Are Bad Deals the Norm for Forums?

Fast Lenny

Fast Lenny

Faster Than You...
Silver Member
I notice pretty much on a weekly or bi-weekly basis that we have transactions go sour on this forum whether its the buyer or sellers fault. I was on auto forums here and there when I was into drag racing cars and whatnot, I think I recall one or two for the couple years I was on there. I know other on here frequent different forums with classifieds, is it common there for bad transactions or a rarity? I am hoping its common and not just a pool community thing. I have seen some great things done by the members here, we all try to band together to help so I know there any many good people on AZ. :)
 
Lenny,
There seem to be an inordinate number of deals gone bad here.
Personally I feel it is because of the false value placed on cues and the state of the economy.
Too many people decided that trading and flipping cues was a good way to make a living or at least make some free money. Then the economy tanked. Folks with a lot of discretionary income suddenly didn't have it any more, but they had these "investment cues" that also weren't worth what they used to be.
People during hard times do things they normally might not . . .
 
Ive bought a lot of stuff via forums. Ive never ran into a really big problem. Ive sold some stuff also and Ive never ran into an issue except for the cue i just sent out. A train derailed and has caused the cue to be delayed in shipping. haha
 
Pretty much Lenny. I have one coming up that also needs to be posted.
Thommy, false value of cues. What about the false value of chalk.
$258 plus and I get sent complete garbage.
Probably my fault for believing that chalk could be worth $9 a cube.
I'll have to get the AZ stupidity award this year for that one.
 
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Speakeasy said:
Ive bought a lot of stuff via forums. Ive never ran into a really big problem. Ive sold some stuff also and Ive never ran into an issue except for the cue i just sent out. A train derailed and has caused the cue to be delayed in shipping. haha
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Along with a whole bunch of Google tablets
 
forums

I have been on several forums over the years. Paintball, some collectable playing card and car forums. I haven't had trouble on any of them. I think the vast majority of deals go well. When one goes south we hear about it via a thread. Look at the itrader on this forum. It seems many deals must go smoothly. It also doesn't hurt for people to realize that if it looks too good to be true, it may indeed be.
 
I think in order to understand how many deals go bad, we would first need to know how many deals are conducted through this forum first. Is it maybe 300-500 per week? If one deal every 2 weeks goes bad, then the percentage is actually very low. It sometimes seems like there are a lot of deals gone bad because they are put to the forefront.
 
I have not had a bad deal on this forum. I've met many great people and there are a few people that I really enjoy working with.

KP
 
I think the basic pattern goes something like this... just an uneducated impression:

• Custom cuemaker does a handful of nice cues each year, more for the love of it than to earn a living.

• Gets great exposure on the forum, bunch of new orders, he doesn't turn them down because he sees $$$ or he just hates to disappoint anyone.

• It stops being fun and starts to feel like a job, can't complete orders as fast as people would like, starts rushing and missing small details, or gets burned out and just doesn't want to work on them most days. Or maybe goes through some crisis like getting hospitalized.

• People get their cues late, or not at all, start hounding the guy, he rushes to crank one out and it's not quite perfect, so people get on the forum and start griping.
 
More...

More public than this?! Is it possible...? will you show it to media?!
Common', because things like this, WTT/S section became a laundromat. Try to fix your issues privately.

Slim Limpy said:
Blue Hog Rider,

the deal for that chalk was for $348 and you know it. I sent you the chalk and I'm still waiting for my last $100. You don't send me my $100 right now I'm gonna go public with this issue. You got the deal of a lifetime when I sold you that chalk. I've had enough. You owe me. Send me mo' money now!!!
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I've passed on 3 Joss cues in the last couple months because i keep reading about deals gone bad. Honestly, this is the only forum where i've experienced this many and i'm just to gun shy to take a chance.

Sad But True

Brian :(
 
deals are what you make them...I once backed out of a deal before any money changed hands because I was getting a bad vibe from the guy...there are many good escrow's available that help to make deals go the way they should...thats cheap insurance for 20 bucks on your 2k cue!
 
I have only had positive experiences buying off this forum.

Is there a chance the bad deals surface more and look more disproportianate to the good ones?
 
ABall said:
I think in order to understand how many deals go bad, we would first need to know how many deals are conducted through this forum first. Is it maybe 300-500 per week? If one deal every 2 weeks goes bad, then the percentage is actually very low. It sometimes seems like there are a lot of deals gone bad because they are put to the forefront.
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I'd be surprised if there were that many deals. It would be good to know.
 
All my deals have been positive so far. I think part of it is that as a buyer I ask a ton of questions and as a seller I assume everyone's like me and wants a ton of detail.
 
Bought more than a few things here an 90% were great. But one cue I paid over a $1000 for the two shafts were to be 13mm. they were 12.50 an 1270. The only time I got stung. But my grandson love the cue so guess who got it. Win win. All in all I have came in contact with very nice an more than honest guys an gals. :smile:
 
thommy said:
There seem to be an inordinate number of deals gone bad here.
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I've said this in past posts and I'll say it again here.......there seems to be an inordinate number of assholes associated with pool as compared to other hobbies/pastimes, at least in my experiences. In all of my past endeavors, including baseball/softball, basketball, bowling, fishing, hunting, benchrest shooting, motorcycling, ATV-ing, and pool (not to mention a few other minor ones), I have found that of the people that I have been around in the above listed activities, there easily is a disproportionate amount of people in pool that come-off as assholes/jerks as opposed to the other groups. I do not know why this is, or if anyone else has even had the same issues as I have had.

I personally have not had any problems on AZB, either with a sale or a purchase. But I fully understand HOW this could/does happen judging by the sheer numbers of bad apples I've come across in my 6 or 7 short years of frequenting poolhalls and bars (with pool tables).

Before I go on, I would like to say FTR that I have also met some of the finest people that I have ever encountered in my life around the pool scene. Many that I now call my friends. Lots of GREAT posters here on AZB too!!! I am not down on pool and its participants. Its just that from what I've seen out there, a certain number of bad sale/trade deals on this forum does not suprise me.

As someone else already posted, comparing the numbers of good deals against the bad deals MAY reveal that the percentage of bad deals is fairly low anyways.

Maniac (probably is an asshole himself in someone elses eyes :sorry:)
 
CreeDo said:
I think the basic pattern goes something like this... just an uneducated impression:

• Custom cuemaker does a handful of nice cues each year, more for the love of it than to earn a living.

• Gets great exposure on the forum, bunch of new orders, he doesn't turn them down because he sees $$$ or he just hates to disappoint anyone.

• It stops being fun and starts to feel like a job, can't complete orders as fast as people would like, starts rushing and missing small details, or gets burned out and just doesn't want to work on them most days. Or maybe goes through some crisis like getting hospitalized.

• People get their cues late, or not at all, start hounding the guy, he rushes to crank one out and it's not quite perfect, so people get on the forum and start griping.
Click to expand...

I think I would have to agree with this assessment.

Roger
 
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