Some classified manners suggestions for sellers

I have bought a bunch of stuff on here...and tried to sell a few tImes also.
When I buy:
I fInd the item and do my research on prIce/value/fIt

Have money ready to pay In paypal

Contact seller. Ask questIons OR state that I want It and will pay immedIatly as soon as I get a total wIth shipping and paypal Info.

I get the Info from the seller. I immedIatly make the payment then PM seller I made the payment.

None of thIs is hard.

As a seller I get folks sayign they want It but then no payment. I tell them I need payment by a certaIn time and nothing. Then I sell to the next In lIne and the fIrst guy Is mad I "sold It out form under hIm!"
The confusIon from the last 2 ads caused me to sell one Item twIce...needless to say I was at fault and one guy was jsutIfably pIssed off at me.
I state in my ad the item is "sold" when I have funds. I am happy to give a reasonable amount of time to pay but it is not fair to hold it for a buyer when others are ready to pay.
I also update ASAP when an item is sold :)
DavId
 
ray_g said:
Some other comments:
- many buyers are just browsing RFF, and many are not even registered. Just because they may respond first, does that make the seller obligated to sell to them? Personally, I'd rather sell to someone I know and can trust. Otherwise, I'd just put it up on ebay.

- buyers frequently change their minds. Until the payment is made, the sale is not final. Should the seller not be allowed similar latitude?

- I hate to say it, but some buyers are just a pain in the a**. Nitpicking my equipment to try to lower the price, impatiently emailing and PM'ing like the seller has no dayjob. Personally, I would like to be able to decide who to sell my precious equipment to.

- Posting a reply to the classified thread is no guarantee you were first. I think that's a no-brainer. In fact it even dissuades others from replying, thinking the item is no longer available, when the poster was not really committed to buying the item.

- I think responding to an item should be differentiated from commiting to buy it. Some PM their interest, then proceed to ask a series of questions. I don't think that makes for a commitment, as any "negative" answer to any of those questions would make him back out. If you are not commited to pay until those are answered, you surely do not expect the seller to be committed to you either.

- Also, especially with regards to international buyers, items like mode of payment and shipment need to be worked out. I personally do not want to give out my bank account info for bank transfers. Until all those things are worked out, nothing is final.

Bottom line is, for me at least, RFF is a community. The classifieds, not purely business. If I wanted a quick sale to a stranger for (likely) the best price, then I would sell elsewhere.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with you. There are a lot of facets to consider when choosing who to sell to besides who sent the first message.
 
I recently sold an item through the classifieds, I was quite concerned that the buyer did not bother to let me know that it had arrived safely. In my mind it would have been good manners to have done so.
 
I have had a couple of transactions on here, including one ongoing at the moment (hurry up, Post Office). Perhaps I've been lucky, but so far all have been polite, including the couple who have declined to sell to me as I'm outside CONUS. It's my problem as buyer, not theirs as seller, so as long as the terms are clearly stated in the ad, and confirmed in PM/e-mail, I see no issues.

Communication should be a two-way street, so keeping each other informed is only polite, as perhaps is non-agressive haggling - it's only the same as you would do in a secondhand shop, and ultimately, the buyer decides the price and to whom he/she wishes to sell. First come-first served is ok as long as the buyer isn't unreasonable in keeping the deal hanging, but the seller can always stipulate a timescale after which they will contact the next in line.

The only caveat I would add, is that most experienced members appreciate that they are selling to a smaller community of like-minded people than the big bad world of Ebay, and the prices should (and usually do) reflect this. The reason I've bought from here is that the prices are lower, I don't have to wait for the potential of being outbid in the last 2 seconds and I hope members are more trustworthy than a lot of the scammers trying to sell a dog £1000 lens for £1200! The flipside to this is that the sellers should hope to be selling to like-minded people who will appreciate and use the gear in the spirit it was intended, and not just to sell on Ebay at an inflated price.

Nick
 
I recently bought a camera through RRF and the deal went flawlessly, including comms on payment details etc... through PMs. No complaints whatsoever.
 
Agree with much of what ray_g & akptc say above. The volume of pm & email queries can be hard to sift through if one needs to spend the day at work. I try and sell now only when I can be off for a day or so. Having the contact be pm only might be the simplest, but then one runs up against the 100 message limit pretty quickly.

Having had quite a few ads here over the years I'll note that many items are often on offer here and elsewhere at the same time. This can ensure a quick sale when needed but does make something go from available to sold often faster than some like. And replying to a buyer who says "I'll take it" only to wait days to hear back "Oh I found another one" is really annoying when you've got five other potential buyers in line and are getting more requests all the time.

RFF is not the lowest maintenance place to sell...
 
I'm not sure it's bad manners for the sellers, but it sure is rough on my self-restraint when so much nice gear goes up so close to the holidays. I should not be buying gifts for myself at this time of year!

/musing
 
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