I am sure most everyone here has had the pleasure of selling off some of their unused parts and accessories to clean out the parts bin and/or raise a little cash.
I recently posted a bunch of Colt AR15 items on TOS, as well as a bunch of HK stuff on HKPro, Sig items on Sigforum, and all of these items on Sturmgewehr.
Several observations:
No matter how many times I repeat not to PM me, but instead to email me a the address I give, several people will always PM. This is far more likely to occur on TOS.
The number of people who email or PM stating “I’ll take it” then either fall of the face of the earth or pull the “check’s in the mail” routine is pretty ridiculous, especially on TOS.
The only person more annoying than the folks described in number 2 are the window shoppers who pretend to be interested in your item, ask for all sorts of pictures and additional description, then fall of the face of the earth or actually come clean and say something like “I wish I could buy your [insert item here], but I just don’t think I can swing it right now”.
The low dollar items are the ones that get the most number of deadbeats who tell you “the check is in the mail” or just stop replying to email.
HK Pro and Sturmgewehr transactions went FAR smoother than most transactions from TOS.
What a PITA. It really sucks that people even in the shooting community can’t just let their “yes” be “yes” and their “no” be “no”.
I’m not defending the TOS: I’ve bought and sold a ton of stuff over there but it does happen every where.
The only transaction I’ve been burned on happened on Glocktalk.com. And just this past week I told a guy I’d give him cash for a G19 and he stated that I was first in line for cash. He took a few days to decide what to do, no big deal, then PM’d me asking me to confirm our deal and when I didn’t reply in the next couple of hours he moved onto the next guy. It sort of pissed me off but I wasn’t out any money so no big loss.
I guess what I’m saying is that PIA people are every where.
I have sold a number of firearms and accessories on gunboards
Mostly it has gone well with some notable exceptions
Occasionally you get somebody that says they will take it and then strings you along for a while (I assume while they are trying to scrape together the cash)
I can tell you that TOS has been the worst (in my experience) in terms of people backing out of deals
This reminds me of an assignment in grade school. The first line was “read all the directions carefully before beginning.” Of course out of 20 people in the class only one girl did. The final direction said to disregard all the preceding directions and just hand in a blank sheet of paper. Everyone else had eraser marks.
The number of people who email or PM stating “I’ll take it” then either fall of the face of the earth or pull the “check’s in the mail” routine is pretty ridiculous, especially on TOS.
I haven’t run into that personally.
The only person more annoying than the folks described in number 2 are the window shoppers who pretend to be interested in your item, ask for all sorts of pictures and additional description, then fall of the face of the earth or actually come clean and say something like “I wish I could buy your [insert item here], but I just don’t think I can swing it right now”.
I think that is a negotiating tactic, albeit a poor one. They want you to come down on the price without asking you to come down on the price.
Ebay was a pain in the ass even before the excessive fees and Paypal buyout. I used to get a lot of offers from UK members for stuff I wasn’t even selling. I’d have a photo showing a sling I was selling, and get a message, “Greetings Mate, might you be interested in selling your lower receiver, I will gladly dispatch a cheque for your amount requested. Cheers”
On TOS, I’ve used to get a lot of the problems with those without money (Hey buddy, would you like to trade an airsoft KAC repro mount for your LaRue?), so I started putting this at the bottom of my ads: NO TRADES :mad: NO HAGGLING
It worked; Haven’t had any BS at all since.
If I get a message from someone and they ask something I specifically said in the ad I wouldn’t do, they get an instant delete. Same for newbies who have no clue what the product is that I’m selling. If you don’t know what it will fit or what you can do with it, then you’re not the buyer for me.