Of late all I seem to see is FA! Don't these guys get it? If we want to buy something we know where to look for it. I doubt that this forum was really intended as a "for sale's list". And if most of the crap, was worth having, they would'nt need to advertise it here. I may get beat up over this but, I like to use this site to see what people are building and problems they be having and need help on. If you have something to sell, put it on ebay and take your chances. Anybody agree?
Mike
a few FA posts are ok if you list all you have for sale in one post.
The BIG problem is when people list only one kit for each post. Now that is annoying.
Craig
Why? It's easy to not click on a link, or to set your newsreader to "kill thread."
If it says "FA" in the title, I ignore it. "FS", "OT" - whatever.
E.P.
As someone who has lately been posting some FA messages - one at a time! - I'd like to comment.
I serve on the board of a very small nonprofit organization. A friend was cleaning out his father's house and found a huge collection of kits in the basement. He donated them to our organization hoping we could use them to raise some money.
I had no idea what to do with them. (A side note: When I brought them home, I had them on tables in the driveway, airing them out. A neighbor thought we were having a yard sale and offerd a large sum of money for the lot. I declined.) I posted some questions to this group about selling the kits and folks were very helpful in getting me started. As with most on-line communities, folks were kind and generous and I appreciate it.
The eBay auctions last only a week. Unless folks troll eBay on a daily basis, it would be easy to miss a kit that might be of interest. This is a very select audience. By posting here, I make folks aware of what we're selling.
I agree that it's a simple matter to ignore a message with a subject line beginning FA. As for listing them in one message versus all at once, it seems to me it's easier for someone looking for a particular kit to glance at a subject line and read the message if interested. Listing multiple kits in one message would be impractical from this perspective since a subject line of "FA: A whole bunch of kits" doesn't convey much. Individual messages serve as a sort of pre-screening, since the subject line tells you exactly what's being sold. It's not that different from other newsgroups in which hobbyists swap gear, supplies, instruments, etc.
I try to provide as much information as possible about the kits - including multiple pictures of the box and pictures of the parts on our website - so prospective buyers can make an informed decision. I minimize the information I post here since it's available on our website. My bottom line is to raise money to fund our programs and do it honestly and ethically.
My suggestion is to read the threads that interest you and ignore the rest.
Just my opinion. Thanks for listening.
Doug
"Doug" wrote
That's just crazy talk.
KL
OR, what you *could* do:
Do a FA post, and then within that ONE post, list the auctions separately with links.
I don't care one way or another, I ignore them all anyway. But you'd draw less ire if you followed my suggestion.
E.P.
I have no trouble not clicking on those. The ones that bug me are the FS when they really are FA. One usually does not find that out until the message is opened. At that, I usually mutter some expletive and move on.
Bill Banaszak, MFE
When I was still selling on eBay, I would make FA posts here, but I'd place all of my links to the separate auctions inside one or two posts. It saves posters from complaining.
Hope you have better luck with getting good prices on eBay than I did. A few years ago it was great, then the bottom seemed to fall out of my sales. Now there are too many power sellers clogging up the listings with junk listed week in, week out with no bids.
MJ, I'm trying to figure out how some of these guys are "power sellers" when they never seem to sell anything? I know one of these guys has been advertising a lot of the same stuff for over a year now, and hasn't dropped the price ona anything!
Oh well, I'll just keep plugging away trying to sell my stuff.
Don McIntyre Clarksville.
I have no problem with "FA's" listed on here separately, it helps to find interesting items that way. I just don't open those of no interest. What I do hate is to open a "FS" only to find it's really a "FA" as someone else said. Wastes my time! Now granted, if there are like 20-30 posts, then that's taking up a lot and not really fair to others. Those could be combined into 2 or 3 posts and labled as "aircraft", "tanks", etc. Just my 2 cents worth..... MG
"Oh, also, if it's like for Doug's org. (non profit), then I see no problem with that at all. It's for a good cause! Good luck on your auctions Doug, sure wish I had the money to bid on some of those, would love to have them! MG
Yeah, but why should we HAVE to get in there and do the effort to kill a thread. I also object to umpteen messages from the same poster. Makes more work scrolling through the rest of the messages too.
I appreciate everyone's comments. I want to respect the wishes of others in this group and certainly do not want to annoy anyone more than necessary.
I will make an effort to post *all* my listings in one message with a subject line indicating vintage model car kits. I've been listing them as I have a few moments, so it's been one-at-a-time over several days. I will try to list the next few (I think I have three more ready to go) at one fell swoop. And I'll plan to do the same with future batches that I'm ready to sell.
I don't know what all is in the collection as I haven't been through all the boxes. But I'm going to hold off listing the Mod Squad station wagon for a while....
Thanks to all who made constructive suggestions!
Doug
Just because I *want* to buy something, doesn't mean I want to waste a lot of time looking for it. There are a bunch of kits I want, and they're rare enough that I'd be lucky if even one of them shows up on eBay within the next 6 months. And I'd have to do a separate search for each kit, because they don't have enough in common to be combined into one search.
I *like* it when people promote their model auctions here, because I read this newsgroup every day. It guarantees that I'll learn about the auction before it ends, and saves me the trouble of doing fruitless searches on a regular basis.
I also greatly prefer eBay auctions over private sales. With eBay there's less worry about whether I can trust the seller.
That said, I *don't* like the following kinds of FA/FS posts:
Not *just* that, no, but FA and FS posts are not prohibited by the charter nor the FAQ, and are considered on-topic here if the merchandise is model kits, tools & supplies. Once in a while someone like you complains, but every time it's discussed, the final consensus is that such posts are acceptable here.
If you don't like FA posts, learn how to filter. If your newsreader is any good, it should be easy to create a few filters that will block all the FA and FS messages so you'll never see them again.
If it's worth having, it's also worth advertising. And they *do* need to advertise it here if they want to reach people like me, who have better things to do than repeating the same eBay searches every day and wading through the inevitable long lists of false hits and bootlegs.
It is, if you or I do it. Our auctions will inevitably get reported/pulled, usually reported by one of those power sellers who smells some competition on "their" turf.
If a power seller does this (supposedly against-eBay-rules) thing, and you or I report *them,* nothing will be done as eBay makes too much money in fees from them.
"MQM107" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
If we want to
this forum was
crap, was
may get beat
people are
you have
Anybody agree?
I emailed that guy Tom and suggested he would be less annoying if he put all his ads in one post, but he apparently has a degree in marketing which says being annoying helps sales. I just put him in the killfile.
Frank
When I started selling stuff I figured the kits would bring the money in but it's the built models that are bringing in the bucks. To some extent I wish I had charged a little more for some things I sold in straight sales. Oh well. I know what Sister Mary means as I used to peruse the 1/144th listings and I'd see the same kits week in, week out. The seller must have bought out a distributor.
Bill Banaszak, MFE
I agree. Sure wish I'd bought that '70 Charger kit back in the '70s from Ott's Hobbies for a whopping $5. ;/
Bill Banaszak, MFE
I disagree entirely as long as the items for auction or sale are related to modeling, or even just a common interest. Having auction and sale notices here is a public service.
Regarding the recent spate of FA postings, those are very unusual kits of interesting aircraft that I would *never* have thought to look for in eBay, nor would I have expected to find them. Having the FA posting helps us find the really cool stuff that is out of the mainstream.
You may set up a killfile that seeks the string "fa" and thus not have to see these posts if they annoy you too much. As for me, I like it.
----Stephen Tontoni Seattle, WA
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