Location: a 120 mile long sandbar in the northeast
Posts: 388
on the fishing forum i belong to.. Striped Bass Fishing - Stripers Online - Striper Fishing Online! there is a buy/sell/trade forum.. and over 15,000 members..i do believe you need to make a certain number of posts before you can access that area of the site.
Problem is, you anyone can become and member and has to become one to post in the forums. It's the open nature of a community like this. Assigning a total number of posts before they can sell doesn't really work. I've seen longtime members of other forums become complete douchebags and rip people off. iskibc on TGR comes to mind. If post count is what makes you decide on the risk by all means use it as you see fit. I just don't see the administrative staff adding this as a criteria for that forum.
True, I've seen long time forum members do the same but not as often. I just find it hard to trust someone who's first 5 posts are in the classified ads and they have no input or opinion on any other thread on the whole forum. I wouldn't buy anything from someone with no posts but I'd hate to see somebody get ripped off. When I scan through the for sale section almost every time well over half the ads are people with less than 10 posts. In my eyes they are all scammers as they rarely stick around especially if they don't sell their shit.
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When the fuck did we get ice cream?
Yeah, I agree. Again buyer beware. Usually it's pretty easy to weed out the rats. There are plenty of people who do join just to sell a board or gear they don't want. Members with very little posts should be viewed with suspicion. Especially if they are selling their gear from Africa, China, the Phillipines, Brazil, and so on...
So what would you suggest to somebody who buys a bunch of stuff online and none of it fits well. I have three boards. Two of them do not fit my size 13 feet. Should I stick them under the bed and wait for my children to grow into them when somebody on this forum might want a cheap Burt for yard use. It is still an improvement over FLEA Bay.
spam the forum untill ya reach the required posts and then palm your gear off to who ever will take it
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Local Mt: Cardrona, Mt Hutt, Turoa
Board: 07 Gnu Riders choice 154.5
Bindings: Burton Cartel
boots: Vans, looking for some new ones.
well anyone is free to make their own mistakes, personally I would not buy from anyone that does not a respected account in the forum. Now I am not saying they are dishonest people, but I just rather be safe than sorry.
I guess a good bet is doing business through paypal, don't they have some sort of insurance?
I think maybe a small contribution to the forums before using the buy/sell would be alright. A lot of other forums have this rule. Just dont make it too high.