I have been on this forum for quite some time, but I never really noticed that we do not have a Wanted to buy/sell/trade section. For private sales, between members. Am I missing something, or is there a reason for this? I have equipment that I would like to get rid of, and I think that some folks on here may be interested in it-but, the only place I see to put stuff is in the paid ads section. Mods? Anyone? I feel sort of dumb asking the question, and am just wondering if this is something that we just dont do?

I like swap blankets that other places do when you are there in person, you can inspect the goods immediately. I'm not a proponent of selling used items on this forum. I'm not really keen on trading items either. I think its a good way to start bad blood.

Some of the people here know an enormous amount about steel, for example. If they are sold/traded something that is made of crappy carbon steel, simply because the giver honestly didn't know better... well... if you start waving that caveat emptor flag some people would just feel burned and leave.

I don't want to see that happen.

There is some trading from time to time in the campfire section. There was some ruling on private sales here on ETS, which I can't remember at the moment.

I've thought about this quite a bit, and to be honest, one of the key reasons that we don't have a "member classified" section is that it's a pain in the butt to monitor and manage, not to mention there's a whole lot of other places - say ebay or craigslist - to post stuff like that.

Not only that, there's the whole question of what happens when a sale goes bad (and there's always a sale that goes bad eventually....I'll tell you one day about a gun I bought online that arrived with the SERIAL NUMBER ETCHED OFF....).

I certainly don't want to get in the middle of that.

Also would be the issue of pricing. There's a free-for-all on Craigslist, and that's good and bad - good if you have stuff you want to sell and don't want to pay anything, bad if you think that the possibility of your buyer showing up at your home in a windowless white van while wearing clown makeup and only an adult-sized cloth diaper would be disturbing in any way.

On the other hand, on eBay, they generally keep the psychos at bay, but you end up kicking 10 to 12% of your sale price to various fees.

It might be worth it for ETS if we were able to get, say, $5.00 per ad, and it runs until sold or withdrawn by the seller, and both buyer and seller were willing to forgo any anonymity and were willing to be "sponsored in" as sellers by others.

Basically, I would only allow a few people I "know" here on ETS to sell, and that's because I know them outside of this forum, and I'd vouch for them. No offense to others here, of course.

I'd be willing to discuss further, as the forum software we have actually supports a sort of classified ad scheme.

If it can't be done for everyone, then it probably should be skipped. That way there would be no appearance of preferential treatment due to who knows who. It could come back to haunt the ETS forums in a bad way.

thanks Martin, thats the answer I was looking for. I know exactly what you mean about a sale going bad-has happened to me as well. I flew to CA once to "correct" a bad sale-well, I was travelling there for other reasons, but decided to pay a visit to the parents of a kid posing as someone else. But, thats a different story....
I would support a certain percentage of a sale going back to ETS-I dont think a hard dollar amount would be fair, simply for the fact that someone sells something for $30 vs $200, its a bigger hit. But, knowing that the money goes back either here, or to the ETS foundation, is fine. However, there would have to be a way to regulate it on your end-not everyone is honest, and, although this is by FAR the most friendly forum I have ever had the pleasure of belonging to, I am sure that not everyone here has the best intentions in mind-thats simply the way of the world, sad as it is. Honesty only goes so far.
Here's another idea, one I have seen on other forums-require a donation from the seller to ETS prior to posting an ad-so long as there is a way for someone to check it, they can post the ad in a section, then make a donation, and, once the donation clears, you can publish it. Then, maybe a minimum donation of $5 would be appropriate. Thats one way around it.
These are, of course, just ideas. I'd like to think that the vast majority of members of this forum are good upstanding people-sure, we argue & dont always see eye to eye with everyone, but a different opinion doesnt make one a bad person. With all the wisdom & maturity on this board, I am sure there is a solution the majority could agree upon & go forward with.

I like the idea myself but like Clark said, a bad sale could leave a lot of egos bruised. And in this litigious day could be bad news for ETS as well. I would like to think everyone on the forum now would have enough common sense and politeness to make something like that work. If I sold something to someone and they didn’t like it, full refund (less shipping probably), no questions asked. No harm, no foul. Unfortunately, word of a website where people can sell stuff, maybe at a rate less than the fees on evil-bay, would get around and before you know it the forum would be filled with recent joiners plying their wares. And who knows where the forum would end up after that.

