**** READ FIRST! - How to Use the For Sale by Owner sub-forum ****

[Peter Aawen]

Hi all, it's clear that some have difficulty with this part of the Forum, so here's some directions & guidelines that should help.

• Please briefly state what you have For Sale in the thread title, using at least one full & recognisable 'word', not just a model designation - but you don't need to tell us it's for sale, the FS Prefix will do that.
• Please use plain Black Text (Bold &/or up to Size 4 if you must, but many have difficulties with big blocks of other colours &/or text too large to display on their screens!), make sure you post an asking price with any specific conditions/requirements (ie. buyer pays freight), and then edit your original post as necessary to update that price if it changes. And DO keep any price/sale negotiations discussion off the public pages - use PM's to exchange contact details, then carry out your selling/purchasing negotiations via PM, email, or phone.
• Please ONLY use the Forum's PM facility to exchange contact details &/or initially negotiate - all other contact info will be removed without notice - you should not post &/or exchange phone numbers &/or email addresses on the public pages, see the Warning below; and definitely do not exchange that sort of info via PM with anyone you aren't confident won't misuse them;
• If you are posting pics (highly recommended!) please post no more than SIX Pics (6) in each post, or some viewers may be unable to see them - and by posting 6 max at a time, once every week or so until sold, you'll improve your chances of selling (remember, we don't charge by the post! ) and ALWAYS leave at least a space or a line between each of your pics/images so they don't merge into a blob of meaningless colour;
• Please select the appropriate Prefix when you start your new thread:
• - FS = For Sale OR Free items being offered to members - Please add the word 'Free' to your title if warranted;
• - TRADE = You've got items to swap/Trade;
• - WTB = Wanted to Buy;
• - SOLD = the items are Sold, Given Away, Acquired, OR no longer wanted or on offer for sale.
• Once your Advert has been posted, you'll need to actively watch it, and Be Patient - you should review your PM's & check in on your ad for replies frequently, weekly is recommended, but at least once a month you need to make a post in it telling people your gear is still available/wanted, adding some new info, more pics, etc - just posting 'bump' or a similar useless word or message probably won't help you sell it all that much; neither will posting too often (daily!) &/or too frequently dropping the price (once a month is good, sooner, not so good unless you are planning on selling at a rock bottom/just take it please price); and
• failing to post in your Ad regularly will likely see it closed as being no longer live.
  .
  
• ATTENTION
  Once you've Sold or Acquired your items, or even if you just want to cancel &/or close your Ad, Please DO NOT Edit or needlessly post anywhere in the thread or text that you've sold/no longer want/cancelled your Ad - simply use the 'Mark this thread as sold' option to mark the thread as SOLD and at the same time, you'll also Close the thread - it's the last option in the drop down list that will appear below Thread Tools when you click on it, and 'Thread Tools' can be found in the middle of the line immediately above your very first post in your Ad/thread. This 'Sold' feature is the only label we have that does all this, so please use it as a catch-all label for closing/finalising any Ad that's no longer required!

If you leave your Ad unattended &/or don't post in it regularly &/or reply to any posted questions about it for too long, your Ad may be closed as being no longer live/abandoned. So please keep an eye on it & post in it regularly, weekly is recommended, but you must update it at least monthly and as/when necessary to respond to posts/questions, and then mark it as SOLD once you've moved or acquired your gear! (see the last dot point above! )

And if you have any questions, issues, or problems, don't hesitate to drop me or any of the other Mods here a PM, we can probably help!

Good Luck with your Selling/Buying/Giving Away

.

Note 1: For anyone posting an ad or replying, please do not make yourself and the Forum a target for scammers/spammers/identity thieves or worse by providing your personal contact details or other sensitive identification info on the public pages of this Forum (or any other social media really! ) Go to PM if you wish to exchange that info - see the Warning Below! No matter how well you might think you've disguised it, sharing contact &/or identity information on the public pages contributes to attracting these low-lives to this site and places all members at risk; so if you want to post an Ad here, you MUST use PM's instead of posting it for all to see and putting yourself and everyone else here at risk by doing so!! Any personal contact info posted will be removed without notice, so if you post an Ad here, you MUST check it &/or your PM's regularly!

Note 2: for those thinking of commenting/complaining in an advert re price, freight, availability etc &/or otherwise hijacking the thread - Please DO NOT!

These threads/ads are the Original Poster's advertisement, and unless otherwise invited by them in the text of their posts, those extraneous or negative comments are NOT appropriate - and if you are a prospective buyer (or seller) & want to discuss the price &/or negotiate, please go to PM to do so. However, if you aren't buying & have issues or concerns with the price or anything else, it's not really your business what the OP is asking/offering, so either butt out or if you really can't, then simply send a politely worded PM offering constructive criticism, but DO NOT HIJACK someone else's thread/advertisement!

Note 3: Any posts failing to comply with these guidelines & directions may be removed without notice; and any posters repeatedly ignoring these &/or any Moderator directions may earn themselves infractions &/or posting restrictions as per the Forum Rules.



***** Warning *****

Members Placing or Responding to Adverts:

We have had a number of incidents where 'Members/Posters' who had little history on the Forum turned out to be scammers and some members have been caught/lost money/goods. Hence this warning to all, especially any users of the 'For Sale by Owner' sub-forum, to be very careful in your dealings with ANY potential buyers/sellers, and especially careful if they are new or unknown members &/or posters with little posting history here to give you any idea about them. If you are a new member/haven't posted much or at all since joining, I'd suggest that you spend a bit of time out on the other pages contributing &/or interacting otherwise, generating a bit of history so that other members can get a feel for you before you jump in here & try to Sell or Buy something. We can't force you to do that tho, but if you don't and you get ignored... it's likely nothing personal, they're probably only being careful, and rightly so!

