Facebook Buy/Sell Groups

galipeau

galipeau

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I just wanted to write a post on the Facebook groups out there to see what you guys think. Here are a few of my thoughts.

There is no iTrader system on the Facebook groups, and therefore no real accountability. When browsing the open markets, you have no idea who are trusted sellers and buyers, and who are not (besides the names you already know). I have yet to have a good deal on Facebook. AZBilliards has been a great forum to do business on. Even the few deals that went bad for me here (ex: incorrect descriptions, unhappy buyers, etc) were for the most part resolved courteously and quickly. The other thing that is killing me is that the vast majority of people on Facebook whom I have spoken with are either too lazy or too stupid to string together a proper sentence in the private messages. I feel overall that there is a general lack of respect and community. Here on AZ, you meet a lot of great people, and in general, it's obvious who the more eccentric members are. This means you can get a general sense of what kind of person you are doing business with from seeing the kind of posts they write over time.

I don't really mean to harp on about it, but here's just one example of the crap that I've seen on the Facebook groups. A while back I gave away a really nice cue that retailed for about 500-600 dollars when it was new. It had a chip in the finish, and the guys sends back a note complaining about it, and how the cue is too short, tip is too small... Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth. I made all of the specs very clear before I sent out the cue. The only thing I left out (and this was my fault) was the finish chip. I thought it was in the pics I had sent. A few weeks go by, and now the same guy I gave this cue to is asking for handouts to help him raise money for a new case via a "gofundme" campaign... what the hell? Oh, and by the way, he made no offer to chip in for shipping costs.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm wrong. I just find it hard to believe that people would rather use these other outlets for buying and selling than come here on AZ and deal with what I consider overall to be a positive online market. I hope this thread doesn't devolve into a b*itchfest of bad selling experiences. I was mainly hoping that some of you could provide your thoughts on what you like or dislike about the different online cue markets.

Thanks, Ian
 
You can have good and bad at both places. The advantage to FB in my mind is the lack of anonymity. Not saying someone couldn't fake it, but if you look at their profile you can get an idea usually of whether or not you're dealing with a real persons account I think.

I've had great deals here and there and no problems to speak of. Just picked up a cue off FB that ended up being fairly local to me, met up in person and things couldn't have gone smoother.
 
galipeau said:
I just wanted to write a post on the Facebook groups out there to see what you guys think. Here are a few of my thoughts.

There is no iTrader system on the Facebook groups, and therefore no real accountability. When browsing the open markets, you have no idea who are trusted sellers and buyers, and who are not (besides the names you already know). I have yet to have a good deal on Facebook. AZBilliards has been a great forum to do business on. Even the few deals that went bad for me here (ex: incorrect descriptions, unhappy buyers, etc) were for the most part resolved courteously and quickly. The other thing that is killing me is that the vast majority of people on Facebook whom I have spoken with are either too lazy or too stupid to string together a proper sentence in the private messages. I feel overall that there is a general lack of respect and community. Here on AZ, you meet a lot of great people, and in general, it's obvious who the more eccentric members are. This means you can get a general sense of what kind of person you are doing business with from seeing the kind of posts they write over time.

I don't really mean to harp on about it, but here's just one example of the crap that I've seen on the Facebook groups. A while back I gave away a really nice cue that retailed for about 500-600 dollars when it was new. It had a chip in the finish, and the guys sends back a note complaining about it, and how the cue is too short, tip is too small... Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth. I made all of the specs very clear before I sent out the cue. The only thing I left out (and this was my fault) was the finish chip. I thought it was in the pics I had sent. A few weeks go by, and now the same guy I gave this cue to is asking for handouts to help him raise money for a new case via a "gofundme" campaign... what the hell? Oh, and by the way, he made no offer to chip in for shipping costs.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm wrong. I just find it hard to believe that people would rather use these other outlets for buying and selling than come here on AZ and deal with what I consider overall to be a positive online market. I hope this thread doesn't devolve into a b*itchfest of bad selling experiences. I was mainly hoping that some of you could provide your thoughts on what you like or dislike about the different online cue markets.

Thanks, Ian
Click to expand...

As the owner of the Open Billiard Market group I will respond on our behalf only.

Regarding reputation we maintain a transaction report group which functions as a way to check up on anyone by searching for their name. Also one can simply ask the group for references. It's not as good as I-trader or ebay's reputation but it works for the most part.

We have over 15,000 members so it's always going to be buyer beware. As a community though we do a fairly good job of weeding out the scammers and those who refuse to do honorable transactions.

Still there will always be issues and we tell our members to please please please follow best practices and protect themselves at all times. We can't be held responsible when they don't.

We also ban members who do bad business on AZB. We know that once outed here they like to migrate to Open Billiards Market and try to continue their scamming. Our members are pretty vigilant about making sure they don't.

FB is simply a different crowd. There is a LOT of overlap though and most people I talk to also are members of AZB. My experience differs in that most of the people I talk to on FB are able to speak in clear sentences. But then I don't actually do a lot of buying and selling on OBM either. Most people come to me to buy cases.

Anyway, that's Open Billiards Market. Not perfect but we try to do a good job of moderating it and keeping it as safe as an online market on FB can be. We do encourage people to do their homework before transacting.
 
The advantage to Facebook, I think, is a greater audience that deals more in lower scale cues. Lots of sub $200 cues exchange hands there.

But, with a greater number of people comes a greater number of idiots. There are a lot of people out there that don't care if they rip you off and then don't really care if everyone knows about it. One of the reasons I stopped dealing with it. I had great transactions with people while I was there, but I was diligent in looking people up and the instant a red flag popped up I was gone, no questions asked.

I suggest you stick with the invite only groups, as they usually have some sort of moderation and blatant abusers get tossed out, and some groups like OBM have a feedback group where you can research your buyer/seller.

The one thing I have found that is similar in both places is that the majority of posting traffic is driven by a handful of people posting dozens of cues and bumping on a regular schedule. On one hand this can give you an impression of the market values of some cues, but after a while it becomes tiresome to see the same 50 cues for sale over and over to try and pick out something new between them.
 
Thanks JB, I appreciate your insight. Those are some good details I was unaware of. I guess i have more of an issue with some of the individuals I've dealt with rather than the group itself.
 
theres an entire open billiards market transaction report group for the purpose of giving good feedback and requesting a vouch for an unknown person
 
Funny Story

The Only Place I have had a Problem or been Scammed is Here at AzBilliards. It was the Most Part because of the Use of Screen Names and Alias use. You never know who you are dealing with..

On Facebook we have a BAD LIST and can check the Person Out.

Understand Both can be done but you can tell a Fake Facebook profile pretty Easy!
 
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