Experiences posting on the sales forum.

[bluemax]

I've recently fully-completed my experience posting and selling plants on the new Terraforums Classifieds forum and I thought others might be interested in my experience. As others do the same I would welcome them to also post their experiences on this thread. If you have direct suggestions for changes there is a dedicated thread for that here: http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php/135410-Classifieds-rules-Work-in-progress-comments-suggestions-welcome

As I moved to assemble my sales thread I immediately realized that I wouldn't be doing it as a normal Tf thread as the formatting is set by an organization called Panjo. This irked me a bit at first, I admit, but then I realized that it was even easier than I would've expected. Panjo takes direct uploads of photos so I didn't have to put them in Photobucket as I would've usually for a new thread. They also took my PayPal address and made it easy for payment to be made. When the sale was final they even took out the 5% for Tf so I didn't have to do that as a separate process. It was all pretty slick. My first posting was rough since I'm new to selling online but it was easy to edit and add information as I wanted to.

The biggest difference to a normal Tf thread for me was that I got zero feedback. At first I thought no one was looking at the thread but I started watching the views counter and saw that wasn't so. In fact those numbers are still going up as I write this! When the sale was made Panjo sent an email to my inbox at Yahoo containing the information I would need to contact the buyer and also the shipping information. All very easy. It was a pleasant experience. I hope my price seemed reasonable to other members of this forum and it seems to me that one of the advantages of buying here is that sellers will be mindful that the community is watching. I think most of us have known outrage over some astronomical price paid for cps on one of the sales specific websites.

For what it's worth.

 

[bluemax]

A forgotten detail - when the plants had sold, even tho' I wasn't aware of it yet, the SOLD notice appeared on the thread title and throughout the posting. That was a nice touch!

 

[adnedarn]

Haha I saw this thread and thought "Well, nice try Andrew... But that idea seems to have flopped." Glad to see that wasn't the case Thanks for jumping out there and giving it a try- and then reporting back! Nicely written explanation of what you went through so people know what to expect. Also a great point about it still being evolving and pointing to that thread.

We've also had our first successful "looking to buy" post, I know it's a bit strange that after you make an agreement the person who ends up having the item needs to go make a sales thread... But as bluemax pointed out, it's pretty easy.... It was pointed out to me though that making that post automatically went into the sales forum- so I needed to make a new category (looking to buy) to make sure it stays in the looking to buy forum.

Thanks again Mark!
Andrew

 

[Odysseus]

I can vouch for that process working for me. It was my search for gemmae that became the first experiment in that Looking to Buy process.

From my perspective, I felt that it went rather easy for the one LOOKING TO BUY, it was just hard to keep things to the word of the law. I would get private messages saying send me cost for the envelope and I would send you some, or people just wanted to give free. I guess free was fine, but I ended up getting 3 different contacts for sending me some gemmae and only HCarlton's was set up as a Looking to buy - SOLD.

As a person looking, I LOVED this tool being here. I like that it helps get some money to the forums as well as pay off a seller. It was very quick to find people who had some and I am the new happy owner of some growing gemmae!

So while, the rules weren't strictly adhered to where all three should have posted Looking to buy - SOLD posts that went through the system, I think it went really well. Unless the system accommodates for those willing to send for free out of their awesome generosity there will just have to be some transactions that are not recorded with the process.

 

[adnedarn]

If the requests for cost of shipping are that.. and not $15 shipping, then that is fine outside of the forum's tools. That's the generosity of this forum and I am in no way looking to cancel that out. If you're looking to buy, and someone is willing to give it to you or give it to you for actual/reasonable shipping... these things are not against the rules in any way. It seems to me that being WILLING to buy, may call out people who are generous more than "can I have some for free" posts (which are a no no in case you don't know ). So, I like it! Good Job so far.
Andrew