Trade Ads. In For Sale Ads

I see we have trade ads. for Indian Machine Tools appearing in the For Sale items now.

Dave W

There is also at least one vendor who appears to be in the kenwhotisname category Time for JB to look through and weed out?

Perhaps the ads should be fully moderated so that they don't appear at all until checked. Unfortunately I think this may pose an undue load on the Moderators of which we only seem to have three.

John

Just another Dealer, some of their lathes are Dalian (China)

They were trying to post yesterday but their first posts were deleted and they were suspended. Looks like they are now trying the classifieds as they are not moderated.

Also keeping an eye on three adds placed on Sunday.

I'll delete the classifieds now.

You can always PM Neil or Myself or e-mail Neil if you suspect something, that way we are more likely to act than having to look through the forum.

J

The Bantam is also on the Home Workshop site where Gary prefers these days to be Mr Young, he has been advertising machines for ages so is no doubt a trader. I guess that the majority of members on this forum also use the HW site so will be wise to the practise.

Personally I don't have any problem with such adverts but would prefer to be aware that I am buying from a trader, it may even give more protection in the event of parts failing.
If contacted he may indeed reveal he is a trader and can offer other services.

In any case he does advertise a number of machines ideally suited to the model engineer, many are from schools and may be in very good order although rather old, so I believe he is offering a beneficial service.

Perhaps management could set a charge for traders to advertise used items on the Classified page, if abused the person could be suspended. Any such ads should indicate it is a trader and not private sale.

Emgee

Thanks Emgee, I had a feeling he was a dealer and he did not reply to my e-mail asking if he was.

It's a bit like Ken Kings thread the other week, we have machinery traders such as Home & Workshop, G&M tools and Quillstar who all pay for adverts so why should others do it for free.

J

The other fairly obvious trader (profile is all about selling items and only one forum post) has presumably been contacted?

I think vendors should at least have a public profile, so members can perhaps work out if they are private sellers or traders.

Why not have two sections of classified ads - one for 'the trade' and the other for 'the amateurs'?

This would prevent traders from pushing my ads and yours off the page - and posting in the wrong slot should be first time warned (they might be non-English speakers so less clued up on the rules), and next time banned altogether. Even from the Trader slot. And perhaps after x trade ads, required to pay for the fancy version - as this would provide a way of testing 'If this market going to be of use to me as a trader?'

A further comment - there was recently a series of several classifieds each offering a few drills. This had the effect of monopolising the visible ads, pushing others into the background. I'm fairly sure that this should be stopped, as it invites others to respond in the same way, with no benefit to us readers.

Cheers, Tim

Tim I agree wholeheartedly with not permitting a string of adverts that monopolises the for sale column, you have to strongly suspect that they are being placed by traders of some kind.

Dave W

One deficiency on this website is lack of ability to look up member by name unless you can find a posting by them. If you can look up a person advertising and see what other posts they have made you can sometimes work out if they are a regular modeller or a garage trader.

Just checked an advert and grrrr. can't be bothered to give dimensions. See this all the time often ebay when somebody slaps a ruler in the general vicinity of a changewheel picture and can't be bothered to list the teeth, dimensions etc. and a price way over the odds too.

If they have a public profile you can see this by clicking their name in their ad.

We have the Shopping Partners page which is an affordable classified listing for traders.

The taper shank drills are legitimate ads, but it's the nature of the beast that most people will do all their ads in one go. It's just unfortunate that on this occasion they are all very similar. Anyone listing a few ads at one will, get this 'monopoly effect' so it's fair in the sense that it's the way the system works and hard to see how it could work otherwise without significant complexity or regulation disproportionate to any inconvenience.

Neil

At least it could be a handy, if temporary, reminder of how to spell "taper"...

On my motorbike websites you can't post ads until a minimum post count has been reached say 10. This proves you are there for the forum and to contribute and not just some free marketing space for your sales

John

When the one post could well be just asking the way to the ‘for sale’section and a profile which reads:

“Various short lenghs of s/s, steel .ali,brass for sale, also large selection of various spur / stock gears for sale .also small tooling, email or phone for more details.”

makes it surprising and difficult to come to any other conclusion than the seller is here for no other reason than trading. I, personally, would like to see evidence for that decision.

By the time that I had reported this Indian trader to Neil, he had suspended the account.

The unusual wording caught my attention.

Quite rightly, anyone trying to use the Forum "For Sale" facilities for commercial purposes should be banned permanently. Legitimate traders pay for their advertising space. The good boys deserve our custom, "wide boys" do not.

Howard

I understand he's closed a business and is selling off their bits and pieces.

I have had a message from someone who bought from them and felt it was appropriate but I will discuss with mods.

Neil