Razors on the Classifieds

I'm sure this topic has been brought up before, but what's the deal with the "Sold" razors on the classifieds. What is the reason they stay there?
Lately, buying a razor on the classifieds is an exercise in futility. You'd have better luck winning Lotto. It's wonderful that SRP allows members to sell items free of charge. I was on the classifieds just before this post going through page and page of sold razors....Once the item is sold, The add should be removed by the seller, or auto deleted in 24 hours. IMHO....

This has actually been brought up very recently, I think it was being looked into.

It has been brought up again and again. I blame the moderators and sellers. When I sell an item, I delete it. The only reason I leave an ad is because I forgot to delete. I think many sellers leave them because they are either too busy, or wish to use the ad as advertising. This needs to be addressed definitively I believe, and if necessary only allow sellers a maximum of 3 ads so that one seller does not run a razor in the ads for two weeks after it has sold.
THanks for bringing this up again because it seems the answers are to either charge, moderate, or do anything but create an automatic delete system for sold razors.
Hopefully it will be addressed at some point and end the huge numbers of sold razors by sellers too self involved to take the time to delete the ads.

I was under the impression that the sold ads were left up so that interested parties could review the ads to see what sold and how much it sold for. I for one look at the sold ads every now and again. Perhaps instead of deleting them they could be auto archived into a sold section only.

I understand the frustration, but I do like to be able to look through the listings to be able to see what certain types of razors have sold for. I'm hoping that instead of deleing the ads we might be abel to archive them once items have been sold in order to have the past sales amounts as reference points.

(DOH! mkevenson beat me to my comment!)

That's a valid point, Wanting to see what items sold for. Why not have something like an Archive. When an item sells, The add gets moved to the archive for future reference. That way, you have pure unadulterated razor adds, minimal frustration while looking, and your able to see what sold for what.....

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Originally Posted by mkevenson

I was under the impression that the sold ads were left up so that interested parties could review the ads to see what sold and how much it sold for. I for one look at the sold ads every now and again. Perhaps instead of deleting them they could be auto archived into a sold section only.

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I do that as well, I hadn't actually thought about it until you mentioned it.

Really, as soon as they're sold they could be archived, the trouble is it's not always simple to set up something like that.

It might be simpler to rank the ads differently in the classifieds, instead of going purely on date, rank them primarily on the sale status, if it's still for sale it stays at the top. Would it be possible to do something like that?

Just checked to make sure you can't do that manually, and you can do highest and lowest first, but 'sold' does not null and void the price.

When I look for razors in the classifies now, I don't even look at what kind it is, I look to the right first to see if it's Sold or not. No sense if getting my hopes up. Even if it's not sold, Sometimes your too late. Gugi had a Duck for sale, I pm'd him and it was too late.
That's another thing, Guys have WTB adds up, 9x out of 10, They do no good. I'vd had WTB Wonderedge or Satinedge, or wedge up for ever, There's probably been 50 of them go through the adds that I've missed. You have to have excellent timing to score a nice vintage blade on our classifieds....

don't we already have a BST archive?

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Originally Posted by Pyment

don't we already have a BST archive?

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Yes, but that is an archive for the BST, not the Classifieds and they are entirely separate entities.

I thought the whole point of leaving the SOLD items in there was to rub it in my face that yet again I was too darn slow to see that the razor I had been hunting fruitlessly for on ebay had just sold for less than I was willing to pay. :gaah:

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Originally Posted by zib

You have to have excellent timing to score a nice vintage blade on our classifieds....

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Demand exceeds supply. We should be thankful the prices in the classifieds have not skyrocketed

And if y'all will allow me this: who recalls some of the early complaints with the Classifieds that it didn't seem like items were selling well? And now it seems like so many items are being sold that it is difficult to find what has not yet sold.

:rock: Classifieds :rock:

I like to look through the Sold items to see what certain razors might be worth or whatever, but I would love the option to filter them out too.

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Originally Posted by loueedacat

I thought the whole point of leaving the SOLD items in there was to rub it in my face that yet again I was too darn slow to see that the razor I had been hunting fruitlessly for on ebay had just sold for less than I was willing to pay. :gaah:

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By Golly, I think that you are absolutely RIGHT:tu

I agree, sold items should have their own section they are automatically moved to.

I also agree that the buyer should have a reference as to what he bought, just in case.

