**** 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 use the appropriate prefix with your title, choosing from FS:, TRADE:, & WTB: That way, you don't need to add that info to the text of your title, but please do briefly state what you have to sell/trade or want to buy in the thread title, using at least one full & recognisable 'word', not just a model designation, and feel free to add the word 'Free' to your title text if warranted;
• Please use plain Black Text in the text area of your posts (Bold &/or up to Size 18 is a good idea for your PRICE only so that it stands out more. Btw, if you put a price in your title, there's no incentive for anyone who doesn't like that price to bother opening your Ad/thread, so to improve your chances of selling, it pays to put your price in the first post, NOT in the title, only do make sure that your post includes an 'Asking Price' along with any specific conditions/requirements (ie. 'buyer pays freight') and then remember to edit your original post as necessary to update that price if/when you change it later;
• Please ONLY use the Forum's DM facility to exchange contact details &/or conduct any price discussion &/or negotiations - all other contact info &/or negotiations will be removed without notice - you should not carry out any price discussions or any negotiations re the sale/purchase/exchange on the public pages, nor should you post &/or exchange phone numbers &/or email addresses on the public pages, see the Warning below; and definitely do not exchange that sort of identification info via DM with anyone you aren't fairly confident won't misuse them;
• If you are posting pics (something which is highly recommended and will improve your chances of making a sale!)
  please post no more than SIX (6) pics in each post, and ALWAYS Insert any images/attachments as Thumbnails, (see post #5 in this thread for a link to that Sticky) or some viewers may be unable to see them. Remember, we don't charge by the post, so adding more pics in a new post later on will help keep your Ad alive and up front in any potential buyers minds who look. And please, leave at least a space &/or a line between each of your pics/images so that they don't merge into a blob of meaningless colour on the small screen devices that many use these days;
• Please make sure to change the prefix and mark your Ad as SOLD once 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 while you still need to visit & post in your Ad at least once per month, Please do Be Patient - you should log in to the Forum, review your DM's, & monitor/check in on your ad (by opening it) to look for replies frequently, weekly is recommended, but -

at least once a month you need to open and look at your Ad AND make a 'proper' new post in it telling people that your gear is still available/wanted; adding some new info; or posting more pics, etc or it will be removed/moved into the Archives - but DO NOT JUST EDIT an EXISTING POST, OR POST anything with the word 'BUMP' in it! ​

Instead of 'bump', post something that shows you are actively monitoring the Ad and that you truly want to sell/buy/whatever, maybe a helpful comment, another pic, or tell anyone reading/looking where you rode it last week; and don't think that dropping the price early or too frequently will help - overly frequent price drops often encourage viewers/prospective buyers to wait longer and see what next price drop brings, or maybe just wait to see how low you'll go!! nb: The current average time to sell a Spyder/Ryker thru this sub-forum is almost 4 months, and that may become longer during your winter!) ; and​

• failing to visit your Ad regularly AND actually adding a new post AT LEAST once a Month in your Ad, preferably weekly, will see it closed and removed into the Archives without notice as being no longer active/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 the word 'Sold' anywhere in the thread or text to 'show' that you've sold/no longer want/cancelled your Ad - simply edit your first post in the Ad/thread and change the Prefix to SOLD. This will also close the Ad, and show all readers that your Ad is no longer active, without the need for them to open and read the whole thing first. And in due course, it will also allow the Ad to be transferred to the Archives.

DO NOT JUST POST AND THEN ABANDON YOUR AD! Once you've posted an Ad, even if 'posting it for a friend', as the Original Poster YOU are responsible for its upkeep, and if you leave your Ad unattended/never view or look at it again &/or don't post in it regularly & reply to any posted questions about it for too long (eg. within a max of 1 week!) then your Ad may be closed as being no longer live or being abandoned, it will be moved into the Archives, and you may earn yourself points as a potential spammer/scammer, and you really don't want too many of them or you may adversely impact your posting privileges here! So please keep an active eye on your Ad, visit often & post in it regularly - weekly is highly recommended, but you MUST update it by actually posting in it AT LEAST MONTHLY to keep it live (editing an existing post DOES NOT COUNT!) and as/when necessary to respond to posts/questions, and then mark it as SOLD once you've moved or acquired your gear! (see ATTENTION at the last dot point above! ) Failure to add a new post to any Ad/thread at least monthly means we don't know if it's been abandoned or not; if it's a scam or just someone trolling/phishing for personal info; or maybe whatever the Ad was about has been achieved and the OP just couldn't be bothered to mark it sold; so regardless of the reason, a failure on the OP's behalf to add a new post at least monthly will see that Ad/thread removed into the Archives without notice and may adversely impact the OP's posting privileges here.

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/Trading/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! ) Send a DM to the seller if you wish to exchange that info - but 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 DM'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 DM's regularly and also post in it at least monthly!

