Thread: Addition to the classifieds policy. Please read

A recently notable ad that has been pulled and re-posted repeatedly seems to have lost the comments that were with it. Is there now a way that the comments can be pulled or are moderators pulling off comments addressing price objections?

We are only pulling comments that are discussing price directly. The price is up to the seller and the actual buyer, just as in a retail shop or an actual classifieds ad in the local newspaper.
comments about accuracy of the description are allowed, as are links to identical items somewhere else.

Originally Posted by Bruno

We are only pulling comments that are discussing price directly. The price is up to the seller and the actual buyer, just as in a retail shop or an actual classifieds ad in the local newspaper.
comments about accuracy of the description are allowed, as are links to identical items somewhere else.

Yup, that's what I figured.
I realize it is not the moderators job to babysit inexperienced buyers and it has been clearly stated that the Classifieds are subject to caveat emptor. I hope that point can be made clearly enough to new members.

I'm just disappointed that last week a new member fell for paying $180 more than the retail price for a razor that was still commercially for sale at the time.

It's not that we moderators are sitting in our secret lair all day, thinking up new rules for the fun of it
We try to leave things covered under the blanket rule of 'gentlemanly behavior' as much as possible.
We only resort to 'rules' if the other approach doesn't work.

It was the incident you mentioned that triggered this rule. We did take that incident very seriously, but at the time there was nothing we could do under the classifieds policies as they existed at the time, and the sale was made before we had the time to think about it.

The difficulty for us is to find a way to walk the line between allowing free market, and still providing a place where people don't have to watch over their shoulder.
By allowing comments on the accuracy of the description, and comparison with identical (or as near as possible) items at other places, we hope to enable this without breaking our hands-off policy.

Atm, the way I described it so far is how we envision this to work. As this rule is put to the test, it can be fine tuned or amended as the need develops and we get more experience with the dynamic of the classifieds. The goal is to prevent active moderation (other than as needed for things not related to the selling) and still inspire trust so that none gets fleeced.

Originally Posted by Bruno

We are only pulling comments that are discussing price directly. The price is up to the seller and the actual buyer, just as in a retail shop or an actual classifieds ad in the local newspaper.
comments about accuracy of the description are allowed, as are links to identical items somewhere else.

I merely posted a link to an identical item at a popular dealer at half the price, and received a reprimand. I have no emotions attached to this, however, I do like to see consistency and accuracy.

Originally Posted by Ditch Doc

I merely posted a link to an identical item at a popular dealer at half the price, and received a reprimand. I have no emotions attached to this, however, I do like to see consistency and accuracy.

When was this?
This new 'rule' was only made 2 days ago, and there was some initial confusion.

There was a couple of comments about a razor that was for sale that was the same model as one being sold at CS. I do believe it may be sold out at this time though. They went quick. In any case, someone asked if it was the same one as at CS, the OP stated he wasn't aware, and I provided a link to said razor. Now, this razor is one that many have been paying very high prices for, and considering that trend, the OP wasn't out of line. It just happened that CS had a lot of NOS,something about liquidation sale, and put them up for sale at half the asking price of the SRP poster. One of the mods sent me an email stating my post was out of order and had deleted it. The ad is still posted, however all comments have been removed.

P.S. This occurred yesterday I believe.

Pricing comments on ad = not allowed.

Questions concerning ad (everything but price) = allowed.

Links to other razors (as long as pricing is not mentioned) = allowed.

Pricing comments via PM or email = allowed.

Removing and resubmitting of ad because you don't like the comments = PROBLEM.

Removing ad because you've made a mistake (and no resubmission) = ok.

That's about as succinct as I can make it. Just keep it civil and gentlemanly.

If you have a comment which you think might be out of line, please feel free to PM or email any of the moderators - including myself.

Personally, I think this addition to the rules is good, and I thank all the mods for all their efforts here.

My concern remains that newbies are always counseled to check out the BST for vintage razors, shave ready for a fair price. Usually for their first razor(s) at a time that they really are not aware of the nuances of different razors and how much is a fair price (I used to go by Crichton's comments ), let alone the different places where they can buy one for a better, or in this case, the true price. So when they see a member, especially one whose join date shows that they have been a member for some time, they assume these.

I guess my question is, is there anything else we can do to keep this from happening again? That is, to prevent someone from using the reputation of SRP's classifieds, and really its members, from being used to fool newcomers into thinking what they are selling is (a)good, and (b)worth the price?

This time we could reference to CS. What if it were a vintage Filly 14 being sold for $660? How can comments be made with no reference to price?