For Sale Posts

[George Bulliss]

I had a few questions in another thread about the posting of items for sale on the site. I have since renewed my push for a classified section and it sounds like it is at least a possibility. Don’t get too excited though, glaciers move faster than some changes around here.

In the meantime, in my ongoing campaign to make this site a little less half-assed, I am going to put a mention of the no for sale policy in the forum introductions. As was pointed out in the other thread, unless you are a mind reader, there is no way to know that we don’t allow for sale posts.

George

[torker]

George...why don't you just make this post a "sticky"?

[Rich Carlstedt]

George
For the sake of costs, and I know some here will beat me up for this suggestion, but will you charge for this service ?
I would think it to be appropriate , since Village Press offersr a similar service through the magazines , and a BB sale may be a loss of revenue to the very company that provides us with this fine forum ?
I don't know if "charging" then implies accountability for sales problems.
I would think a "posting" charge , and not a sales dollar %, would alleviate this issue
My two cents, but if Village Press sees this website as a plus, it means you will be around here longer !
Running Websites is not free

I would only add that I think eBay has killed the golden goose with some of the excessive charges
I for one, have several shop items that are surplus to needs and a simple outlet, could make life easier.
Rich

[Bill Pace]

just make this post a "sticky"?

Good idea, it sums it up pretty nicely....

And, by the way, kudos on your monitoring this bunch, and, for pushing for the 'for sale' ability - I also think that would be a great addition to an already great forum.

Bill Pace

[George Bulliss]

George...why don't you just make this post a "sticky"?

Torker,

I’m just not a big fan of sticky posts cluttering up the top of the page. Hopefully the notices in the introductions are only a temporary thing.

Rich,

We are going to look into the possibility of charging. The ad rep and I don’t quite agree on things yet but we’ll get it worked out. There was also some talk of making the for sale forum a subscriber only area and that is another possibility.

I don’t think fees would need to be much, even a few bucks will add up. As long as the site can make some money, or bring in some subscriptions, management will be much more likely to leave it alone. I know that the site serves as an introduction to our magazines, but without a means of quantifying this, that doesn’t carry much weight around here.

George

[Pete F]

I will go on record and say that I would not have subscribed to this magazine (or even known about it) without this site.

-Pete

[John Stevenson]

There was also some talk of making the forum a subscriber only area and that is another possibility.


George

That should sort some of the tight arses out.............................

.

[Your Old Dog]

Yeo Geo! If you decide to charge, I'd go easy on it if I were you guys. The wealth of knowledge that is found here comes from all over. Some of the best tips have been from those with very limited number of post. If I paid for all the sites that hold an interest to me I'd go broke pronto.

Now, I will admit that I thought it was very charitable of you guys to let some forum members bite the hand that feeds them by critizing a few of the monthly articals in the magazines. I know we are a group of so called critical thinkers but finding fault with the host product is in my mind very tacky. Allowing negative post of magazine articals does not help the company sell magazines.

If you allowed me to download the magazines and info if I subscribed you could have my subscription right now. But I hope that woudn't negate non subscribers from making post here as they are often helpful.

[George Bulliss]

Yeo Geo! If you decide to charge, I'd go easy on it if I were you guys. The wealth of knowledge that is found here comes from all over. Some of the best tips have been from those with very limited number of post. If I paid for all the sites that hold an interest to me I'd go broke pronto.

For the record, we aren’t talking about charging to use this site, just a yet to be created “For Sale” forum. The rest of the forums would remain the same, free to everybody.

George

[Bootj]

Torker,

I know that the site serves as an introduction to our magazines, but without a means of quantifying this, that doesn’t carry much weight around here.

George

Being a new guy here I didn't realize that there were three different magazines.

I must have missed the advertisements on the board somewhere??

Then I had to find the little spot down at the bottom of the board that led me to the magazine site.

I am a member of a couple of boards that DO make you pay for ads over a certain dollar amount. It’s not a big deal, a couple of bucks. I pay for the service regularly. These forums are a great place to sell your stuff. (Target market).
Regards,
Paul Booth

[Your Old Dog]

Geo, you da man

[Evan]

I know that the site serves as an introduction to our magazines, but without a means of quantifying this, that doesn’t carry much weight around here.

Hmm. Have whomever check with Glacern to see just how effective this forum is. Without this froum and the numerous participants I suspect your magazines would be non existent. Any print publication without a significant on line presence has already died. This forum is by far the greatest page hit generator for Villiage Press, of that I am certain. It really shouldn't be difficult to justify it's cost even though it doesn't show up as a distinct profit centre.

That reminds me of when I worked for Xerox. When the bean counters started to take over everything in the late 80's they discovered that the entire service dept. was a total loss operation on paper. The cow pies hit the fan and the arguments became absurd such as "well, if service can't turn a profit then let's eliminate it".

It was truly stupid and it was very difficult to convince accountants that there are absolutely necessary business operations that cannot be pinned down to the amount of revenue they generate. Accountants just hate anything that they can't hold accountable.

[John Stevenson]

We run a free advert site but it's mainly UK based.

http://www.homeworkshop.org.uk/

Up until a couple of months ago this whole site was free for sellers and buyers but we were asked by traders if they could pay to keep their adverts current.

The site was redesigned to allow this and the trade adverts pay for the running of the site, nothing more and it's still a labour of love.

All the 'normal private' adverts are placed and published and it's up to buyers to deal direct with them but there are no charges for buyers or sellers, hidden or otherwise/.
.

[MTNGUN]

I'd be willing to pay reasonable fees to post items for sale on this forum. I'm not too keen on the subscription idea, though.

I subscribed to your magazines for a year -- after learning about them through this forum -- but I did not renew for the same reason that I discontinued all my other magazine subscriptions -- because the internet is a richer source of information.

Printed media is dying. If you want to survive, online content -- and online ads -- are part of the answer.

[jb-mck]

I hope this works out. It would be a great resource for all of us.