Another vote here to filter out all sold items. Like zib said I also check on the "sold status" of razors before I even look at the brand because you're just setting yourself up for disappointment every time.

I think the classifieds are getting too crazy. Every newb is told that their best option is to buy vintage from here. And the results are razors that are sold within hours/minutes of posting. Now before you all critisize me for being anti-capitalist I do admit that is the nature of business and is good for the sellers. But it is not good for people who are not glued to their computers 24/7 who have no chance at buying quality razors that sell within minutes of being posted.

Rant over.

Well, the problem is that the software isn't too good, but usually you get what you pay for. David and the rest of us does this for free, so adding an archival feature to the software isn't very high on our priority list.

Since the cheapest option is always to purchase, we could see if David could check what would it cost to have the developers add that feature. Then we can all chip in and have sold items be automatically moved out of the way, while still accessible to members for future reference.

In my opinion the current 7-day hang around period for sold items is a pretty good one so that the buyer can consult the ad should questions arise upon receiving the item.

With buy-it option enabled it's very easy to tell if an item is sold or not. I sometimes leave it unchecked so that it's closer to the old format of b/s/t. There are advantages and disadvantages to both ways of listing and I'm not sure which one I lean more towards. From the sellers perspective activating the button is much easier, but I think that can put pressure on a potential buyer to click the button even if he's not sure and would like to ask some questions. That's why I'm still doing both ways.

It is true that WTB ads probably get burried too quickly. I suppose we could have a separate section for them, but I don't think this would increase their visibility to the potential sellers. That's just how it is, a seller doesn't have to respond to a WTB ad first. I try to help people when I see those, but on few occasions it has been very frustrating experience when the buyer is extremely slow to make up their mind.

Finally I think newbies and more experienced members shop for slightly diferent razors. It seems to me that a main concerns of a newbie is whether their razor is cheap enough, pretty enough, or whether they've heard about these, while the more senior guys generally look for harder to find razors or something similar to their favorites. Looks to me like there is a bit of a natural market segmentation there.

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Originally Posted by zib

I'm sure this topic has been brought up before, but what's the deal with the "Sold" razors on the classifieds. What is the reason they stay there?
Lately, buying a razor on the classifieds is an exercise in futility. You'd have better luck winning Lotto. It's wonderful that SRP allows members to sell items free of charge. I was on the classifieds just before this post going through page and page of sold razors....Once the item is sold, The add should be removed by the seller, or auto deleted in 24 hours. IMHO....

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nothing should not be deleted because:
history
price
and pictures

PS - next time try to be faster :):):)

I'm willing to chip in Gugi.

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Originally Posted by wapienica

nothing should not be deleted because:
history
price
and pictures

PS - next time try to be faster :):):)

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Hence, The Archive......then you can go back and look at what you could have had as much as you want...As I said, Nothing is more aggravating, then looking on the classifieds, as a buyer mind you, only to find every descent razor is sold. As Ryan said, unless your glued to your computer 24/7, forget it. Oh, sorry you missed the mint wonderedge for 100 bucks, but here, have this lovely Zeepk, hardly used at all....

The software is currently limited to deletion of ads at x of days. I can't forsee that changing in the near future. I've spoken with the developer about an archival feature, but it's not forthcoming.

I do think currently that ads are sticking around for more then 7 days, and I'm hoping to get some time to look at it this weekend.. And resolve that issue.

dw

I actually like having the sold ads around, i just wish they could be filtered out or moved to a seperate section of the classifieds.

Exactly, David, What a a drop and drag type deal, a seperate section for the sold adds?

It's just not possible at this point, without alot of custom work.. That would break future upgrades.

i've gone through and deleted all of the old ads from the razors area.. And they should auto delete after 30 days, or 7 days on sold now.

dw

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Originally Posted by zib

Exactly, David, What a a drop and drag type deal, a seperate section for the sold adds?

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so perhaps we could make some box you can check for sold that moves it to the archives in 24 hours????

I've been happy that the listings stay somewhere because I want to start selling again and need an idea of prices

so I say don't delete, just move :shrug:

Even if it's not archived and you could just have a check box next to search to filter out any item with the price "Sold!" .. that would be perfect.