Additionally, given everything outlined in this section, it is also quite risky to provide any 'Non-Forum' contact details in your posts anywhere on the Forum, but especially in an Ad or in any reply to an Ad - not only for you, the person putting themselves/their security at risk, but also for the entire site & all members, because your actions will attract the spammers/scammers; So Please, only exchange personal &/or direct contact info with other members privately via PM; as by posting this in the public pages of the Forum (or any other media) anywhere, you are effectively inviting scammers to target you and any/all other members Once identified, all personal contact information posted will be removed without notice!

Please take care, and don't divulge your contact, identification, or banking details unnecesarily on this or any other social media site without due consideration of the risks that doing so may entail to you and other members! All advertisements, discussions, & dealings posted here/via the Forum are done so at the risk & responsibility of the poster. Don't make yourself (and the rest of us too!) a target!

[Little Blue]

I welcome the information on how to buy and sell on this forum.
It's a great platform for Spyder members, so they can help others.

The information is straightforward, so hopefully members can get a positive feedback.

Read and Learn, let's try to help everyone. ......

[Peter Aawen]

It is becoming quite clear that some members are posting Ads, then expecting to get a result within a few days!

I'm sorry, but getting a result that quickly is quite unlikely to happen - not unless your price is at a bargain basement 'steal' level! You need to realise that only a few select members visit the Forum every day, and most of those don't immediately look into this For Sale by Owner sub-Forum unless they are looking for an absolute bargain! It generally takes a while before most of the regular Forum visitors even realise that your new Ad has been posted here, altho most will eventually find it & have a look, especially if you post something more in your Ad thread weekly, or at least Monthly as per the directions above, and if they use the 'New Posts' or 'Today's Posts' searches. But even then, it's still usually going to take some time before your Ad actually attracts that one person it takes who will decide that they want or are selling/trading) whatever it is that you are selling (or buying, swapping, trading... )

So please, BE PATIENT!! Most Ads posted here won't get a sale all that quickly - it usually takes AT LEAST THREE (3) MONTHS to sell a Spyder; a Ryker; &/or a trailer - even longer if you show everyone that you are desperate to sell and start dropping your price within the first MONTH!! If you drop your price that soon, it seems that prospective buyers will then tend to hold off on making any offers until you eventually bring your asking price down to their preferred bargain basement buying price!!

So I'd suggest that if you post an Ad here (AFTER reading the READ FIRST! Sticky of course!
- https://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/...sub-forum-**** )
then you should only put up a few select pics first, just to highlight the quality of your Spyder/whatever items you are selling (but please, never post any more than 6 pics per post, or some potential viewers/possible buyers won't even be able to open your Ad/see the pics! ) - keep some of the more specific pics in reserve so that you can put up another post later on in the thread, possibly adding a new post with a couple of new pics in it every week or so, but at least once a month.

And again, be patient - most members/many potential readers/buyers already have a Spyder/Ryker, so unless they're really interested &/or searching for just what you're offering, you've got to give them time to get used to the idea that they DO REALLY WANT TO BUY YOUR SPYDER!! The average time to sell a Spyder/Ryker here is a tad over Three Months, IF the Ad gets regular posts in it (monthly is the minimum, weekly is much better! ) from the OP to bring it back up in the Index & Search Results!

Posting up a couple more pics every week or so will keep your Ad coming up to the top of the Index page AND high in the 'New Posts' or 'Today's Posts' search results too; AND it'll add interest as well - new posts with pics &/or added interest comments tend to work much better at getting people to view your Ad than just posting 'Bump' or something similar - once they've seen that 'bump' post just once, many people will never bother to look again cos they assume that any more posts from the originator will simply be another 'bump', so they don't even waste their time opening the thread! But they'll keep on looking & considering your items for sale if the first & then following posts from the OP have some more pics/greater detail!

Same thing with price changes - do your homework first, and make sure your asking price is reasonable/in the same ball-park as similar offerings are selling for to start with, then STICK WITH IT!! TRUST YOURSELF!! You've done your homework, you know it's pretty well priced, so give it a chance to sell - at least a month!! Dropping your price just once within the first MONTH or so will mean that the only reason many people will bother look at your Ad again is just to see how low you will go!! And once you start dropping your price, many will wait until you get down to the bottom of their preferred payment bracket (which will always be lower than your preferred selling price! ) before making a lower offer than you're asking, but now they KNOW that you're desperate to sell at any cost; so by dropping your price early you screw yourself over big time!

Have I said that you'll need to just Be Patient Do your homework before you post an Ad, set a reasonable/fair price, and stick with it (DO NOT DROP YOUR PRICE TOO SOON, not unless you're prepared to be low-balled!! ); put your Ad up with a couple of pics; post up another couple of pics &/or interesting info about your Spyder every week or so; be prepared for it take a while to sell; be patient in the meantime; and don't reduce your price until you're ready to give the thing away at bottom dollar &/or a loss!!

And if you feel you need to move it quicker, you might also consider advertising it elsewhere, but do beware, you won't be able to 'vet' the members out there as much (well, it's only a little actually! ) as you can in here; so beware of sharing info you don't want the whole World to know; and watch out for the scammers & low-lives - advertising that you're selling or buying puts a dirty great target on your back for them, it attracts them like flies to .... well, you get my drift, I'm sure!

Just Sayin'!