for new members that don't want to use the B&S board)? They have to leave a message in the topic thread and the seller can contact them if they want?

I dont know what the answer is, maybe its like CL, and youll just have to weed out the spam and scammers and know that going in, but it seems like everyone wants to beat you up on price. (even with very reasonable prices to start) - i think its the 'doesnt hurt to ask' mentality. I cant afford what hes asking but maybe hell let it go cause its been here for a couple days

I don't understand why lowballers are a problem .... you can just ignore them. If your feelings are too fragile then maybe you shouldn't be selling stuff in a free market environment.

trenchmonkey wrote:
Not. Participate in Forums besides the B&S here, have lots of impeccable feedback, and they
will beat a path to your door to buy your gear. Sure, there are lots of noobs/eBay xplants...
but the majority of the B&S community still makes it the best B&S around. Price realistically and
include shipping/ins/PP fees, and you'll attract more of the 'cream' than the bottom feeders to your
thread. I hardly ever get lowballed, and if I do...simply ignore them. Deal with established members.


+1

Ronny Mills wrote:
I don't understand why lowballers are a problem .... you can just ignore them. If (general your) feelings are too fragile then maybe you shouldn't selling stuff in a free market environment.

Im not fragile, Im just annoyed. It hasnt been a problem until recently. probably something with the number of members going up. Like back when B+H was unknown outside of the dedicated photographers in the back of the Pop Photo mag. Now they sell everything to everyone and you cant get near it on a sunday :P

theres NOTHING you can do to get rid of the low ball offers. People will ALWAYS low ball you. I used to work at a BestBuy when I was younger, and people would still try to haggle with me.

Either way, it doesn't hurt for them to ask, worst comes to worst you say "no, sorry the price is what it is"

"A free market is a market where the price of a good or service is, in theory, determined by supply and demand, rather than by governmental regulation. A free market contrasts with a controlled market or regulated market, where price, supply or demand are subject to regulation or direct control by government. An economy composed entirely of free markets is referred to as a free-market economy."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market

Of course we can ask Fred to regulate prices. NOT!

Ronny Mills wrote:
"A free market is a market where the price of a good or service is, in theory, determined by supply and demand, rather than by governmental regulation. A free market contrasts with a controlled market or regulated market, where price, supply or demand are subject to regulation or direct control by government. An economy composed entirely of free markets is referred to as a free-market economy."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market

Of course we can ask Fred to regulate prices. NOT!
Not sure of your intention here. My post has nothing to do with pricing. It has to do with jerks that come in offering 1/2 of your asking price. If it sells on B+H for $100, im selling it for $70, I get annoyed when people PM me with $35 offers and then tell me they'll 'have to pass' - uh yea...

So maybe the difference is to be financially secure, not caring if you sell it or not. On the other hand, I am sure there are many people who can't afford to play that game for long and feeling a little desperate to make any transaction. Agreed, that's the way the world turns, but that's not the way a lot of people look at it. What if I was to say your 2 cents here is only worth 1 cent. Would you be upset?

"Jackels, Jerks & Lowballers" oh my! Must have missed that part on the B&S application.

Not about pricing?!? hmmmm ... ok ....

I agree with the OP. A lot of these guys are new some are not. Jackels, Jerks and Lowballers for sure. I had a couple post then PM me stupid offers then remove their post when I said no. These Jokers are insane anymore. I've had them come back after I have lowered a price to their supposed buy price then they want to go lower. I may just use that body to hammer nails with instead of giving it away.

Jarvis

It's the bad economy. I have been selling for a few years and have noticed a lot more lowballers in the past year. Not only that, a lot of a-holes too - like people who will say "I'll take it" and then when you reply "OK here is my paypal ID", they just disappear with no explanation. I used to give great deals on here, but I still get lowballed and jerked around so I stopped doing that. Good luck!

FWIW, never had a problem buying or selling from any "senior" or "veteran" member here. I've done my homework on an asking and buying price, so I know in advance what the item is worth on the established dealer market, e.g., KEH, BH, Adorama, eBay, etc. I've never been low-balled. On a couple of buys I told the buyer what I had and was willing to pay based upon those numbers, and was politely refused on one and accepted on the other. If I really want to move an item, I will purposely low-ball myself

trenchmonkey wrote:
Not. Participate in Forums besides the B&S here, have lots of impeccable feedback, and they
will beat a path to your door to buy your gear. Sure, there are lots of noobs/eBay xplants...
but the majority of the B&S community still makes it the best B&S around. Price realistically and
include shipping/ins/PP fees, and you'll attract more of the 'cream' than the bottom feeders to your
thread. I hardly ever get lowballed, and if I do...simply ignore them. Deal with established members.


I believe Will is correct 100% BUT I also believe the OP has a valid point.
Case in point one of the worse.....1 of many unfortunately
I started selling off some of my gear not used last year. My FS ads were replied to by 90% new people and by some real "whackos" who had 0,zilch,nada...participation in FM other than B&S ads and most, if not all, were buyers whos only reference was from Ebay, CL or some other venue.

I had 1 clown from Boston(just signed on to FM), because I wouldnot lowball my item to his liking, he commenced to trash the stated condition(refurbished by Canon) in the the ad! He even implied I was lying about the condition and classification of my gear!

I had the invoice for god's sake idiot!!!!

Then,in other ads, he would trash others selling gear because they would not respond to his obnoxious questions!

I wrote a PM to Fred and he removed the replies from the ad and the California buyer was 110% pleased!

Then when 1, of a few, "old timer" responded in defense of my ad and some replies to his tiraid, he trashed him because he was an Army veteran and he hated any Army people!
Fred removed his remarks also but the guy still is on B&S.



But it was his loss and his ignorance was obvious. 99% of the time when the response is "lowball" or comments detracting my item are sent, I ignore them.
My feedback for my eqpt sold on B&S speaks for itself and the winners in this are the one's that "read thruogh" the trashtalk and buy my eqpt!

Anthony also is correct about pricing to sell.
Dan

I

This is why when I began selling my old Nikon gear I decided to use eBay. The eBay fixed price auction allows the seller to accept offers and has an "Automatically Decline" feature which enables the seller to set a price below which he will not consider selling. You don't have to deal with the low-ballers at all -- they just automatically receive a "Decline" message. Works a treat!

John

I just sold a whole bunch of lighting equipment and didn't receive a single low ball offer.