Or at the very least change the sort algorithm so that when you sort by price, it places the sold items at the bottom instead of sorting them in with the live ads by their sale price. Or even add a new sort option entirely that is to the effect of "Show current ads on top" that just sorts the ads the same way they are by default, by date listed, but does so such that all live ads are listed first, and then followed by the sold items. I'm not sure if we have access to the code, but this ought to be fairly simple for whoever does it.

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Originally Posted by mkevenson

I was under the impression that the sold ads were left up so that interested parties could review the ads to see what sold and how much it sold for. I for one look at the sold ads every now and again. Perhaps instead of deleting them they could be auto archived into a sold section only.

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+ 1 to this
This was one of the concerns with going to 'classifieds' from 'BST', the inability for novices to see if its a 'good deal'. It is valuble info to know.
A good way to do it is for 'sold' iteams to be pushed back behind any iteam still for sale. So once you have worked through the pages of for sale stuff you then come to the pages of sold.

Im sure the mods are looking at this. They work very hard for the love of it, so lets not give them to much of a hard time a? :)

Thankyou SRP people for making this wonderful place to come and share.

+Buckler

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Originally Posted by wapienica

nothing should not be deleted because:
history
price
and pictures

PS - next time try to be faster :):):)

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I'm with this...

It was a VERY short time ago that there wasn't any "ACTION" in the classifieds..
Now too much...
Tom

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Originally Posted by pjrage

Even if it's not archived and you could just have a check box next to search to filter out any item with the price "Sold!" .. that would be perfect.

Or at the very least change the sort algorithm so that when you sort by price, it places the sold items at the bottom instead of sorting them in with the live ads by their sale price. Or even add a new sort option entirely that is to the effect of "Show current ads on top" that just sorts the ads the same way they are by default, by date listed, but does so such that all live ads are listed first, and then followed by the sold items. I'm not sure if we have access to the code, but this ought to be fairly simple for whoever does it.

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+1 on changing the sorting algorithm - that should be fairly straight forward to implement.

The forum maker has a forum - maybe we can find something in there
vBulletin Community Forum

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Originally Posted by akw

+1 on changing the sorting algorithm - that should be fairly straight forward to implement.

The forum maker has a forum - maybe we can find something in there
vBulletin Community Forum

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sure, if you find out how to do it just let us know. in an ideal world you would just give us the patch of the fix, but a long as it's 'fairly straight forward to implement' I think a description what to change and how would work just fine.

I *think* - correct me if I'm wrong - this board probably runs on top of a MySQL database and unless things have changed since the last time I was involved in development on a site backed by that DB the luxury of triggers and stored procedures don't exist. If thats the case there is a fair amount of custom development to be done to implement what you guys are considering to be a small straight forward change.

I'll go back into my hole now ...

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Originally Posted by gugi

sure, if you find out how to do it just let us know. in an ideal world you would just give us the patch of the fix, but a long as it's 'fairly straight forward to implement' I think a description what to change and how would work just fine.

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It looks like the software is closed source so I can't provide you a fix. If you can get me access to the SRP dev site then I can look around. If that's not possible I can make some suggestions if you can help me get me some information on how the classifieds forum is written.

It appears the classifieds are custom code and that the price is stored in its own database column based on the fact that you can sort the price highest-lowest (and vice versa). If this isn't the case then some front end work is being done to allow the sort.

Does each item for sale have it's own "custom" database record? If yes - what fields are included in the classifieds table.

Adam

Understood that custom work is not easy, but for the wish list: an arhchive of past sales is *essential*. Just think how useful it is go back and see old threads and not have to reinvent the wheel every time? But having a few days or even weeks of Sold ads around isnt enough to provide a usable reference source for past sale data, it really does just get in the way more than anything. The only benefit I see in the current system is that you can get a sense of the volume of traffic moving through the classifieds, kinds of things that sell, etc, calibrating your hopes for future things coming through.

Also, lets not exaggerate on how fast things sell - it's true, most things sell within a couple of days, but not usually a matter of minutes or hours. OVer on Badger & Blade good things sell in 2-10 minutes! Similar situation on another collecting forum I've been on. I think the current scene is actually good - great for sellers, as things are usually going to sell within a few days or a week, but also buyers have a good chance at getting things. But you do need to check the listings every day or two....which isnt that hard because there arent that many things listed each day, lik 0-4.

Just my 2 cents, having been a bit of a Classifieds Hound the last few weeks.