Buyer Questions Should be Posted
Heck, even on eBay I see buyer questions and seller answers to the auction listing that prove helpful and informative. Sellers disclose meaningful information at times when they attempt to reply to a buyer's question.
The exchange of information is what helps to educate others with cue-maker information and cue details. What if a seller misleads another buyer with their answer or avoids the questions like saying something "the shafts are basically straight as anything on AZ....." or "Most of Bill Stroud's cues from the mid 70's didn't even have a logo....".
I'd want to know what kind of bullshit seller this person was even if I wasn't interested in the cue listed for sale because I'd want to remember who that seller was since I wouldn't want to do business with them. Being able to read the exchange of posts involving the seller is equivalent to observing their actions thru watching and discerning their statements which is really equivalent to their actions. This is instrumental to learning who the good sellers are and spotting the bullshit or dishonest types. There are actually several Azers I'll avoid doing business with after witnessing their posts and thread answers and had that feature not been in place, I'd have never known......don't remove that feature.
If you stop the posts, then you have to mandate a compete cue description and insist upon a template to list the important details and also a statement attesting to the cue being straight together and apart or a denial about the cue being straight. The vital cue date listed needs to include shaft weight, size (mm), butt weight, balance point, joint type, balance point, mention of any and all ivory, etc. Sellers all too often omit some of this and it's only by seeing these posts exchanged when an Azer asks about some aspect of the cue that the information becomes public. Sellers do not always go back and edit their original thread by adding more information.
Another consideration is the seller's original thread price, that isn't working, doesn't have to change. Consequently buyers don't become educated about cue values in a secondary market environment because they wouldn't get to read the posts exchanged on some cue sale threads.
I'll give you an example.......The seller lists the cue for $1599 shipped and no offers.....lots of calls but no offers at $1599......so the seller starts telling inquirers he'll let it go for $1359 shipped but he doesn't change the original thread price thinking that this will sound like a great discount to the next inquiry about the cue. Again, more inquiries are forthcoming but still no offers and the seller doesn't change the original thread which he keeps bumping and keep in mind threads are listed by origination date.
So now the seller starts telling inquiries about the cue he'll let it go for $1249 but still no offers but it's been 7 weeks now so the seller changes the thread price to read $1299 plus shipping thinking this will appeal to a different audience but still no offers and so he starts telling inquirers $1149 shipped.......eventually the cue does sells but for $1050 but it's a far cry from the original thread asking price of $1599......and then of course the seller goes back and deletes the price in the thread as "sold". So during this whole time that stretches out over 3 months.....readers of the sale thread only saw the cue listed for $1599....then $1299....then sold which ultimately turned out to be for barely over a $1000.......suppressing posts and this type information does not educate readers about the genuine condition of the resale market and it becomes highly misleading.
If you make this change, then you should require that all cue sale threads ad perpetuity include the sale price of the cue or item being sold. This way every AZer can always acquaint themselves with "actual" cue sale prices. This is the only way for AZers can become educated about "current" cue values and what a likely cue is worth if they were interested in buying it. It also enables assigning a more realistic sale price for a pool cue they may want to sell. This is the learning process on the Forum and how people become knowledgeable about cue values otherwise it's pushing chips all to the side of the cue dealers or people that sell a lot of cues here on the AZ Forum.....as buyers, we need to know more about how the cue market performs and what cues are worth and which sellers are people we might want to avoid doing business with.
There's an educational value to witnessing this happen for cue buyers and just imagine if the being sold had an original asking price of $5895 (say an older fancy Bill Schick cue) but it eventually sells after 4 months $3775 plus shipping. Heck, I want to see that cue sale struggle documented via the exchange of posts, etc. I want to firsthand observe what the seller attempts to do sell the cue and how he addresses the lack of interest in the cue thread. I want to read why the cue he described with a supposed value of almost $6k isn't selling after say 3-4 months listing with bumps every 48 hours by the seller. This is how we learn about the resale market & removing this changes the knowledge & learning curve for the AZ community.
I learned how incredibly weak the current resale market presently is (4th Qtr 2014) through recently following very closely two (2) handsome Joel Hercek ivory joint cues struggle selling on AZ for what seem like a extended period of time. I watched the sellers anguish over the lack of "any offers" and gradually reduce their asking prices over time. Eventually both cues did sell but cues sold for well under $4000.....18 months ago those cues sell for over $5k....it was only by seeing these sellers post their frustration, ridicule the resale market, post price drops each time stating it was the final price drop and just read their answers to questions, it's all genuinely helpful and therefore should not be suppressed.
Why not just allow the OP to be the only person that can bump and they can't do it sooner than 48 hrs? Meanwhile, allow all of the posts to continue appearing on the sale thread which, of course, presumes you can program that. All in all, it should be able to done by setting permissibility privileges and consequently, only the OP and the Mods can delete, edit or bump any sale thread.
In any event, including public posts on a sales thread histiory, being able to read the seller's documented answers to questions.....things a seller could claim about a cue that was in reply to a posted question, it's all really important stuff. This is how Azers become educated about cue values which is through information exchanges and it's also how to spot bullshit or less than honest sellers. This is very important since as buyers, we purchase at our own peril, And despite the escrow urging by the Forum, which to be completely candid is mentioned mainly to protect the Forum, as buyers we need every tool imaginable and so taking or materially changing a learning tool that's been in place for awhile, well, it just sets us all as buyers backwards.
Matt B.