Classifieds: First to commit or first to ask a question wins????
 

I recently put some parts on the classifieds to sell. I got tons of interest. Maybe the stuff was too cheap. So be it.

Anyway I don't want to screw anyone out of a good deal and I am not looking to piss off a bunch of people. I have had people ask questions and I have had others commit to buy with out asking questions. The way I see it is if you ask questions, I know you need more info before committing, but you are still just "shopping". If I have someone that wants it w/out needing anymore info they get it.

If you have questions, I will do my best to answer them. If you want the part, tell me you are committed to buy it. If your decision is based on me providing more info to you, Tell me you are committed to buy it pending some more info.

I know I can't please everyone out there.

I always love the people who want photos--which happened more than a few times when I recently put a bunch of stuff on the forum for free, forgodsakes. "It's a smile strip for the front bumper, don't you know what that looks like?" On the one hand it's an insult when they apparently don't believe your description ("new") and on the other you sometimes get the feeling there are snapshot collectors out there.

I have always bought or sold items based on committments not maybes, or conditions. In the case of a PPI, I always have felt that if the item passes PPI, then the buyer pays, and if it fails then the seller pays, (others may feel differently about this).

Commit to buy AND payment made in a "reasonable" time... I know, what's "reasonable"?!?!?

I have found "I'll take it - PM sent" to be the best way to seal a deal. Waste time with questions and requests for pics, and another buyer can slip in and "snipe" you. Money talks - BS walks.

Via PMs, I advise seller of my shipping address, seller lets me know cost shipped and preferred payment & where to send payment. I send payment and thats when, sometimes (as some threads clearly indicate) that the fun begins. Fortunately, at least on this website, not that often.

I've had two cars fail PPIs and neither seller offered to cover the inspection cost. I think it would be a nice gesture, but I don't think it happens too often. Seems very reasonable though.

I'm with you... but its a tough question... IMHO, unless 'Put me in line', 'I'll take it', 'I'll buy it', 'where do I send the money?', or similar phrases show up then they are not committed to buy and you are not committed to sell to them. It is not like you are at a swap meet and the two of you are having a conversation over the part and I'm butting in saying I'll buy it now... though some may see it as that.

Time is the tough one for me... if you get the 'put me in line' and then do not hear back it gets iffy. How many days do you wait before moving to the next guy/gal in line? 1... 2 ... 10 minutes? The best behavior we can hope for is a quick decision from the buyer and notification of their intention to complete the transaction or bail out. I have no problems if they change their mind... I do it.. my wife does it for me... just let us know ;)

As for pics and stuff like that... yeah we all should know what something looks like or we can research it, but to avoid all the time consuming picky people I just follow some simple points:

1) post at least 1 photo for any item
2) price it
3) note if shipping is included (my location is in my profile so I dont get 'Where art thou?' questions ;) )
4) note if you are willing to trade and what you are looking for if you are
5) no more than 3 items a post <- really cuts down on confusion!

*shrug*

YMMV...

-Michael

I would say that it should be established before the PPI. I'm all about not assuming anything, and making sure that both parties obligations are clear and agreed upon.

I am with Michael (euro911sc) in that you should not have more than 3 items per post. Some of these threads get really hard to follow after the feeding frenzy starts. I can just imagine what it is like for the seller as well.

As for the "Ethics" of who is first or commited, well thats a grey area. I usually do the standard "I'll Take it - PM Sent" post to lock it in. Window shoppers need not apply!

Bill

I'd say that 48 hours is more than enough time to either put a check in the mail, do a wire transfer (to Nigeria! :D) or get on your computer and do a "pay pal"

Anything longer than that is too long. Unless there's been a death in the family, you just had a baby or something else BIG comes up. In that case, a quick email or phone call to the seller to let them know what happened and prompt attention to making payment as soon as you can (which should be within 48 hours after the first 48 hours) seems "reasonable" to me. Anything longer is too long.

+1 on the commit to buy if you want it or lose out on the deal while waiting for "pictures", asking questions, etc.

---

Tom '75

My thoughts exactly.

I disagree completely. What does "fail the PPI" mean? That is arbitrary ambiguous, and subjective. It means different things to different people.

I see a PPI as absolutely nothing more than the buyer excersizing due dilligence, and covering his own money with wise . How on earth should a seller ever be encumbered with the cost of a PPI?

A buyer could say, "I'm not satisfied with the result of the PPI" for any reason at all, real or imagined, and walk away scott free, sticking a seller with an expense...even if the "reason" was he found a car he liked more or in a different color in the interim.

The seller describes the car (or whatever), sets an asking price, and the man with the money has the responsibility to make the right decision based on his knowledge, or the knowledge he pays for via a competent mechanic if he doesn't have it himself. If the car isn't worth the asking price to the buyer, he should not buy it, simple as that. How he comes to that conclusion is irrelevant.

Just my opinion,

Jeff

i only take paypal. I have sold numerous things on numerous forums before, and i will generally give about 8 hours for someone to get back with me, or send me payment. I have too many people in line waiting to send me the funds immediately. I price my stuff to sell, and dont want to have to fool with waiting a week for someone to send me a money order.

As the OP of this thread, please don't turn this into a discussion about PPIs.

I would really like this to stay on the topic of who gets priority in items listed on the PP classifieds:

A. The first person to post a question

B. The first person to "commit" to buy the item via a reply or PM

C. Whoever the seller wants to sell it to.

D. None of the above


My vote is B

Sorry, you are right. The PPI thing is off topic.

