Richard_H
Grand Master
As some of you are aware I helped I guy out for valuation requests and expressed an interest in one item. I didn't get a chance to buy the item as another forum member made a pm deal before the sales thread came through. It's annoying, it sucks, but life's too short and we have to move on. However, this is not the first time this has happened to me and I'm aware it has happened to others too. I would have had no problem yesterday if I wasn't the first on the sales thread. But refreshing pages from 18:30-22:00 was a total waste of my time.
In my experience there are generally two types of people asked for valuations.
Type One - those who are heading straight to ebay and are using our knowledge.
Type Two - those who genuinely want to sell to collectors and are unsure as to how to price their items.
For type one people they're usually pretty easy to spot and in those situations the buyer is taking a gamble too in the person coming good.
However, type two should be encouraged IMO to gather as many sources as possible to get an accurate picture of prices. If this practice of PM deals continues then I can see a situation where nobody will give prices and it'll all be PM deals and pretty much silent auctions until someone has satisfied the seller. In this situation even with 2 or 3 buyers interested the seller could still be getting lowballed if there's no transparency.
As much as I'm not one for rules I propose the following guidelines which you may agree / disagree / tweak. Hell, Edd may say get stuffed and this is pointless. But it's at least worth a try to show how we feel about it.
When someone posts a valuation there is to be no pming of the seller. Any questions can be put on the forum for full transparency. Then when the seller makes the valuation post it's fair game. The seller should be encouraged to state an approx time of when the sales post will go live. I would probably say the shame of someone being outed for breaking this guideline and going against the spirit of this board would be sufficient for someone not to break it.
In my experience there are generally two types of people asked for valuations.
Type One - those who are heading straight to ebay and are using our knowledge.
Type Two - those who genuinely want to sell to collectors and are unsure as to how to price their items.
For type one people they're usually pretty easy to spot and in those situations the buyer is taking a gamble too in the person coming good.
However, type two should be encouraged IMO to gather as many sources as possible to get an accurate picture of prices. If this practice of PM deals continues then I can see a situation where nobody will give prices and it'll all be PM deals and pretty much silent auctions until someone has satisfied the seller. In this situation even with 2 or 3 buyers interested the seller could still be getting lowballed if there's no transparency.
As much as I'm not one for rules I propose the following guidelines which you may agree / disagree / tweak. Hell, Edd may say get stuffed and this is pointless. But it's at least worth a try to show how we feel about it.
When someone posts a valuation there is to be no pming of the seller. Any questions can be put on the forum for full transparency. Then when the seller makes the valuation post it's fair game. The seller should be encouraged to state an approx time of when the sales post will go live. I would probably say the shame of someone being outed for breaking this guideline and going against the spirit of this board would be sufficient for someone not to break it.