Forum Etiquette

MahnaMahna said:
He sees a thread with an item. He finds the item cheaper somewhere else. He wants to know if it is bad to post in that thread that he found it cheaper somewhere else. "If the price is too high, don't buy it" seems to fit perfectly.
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You missed the part where the original poster said that HE was NOT interested in buying the item only that he was wondering if he should alert others to the lower price available elsewhere.

The central question in the thread is whether it's ok for people to play price police or not?

Number one it's against the rules, number two it creates bad karma in a sense.

HOWEVER - I also feel that anyone who is selling anything should be prepared to handle any questioning of their pricing. Live by the sword and die by the sword so to speak.

IF you want to use a FREE public message board to advertise your stuff then you should also be prepared to get comments from "the public".

I make this OPEN INVITATION to EVERYONE on AZ.

If ANYONE would like a justification of my price on anything I post then feel free to post your questions. If you want to post in one of my for sale threads with a link to another brand of case that you think is a better value then go ahead. Just be aware that if you do I will probably rip it to shreds in front of you as to why I think my stuff is a better value.

And if you want to link to any other seller of my cases who has a lower price please feel free to do so.
 
TheThaiger said:
So, it's bad etiquette and bad karma to stop the decent being ripped off by the unscrupulous? Weird...
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No, it's bad manners to step on someone's advertisement when your only "issue" is the price.

Price is arbitrary, meaning that he who owns a thing can ask any amount of it, be that amount way over what others charge or way under.

Let's reverse it and say that someone were selling a cue that was was way under priced. You were the first to see it and claimed it by saying you would take it. Then the post right after you someone else steps in and informs the seller that the cue is "worth" 100% more than he had offered it for.

Would you take that kindly and just shrug it off?

Or let's look at it another way,

Let's say that you notice in the paper that the XYZ electronics store is selling a computer for $500 and ABC computer store is selling the same one for $800. Would you run down to the entrance to ABC store and stand there all day letting people know that they could get the computer at XYZ for $300 less?

If you owned ABC store how would you feel about that?

Last example, would you consider it ok to deface a public advertisement such as a billboard if you felt that the advertised price was too high?

The fact is that you don't know the circumstances behind WHY a person is asking a certain price. Perhaps one guy bought at a high price and so he feels he needs to ask a higher price. Maybe the cue has sentimental value and he wants what he wants.

So for you to automatically classify the person asking the higher price as a thief and unscrupulous is harsh at best. Scruples demands that you stay out of other people's business unless you know or have some very good suspicion that they are committing fraud. Asking for a price that is higher than someone else's is not fraudulent nor is is unscrupulous.

Now if someone tries to justify a high price or any aspect of the sale with a lie then I think that the community has a duty to intervene.

If however you want to be the price police then simply make a thread that you can continually bump wherein you link to lower prices for whatever items you wish to point out. Eventually people will know to consult Thaiger's Price Thread to compare the item that they are interested in with your list.

I don't see anything wrong with that. It's a nice community service that would be appreciated and also serve as a guide for sellers to consult when setting their prices.

Who knows? You could start that here and turn it into a syndicated thing with people subscribing. :-)
 
I think if you were interested in an item on here and two people had the same item for sale but one was selling theirs for $50 higher, I believe it would be okay to PM the higher price seller and maybe try and work out a deal. And if you can't then buy from the lower seller.
 
It is a nice thing (in general) to live in a free market...

People can sell at what ever price they want. I've only dealt with a few people on this forum in respect to buying/selling but I can tell you that I would have no problem paying a little more for the same item from someone I know & trust, or who has made a name for themself as a reputable seller.

The Wanted/For Sale category seems to often work in 'themes' where one person posts something for sale and then several others post the same, or similar, items up as well. The prices differ between individual sellers and that's okay. They have they're reasons for their selected price and we have the right to buy it or look elsewhere.

I think you should not question their price in their thread, but it never hurts to contact them see if they will accept or consider offers other than the asking price.
 
JB Cases said:
No, it's bad manners to step on someone's advertisement when your only "issue" is the price.

Price is arbitrary, meaning that he who owns a thing can ask any amount of it, be that amount way over what others charge or way under.