Definitely "B".

Jeff

My vote is:

The first person who commits to buy, PM, and sends his money within a reasonable window (7 days). If not, then it is open to the second buyer in line.

I'm a cash talks sort of guy. Most of my FS threads explicitly say, "I don't do dibs, pm me to discuss payment and shipping". I then go on to say that my thread should be used for questions that can benefit anyone looking at my listing.

From there I take things in a strict chronological order. While I did say, "I don't do dibs" if someone posts to the thread "I'll take it" and they make the post before the first PM arrives, I'll give them the chance to buy the item. If I get the PM first, that guy gets it. But I actually check the time signature of both the thread and the PM's and answer them in the order received. Asking a question in the thread gets zero priority. It's just a question.

And here's where there's a bit of a balancing act. That first contact really only holds that position for a day or so. I am happy to answer a few questions, take an extra picture of a specific feature, or get a freight quote while holding their place in line. If they then stop answering my PM's or start to beat me up on my price when someone else has sent me a PM saying they'll take it at asking price, they've lost their priority.

I ALWAYS ALWAYS put my listings up as OBO so there's no confusion here. If guy number one offers me $250 on an item listed at $300+freight and guy number two offers me $300 shipped, I'll go back to guy number one and tell him best offer is $300 shipped, and he's got to beat it. If he doesn't want to, guy number two gets it.

Lastly, I always keep my word once I've commited to a sale. I once had a guy pay me my asking price on something. Literally, minutes later, some guy pm'd me offering more than my asking price. I really could have used the money at the time. But the first guy had already completed the sale. While you can always return payment to someone, under those circumstances that's just not right. Guy number two was just too slow. Once I'm paid, it's over, no exceptions.

I have had people get really whiney, and I have had people post a ''PM sent'' , only to find it wasn't, or it wasn't first.

I don't do whiney well, and it doesn't help your case if the first buyer backs out. I also won't sell to someone if the communication seems odd. Sorry, try to be straightforward.

I do agree with Steve though about pictures. I once posted some 8 way seats for less than half the going rate, and said I would not be posting pictures for that price. The seats were PERFECT. Well, they wanted pictures, so I opened the boxes, unwrapped the double wrapped seats, and they were so nice that I took them off the market. Better than the ones in my car, which are too nice to replace. I was very well known in that forum, and I still have the seats. They will probably go in the car sometime just before I sell it, or after I die. Ah well.

Guys, sales are at the buyers discretion. There are no rules as to who you ''have'' to sell to. I do try to be fair, as best I can.

Interesting...I almost never sell anything but often give stuff away, assumedly to deserving Porsche/Pelican people. (I have no interest in collecting $50 here and there and then dealing with the "but it's not perfect" whiners.)

Anyway, I recently was offering for free a relatively desirable CIS part, and "sold" it to some guy who said he wanted it. Sent me his address, and it was in Spain. I said no, I'm not going to waste my time shipping a free part overseas, through customs and all that.

He responded, "No, you can easily send it to my winter address, in Houston."

Told him to take a walk and sent it to somebody who actually deserved it.

My vote is B

My favorite guys are the guys that make a public offer in the f/s threadand then don't follow up with an email or phone call... or payment...

I can't understand why I can't sell a good running 3.2 for $5500 or a good G50 for $2500... i get all kind of guys syaing they'll take this stuff but no cash in my jeans...

I often add a statement at the end of my for sale posts like ' I'll take it" trumps...."I'm interested"


1st one to commit wins

edit - not a ppi discussion

i find it very annoying when someone goes to the trouble of making a FS post only to link to something on ebay. at that point, while technically it is still FS, it is an auctioned item on another site and should not be listed in a FS forum. if you want to sell it on ebay then do so but if you want to sell it on a forum them sell the item. don't use the FS section as advertising for ebay.

i dont care if you're selling a lug nut, if you dont post a pic, i'm usually not buying it. it's a trust factor and your version of 'flawless' or 'looks like new' may not equal my version.

Actually, that IS allowed per the classifieds rules (see the sticky on page 1). What ISN'T allowed is conducting an auction on this site, which happens all the time and which I find much more annoying than an eBay link.

Re: who's first?, I agree with all the "first to commit" guys with one caveat - I think it's fair to say "I'll take it IF it's red (or it has 3 holes or is OEM or whatever)". I would give that guy the first slot if my part met his criteria.

And I agree - you might as well post a pic, a price and your location because someone will ask.

I know it's allowed, it's just annoying. If I wanted the part/piece bad enough I would have already searched ebay for it and found the listing. I just don't like the idea of using a classified section as advertising for another site. On top of that I hate the fact that ebay gets paid 3 times for every item sold (insertion fee, final value fee, paypal fee for receiving payment).

I certainly understand that and would post a picture in such a case. What I'm griping about is the people who say,"post a picture" when I'm trying to give something away and I say it's new, unused. I dislike being mistrusted.

If you don't trust me, you can't have my lugnut. If you don't know what a lugnut looks like, you can't have it either.

LOL, i hear ya.. it really depends on what is being sold.. :)

I usually state "I'm interested" and ask any questions (if I have them) in the same post, which has worked many times, espeically if the post is incomplete (lacking picts, prices, etc.).

Scott