And Clark, if I bought a knife made of crappy carbon steel, I believe I would rethink my status as a steel know-it-all.

Mark, you have some good points as well-I have accepted returns myself, once, when the product wasnt what the person wanted, and I would expect the same. Of course, there is another side to-buyer beware. But I, like the majority of people here, would likely trust some of the more active members more readily than someone who joined, say, a month ago-simply because I am more familiar with them. Ultimately, the decision would be up to the buyer & seller-leaving feedback is a way to limit issues with bad transactions, and works well on other forums. There is ALWAYS a chance that you get screwed-on forums, on public auction sites-heck, it happens at physical stores too. Bottom line is, buyer beware.
Again though, this was just a suggestion. I really think its something we could benefit from-after all, I am sure the majority of us have items that we no longer use, or didnt work for us, or simply have upgraded from. Me, I could likely outfit a medium sized boy scout troop-most of it just doesnt get used at all, and I'd like it to go to someone who will get some use out of it.

I do believe that within the last 12 months there was an issue of someone spreading some kind of bad blood about a sale and slinging accusations, and such. All of this from another board! I do not remember the details, but probably best to keep that kind of stuff to another site that specializes in that kind of thing. Here, we specialize in personal preparedness!

I like the idea of a yearly fee say $12 or $15/year to sale here, it would be considered donation to ETS.

Then you get maybe 2 posts in the sale-forum maximum at any one given time. This would make sure members kept track of their items, and removed once they were no longer for sale or sold.

Due to the size of this group I don't think we'd need itrader or anything like that.

I have some stuff, although not the best of the best, i would like to get out of my way for some other stuff i would like to have~

Martin:

Are you okay with people announcing things they've listed on one of the other selling services?

I realize that wouldn't work for those who want to limit their market to ETS'ers, but it's a possible workaround for others.


As to only allowing people who've given some support to ETS to sell, if a donation is required to do something, it's no longer a donation. Could that potentially get ETS in trouble?

Perhaps its a bad example. I guess I could have come up with a more likely bad deal but I wasn't trying very hard.

But as Martin says, there will eventually be a bad deal. Right now, this forum is a place which has honor and dignity. I think a selling section would be a guaranteed mechanism for "bad feeling generation".

Survival gear is like climbing gear. You want to be careful about where you buy used gear.

Some sort of online ETS Swap Meet/Garage Sale might be interesting. 10% of proceeds pledged to ETS? $5.00 donation to participate? Something like that?

Caveat emptor, caveat vendor, not ETS's responsibility to police?

Maybe as a once a year, limited time, repeating event?

Personally, I found the current $15 Marketplace add to be a very good deal. I'll be placing another one in the next few days as soon as my stock is replenished.

If you had a number of items to unload at once, it might be worth it to you.

That is EXACTLY the method we're using for the "Marketplace" section.

That's a very good idea - a premium account, with a verified home address, gives you the ability to post to the "Marketplace" section. That might work.

I have many years experience with 501(c)(3) corporations, I was treasurer and president of the Fire Company and I've been intimately involved in the startup of a few.

Basically, a donation that conveys a level of "membership" in a non-profit is a straightforward thing. "Benefits of Membership" are defined by the organization, and can range from access to information that is not public to access to events to special access to places that are "off limits" to non-members. For example, I am a member of the Lehigh Valley Zoo, which gives me special access rights to the park, gains me entrance to events and more. We belong to a number of non-profit organizations, and they all offer SOME form of "member benefit" even if it's just a newsletter.
In cases where gifts are given in exchange for membership (sign up, get a mug) there are specific dollar amount limits and other rules pertaining to the "in-kind" gift returned to the donor. So, no, donations in exchange for a "members-only" area of the site where there are different rules are not an issues.

Obviously, this is just a discussion, and nothing here is actionable or represents a decision by ETS, Inc. in any way, but I'd be interested in assessing the interest level for a concept like this, and wondering what price point would be acceptable (if any).

Nope.

All in good fun Clark. I thought my smiley-faces gave me away? Guess I'll have to try harder next time.