Let's reverse it and say that someone were selling a cue that was was way under priced. You were the first to see it and claimed it by saying you would take it. Then the post right after you someone else steps in and informs the seller that the cue is "worth" 100% more than he had offered it for.

Would you take that kindly and just shrug it off?

Or let's look at it another way,

Let's say that you notice in the paper that the XYZ electronics store is selling a computer for $500 and ABC computer store is selling the same one for $800. Would you run down to the entrance to ABC store and stand there all day letting people know that they could get the computer at XYZ for $300 less?

If you owned ABC store how would you feel about that?

Last example, would you consider it ok to deface a public advertisement such as a billboard if you felt that the advertised price was too high?

The fact is that you don't know the circumstances behind WHY a person is asking a certain price. Perhaps one guy bought at a high price and so he feels he needs to ask a higher price. Maybe the cue has sentimental value and he wants what he wants.

So for you to automatically classify the person asking the higher price as a thief and unscrupulous is harsh at best. Scruples demands that you stay out of other people's business unless you know or have some very good suspicion that they are committing fraud. Asking for a price that is higher than someone else's is not fraudulent nor is is unscrupulous.

Now if someone tries to justify a high price or any aspect of the sale with a lie then I think that the community has a duty to intervene.

If however you want to be the price police then simply make a thread that you can continually bump wherein you link to lower prices for whatever items you wish to point out. Eventually people will know to consult Thaiger's Price Thread to compare the item that they are interested in with your list.

I don't see anything wrong with that. It's a nice community service that would be appreciated and also serve as a guide for sellers to consult when setting their prices.

Who knows? You could start that here and turn it into a syndicated thing with people subscribing. :-)
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And if I charged $50 to each person who subscribed? Wouldn't you eventually warn people from being duped? Nice idea, but bone idleness is deeply ingrained in me. :embarrassed2:

I find your attitude to this slightly confusing - 0n the one hand, the market, red in tooth and claw. On the other, mercilessly hunting down a seller you feel to be a crook (singernak?). So which is it? You can't be a non interventionist AND intervene?
 
TheThaiger said:
And if I charged $50 to each person who subscribed? Wouldn't you eventually warn people from being duped? Nice idea, but bone idleness is deeply ingrained in me. :embarrassed2:

I find your attitude to this slightly confusing - 0n the one hand, the market, red in tooth and claw. On the other, mercilessly hunting down a seller you feel to be a crook (singernak?). So which is it? You can't be a non interventionist AND intervene?
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I don't know how I could be any more clear.

I said that I believe it's a duty to say something when an ad appears to be fraudulent such as when someone is possibly selling counterfeit goods. In that case the seller should be willing and able to provide provenance to the public in general.

Whining about the price IN a person's thread though is simply low class. I understand where you are coming from. I have seen a thread on here where someone is selling case parts for about 75x their original cost. And the thing about these parts is that they are very difficult to install for an experienced craftsman so I know that most inexperienced buyers will not be able to install these parts easily. I have had to restrain myself on several occasions from posting in that person's thread and going off on what I see as a "rip off".

But it's not a fraudulent sale. It's a sale of goods which are not available anywhere else, for now, at prices that the seller wants to ask for. Even though I feel offended by the price from my perspective I don't have the right to spoil his thread.

Now if he were to make some claim that the latches were made of platinum and I knew them to be made of zinc then I would send him a private message with the right information and allow him the opportunity to correct the description as I operate mostly from the idea that people are generally innocent and make innocent mistakes.

As to your assertion that someone might find your price too high for your pricing guide yes that's a possibility. If you create something worthwhile then someone else is sure to copy it and try to sell it for less. And if that happened would you be cool with people jumping into your thread to "warn" potential customers that you are a thief because you charge more than the competition?
 
Roadking said:
I think if you were interested in an item on here and two people had the same item for sale but one was selling theirs for $50 higher, I believe it would be okay to PM the higher price seller and maybe try and work out a deal. And if you can't then buy from the lower seller.
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Why PM the higher price seller? Just buy it from the seller with the lower price and be done with it.
 
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