The Smiley Smile Message Board

I noticed in the general discussions area someone is trying to sell something.  wouldn't it be more appropriate, and convenient for those looking to buy something, if there was a separate buy/sell/looking for section on the board (as there is on the Steve Hoffman Forums, for example)?  We could call it "Marketplace" (a little too obvious, but what the hey).  People unloading their Pastmasters, Smile box sets, limited edition vinyls, C50 tour live CDs, even posters and memorabilia.

This would be more for Charles to address, but I'll offer my thoughts and concerns for the discussion.

I've been thinking about a similar idea for a long time too. However, the one element that keeps putting doubt on setting up a marketplace is the possibility of dealing with disputes, or even outright fraud especially when it comes to money changing hands and goods being delivered.

It's not that 99.9% of people here wouldn't be cool and upright about the whole thing, but what if there was a dispute about an item, or something was paid for but not shipped or received, or what if the description didn't match the item sent, or what if an item was shipped and the payment either not received or the PayPal or transfer funds canceled, etc.

It might turn into the issues that Ebay and other sites deal with regularly.

It *could* turn into something where this board would be in the middle of such disputes, as the facilitator of the transaction and/or the dispute, and I don't think it's worth it.

In other words, in favor of both buyers and sellers, *IF* something went wrong, there would be no recourse or no way to follow up with complaints or anything else. And if it did get really bad, this site would have to list and set up all kind of legal language like Craigslist to be removed from any potential actions or whatever might happen.

I just think having this board be the direct link to buyer and seller may cause more problems than it would be worth, not saying that would happen but it's the "it could happen" in that .01% that has to be considered.

I think a workaround might be allowing posts that link to an external sales or listing site, like if someone has an Ebay or similar listing offering these items for sale where the transaction could go through that site and both buyer and seller could be protected and have direct recourse to follow up if necessary. But direct sales listings like classified ads posted directly here might not be as secure on all sides.

Just spitballing observations here, but I think a main drawback to creating a separate section/forum for something is that it gets WAAAY less views/attention.

Obviously, if a "Marketplace" were opened and gained a lot of momentum (like, to some degree, on the Hoffman board), then it would work.

But I'm going to go out on a limb right now and say it's unlikely a "Marketplace" sub-forum sort of deal on the SS board would ever get much action.

I would say that if there really is only a "for sale" post once in a blue moon in the main discussion section of the board, usually cases where someone has some extra concert tickets or, as with the latest post, it's just someone who's having some troubles and needs to move something quickly, then it's probably easier to just let it be. If someone spams the board with a huge list of stuff, then it's probably better to move it or delete it.

Outside of that, as someone who has unloaded both treasured items and junk I don't need and am happy to get rid of, my advice to those selling would be that while it may seem counterintuitive, I've had more success selling extraneous BB stuff I don't need anymore on eBay than I have on BB-related forums, or even the Hoffman forums.

I've posted CDs (BB and others) on the Hoffman board, and they rarely move even at pretty cheap prices. Most of my sales successes (and they are still usually sadly pretty modest) have been on eBay.

I sympathize with the arguments about the board not wanting to get involved in disputes - but how does the Hoffman board get around this?

Maybe linking stuff for sale to the Hoffman board might work but you need to be a registered user of the board to access the classifieds sections.

I'd just rather try to sell BB stuff to other BB fanatics who are on this board than some ananymous person on eBay, although when you think about it most likely anyone interested in a pastmasters cd or a rare B.B. Item on eBay or Hoffman would also be a big BB fan as well.