Note 2: for those thinking of commenting/complaining in an advert re price, freight, availability, pictures/images, etc &/or otherwise hijacking the thread on the public pages, especially if not actually a customer - Please DO NOT! Any/all such unsolicited comments will be removed without notice and repeat offenders ignoring this may earn themselves the appropriate penalty as per the Forum Rules!

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

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.

 

[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.

So please, BE PATIENT!! Most Ads posted here won't get a sale all that quickly - it usually takes AT LEAST FOUR (4) 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 too 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 then you should only put up a few select pics first, and ALWAYS insert them as thumbnails, 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 fail to insert them as thumbnails, or some potential viewers/possible buyers won't be able to see the pics, or possibly not even open the Ad! ) - so don't post all of your pics at once, 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.

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 - 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 before you post an Ad, set a reasonable/fair price, and stick with it - DO NOT DROP YOUR PRICE TOO SOON/TOO OFTEN, at least not unless you're prepared to be low-balled & sell for significantly less than what you started out asking!! 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 to 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!!

If you are selling and feel you need to move your items any quicker, you might also consider advertising it elsewhere, but do beware, you won't necessarily have Moderators checking out all the posters &/or be able to 'vet' the members out there as much as you can in here; so beware of sharing info you don't want the whole World to know; and wherever you are selling/buying/trading, 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!

And IF YOU ARE BUYING/ANWERING an Ad - Please be patient!! Bear in mind that most members/posters here do have a life elsewhere, so even if they have posted an Ad, they may not visit the Forum &/or check in on their Ad any more often than once a week or so, maybe even only once a month, and that's their prerogative. Sure, if they are keen to sell, they might be more conscientious about checking in on their Ad more often, but if they don't, there's nothing you can do to force them, or to force them to sell to you for that matter! So if you don't want to look overly impatient/waaay too keen to buy, and maybe lose any negotiation edge you might otherwise have had, regardless of whether you've posted a response in their Ad instead of sending a DM direct, you cannot force them to respond any quicker than they do!! So regardless of whether you are buying, giving away, or selling, remember - BE PATIENT! And BE POLITE!

Just Sayin'!

 

[Peter Aawen]

**** REMINDER ****

Please Close & mark your own Ads as SOLD once no longer needed!

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 title text, thread, or body text that you've sold/no longer want/cancelled your Ad
as this will still require readers/lookers to open your Ad, only to find, if they can even find your note in the text or post title, that it's no longer active!

Instead, simply edit your first post in the Ad/thread and change the Title prefix to SOLD, which will also Close the thread.

This 'Sold' feature is the only label we have that marks the thread complete in a way that can be seen without actually opening and reading the thread, so please use it as a catch-all label for finalising any Ad that's no longer required!

Once any Ad/Thread has been marked Sold, or if it's been left without a new post from the OP, the Ad will be Archived. Archived Ads/threads will no longer be available for recall/review, but some text/info may be recovered upon request via DM to one of the Mod/Admin Team, if you know the originating poster, the approximate date of the original post, &/or the date of the last post in the thread.

 

[Peter Aawen]

***** 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, buyers or sellers, 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 here/haven't posted much or at all since joining, I'd strongly suggest that you spend a bit of time out on the other public pages of the Forum 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, but if you don't and you get ignored, it's likely nothing personal, they're probably only being careful, and rightly so - and only you can change that, by contributing elsewhere...

Additionally, given everything outlined in this section, it is also quite risky to conduct negotiations &/or 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 carry out negotiations &/or exchange personal &/or direct contact info with other members privately via DM; as by posting this info on the public pages of the Forum (or any other media) anywhere, you are effectively inviting scammers to target you and any/all other members here! Once identified, all negotiation discussion &/or personal contact information posted on the public pages will be removed without notice!

Please take care, and don't negotiate on the public pages beyond identifying that you have sent a DM and might wish to buy/sell/trade - but DO NOT post/divulge any intentions or your contact, identification, or banking details unnecessarily 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!

 

[Peter Aawen]

For inserting pics, see the Sticky below:

Thread 'PLEASE UPLOAD, ATTACH, AND INSERT ALL PICTURES/IMAGES AS THUMBNAILS!'

Dec 19, 2024

If you've been trying to add pics/images/attachments without success, or if you can still see the word 'Attachment' in your post above any pics once you've out it up, then the most likely issues are that you're either not finishing the upload, attach, and insert (as a thumbnail!) process; or your source image/file is simply too large! So for the former, you need to finish the job properly; the latter, either scale it down or re-size it smaller until it will upload (see the links in posts #17 & #20 of this thread for tools to help you do that.)

When you are adding...

• Peter Aawen
• Replies: 19
• Forum: Spyder General Discussion

•