Buy Cheap on Forum then Sell for Profit on TradeMe

[kotuku]

speaking of good deals and good bastards on here -big ups to gone tropo for gifting me that chainsaw!yes it goes ,but has issue with drive sprocket Ill sort today .after its off like shit through a goose.somewhere down the line i intend to send a load of firewood his way! TM-pale by comparison and in many ways more interested in money ala fees they charge yoy!

[Makros]

A lot of forum members sell items here at lower than market value to help out the members of this community, it’s called goodwill.

It’s disappointing when people think there is nothing wrong with turning a profit from someone else’s generosity. It sours the community spirit, which is at the core of what makes this community good.

This is my thought on the matter as well.

Happened with something I sold. The buyer made a couple hundy while also being a bit "optimistic" on Trademe as to the condition of the item.

I can't be bothered now, I give most of the smaller items away to friends. I'm so un-thrilled with dealing with randos that recently I have given a few rifles away to friends as the few hundred I might get otherwise isn't worth it.
I would say if I list something cheap again on the forum I'll be happy to ignore the vultures that only use the forums for buying and selling and wait for someone I recognise to come along.

This place is full of good buggers and having been around since Alan's very early blue forum days this has never really changed, there just seems to be a bit more noise around the edges as the group has gotten bigger.
It's all about what you put in. I make and fix lots of things for free for forum members and people I shoot with. I get stacks of advice on quite specialist topics regularly from members I'm in direct contact with. I've also been the recipient of fantastic generosity in terms of peoples time to help me out with picking up rifles, tracking down things I'm looking for etc.
Having good buggers around in life is worth more than making a buck.

[Barry the hunter]

ya dead rignt Makros the prices on here for firearms can be quite bargains whereas trade me at times the prices are stupid - there is some bloke been trying to sell a sako finnbear on there wants way to much and claims the scope is worth way more than rifle well its an old fixed power kahles worth maybe $200 on a good day - dream land -- again I see a .223 sako 85 and the seller wants very close to new sako 90 price -- lets look after the good buggers on here - like the howa with a custom walnut stock just recently - some lucky sod got that at bargain basement price - it was a lovely piece of kit

[longshot]

All of what I list here is stuff I just don't need any more, it is taking up too much space or that would be more use in someone elses hunting setup. I give away a fair bit of stuff and often ship it for free too if it has no real money value but is too good to throw away, usually stuff you can't buy anymore but that someone out there will want (like a single scope ring).
Often if I can't remember what I originally paid for something, I just put a low price on it to move it on quickly. I do also put normal prices on stuff that I like but don't need.
I often sell stuff on TM too, but good stuff I prefer to sell here.
Ultimately I think that my material contributions to the forum carry a degree of goodwill and that is in acknowledgement of what a resource the community is to me.

Some time ago I was selling a scope, it was a nice one, something that would be recommended within the first few posts of a 'what scope should I buy' thread. But it was also a little bit rare, no longer produced, it was just a little bit special, something I thought someone from here would appreciate. The buyer asked for a discount which I conceded to. A few days after sending it, I saw it on TM. Alongside something else I had given away for free with free shipping.

I was disapointed but I recognised as many people on here have pointed out that I put no contract on the buyer not to do this.
The bitter pill was that I have been looking for a good deal on a rangefinder on behalf of a mate who could use one but can't afford one, when I saw one here that I would have bought, it had already been snapped up and it was on TM a few days later with a >100% mark up. It was the same person that bought the scope to on sell.

My point is that if you do it a bit here and there, especially buying something broken, fixing it and selling it, fair enough. But if someone made it their full time job to just mine the BuySellSwap for bargains, then it reduces it to a place without any bargains and ultimately to a place without any goodwill.

Anyone capable of listing something here can list it on trademe instead if they choose to, I don't need someone else to do it for me and take a substantial cut in the process.

[7mmsaum]

Report the activity to a mod

I can deal with it if I know about it

Regards

Andrew

[Micky Duck]

[Micky Duck]

Bottom line says it all really.

[Hermitage]

Revealing another 'smart capitalist' on the forum.

Copied from this thread, post #24
https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....ml#post1625444

Quote Originally Posted by 19Badger View Post
I always thought it was bad form to post on someone else's advert that their price isn't what "you" think it should be.
There have been many BSA 12's, 12/15's etc sold on here for more than the $350 you say it's worth, I personally think the price is reasonable.
Just because money is tight doesn't mean items devalue, it just means there are less buyers and given it's a registry triggering event it further reduces the number of buyers. @johnd & @Hermitage all you've done is make it harder for the OP to sell the rifle for what HE wants for it. Quote

Quote Originally Posted by blip View Post
Its a for sale thread, not a debate on what someone else that isn't even going to buy it thinks he should sell it for....Quote

Quote Originally Posted by J-S View Post
Understand they were stating their thought on value in this market, i would have done it by personal message rather than hijack someone’s sales post, but oh well.. I still certainly haven’t seen any $350 target rifles pop up. Quote


I've just read these comments from @19Badger and @blip and don't agree. I think we need to protect new and perhaps naive forum members from 'hidden retailers' who try to overcharge on goods by calling out their high prices.

Forum member J-S who is selling this Vostok smallbore rifle is a retailer/or he does this as a 'side hustle'. He buys from H&S Forum members at mates rates and sells for profit on TMe (or buys off TMe and Turners Auctions and sells on the Forum for profit).

He is known on TradeMe as member j.s.83 (you may have come across him before as he usually asks a firearms-related seller in the Q&A if they have a 'Buy Now price').
He has over 15 pages of TradeMe feedback for selling firearm-related goods (that's 756 sales feedbacks).
Over 10 pages on TradeMe feedback for buying firearm-related goods (he does have very high positive feedback I noticed).

If you look at his H&S Forum posts they are pretty much all from the Buy, Sell & Trade section.
So he buys low and sells high but perhaps makes out he's not a semi-professional buyer and seller by saying in his listings: "Surplus to my requirements"..."Surplus to my needs."

TradeMe Feedback: https://www.trademe.co.nz/members/fe...=879840&type=s

So to answer @19Badger that's why I commented on this Buy, Sell, Trade thread by saying he is asking too much for this smallbore rifle.
Although J-S is probably a good guy, please see my thread below on what I think of 'semi-professional' sellers on the H&S Forum:
https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....rademe-107225/

[Micky Duck]

See post #51

[blip]

If thats all they are doing why not just remove their membership here?

[gimp]

If thats all they are doing why not just remove their membership here?

because we aren't going through every member's every post to look at what they're posting and why, it is about the ten thousandth thing from the top of the list of "things worth doing" in my life

[Mintie]

I posted this on the thread Hermitage is referring to above about JS but as he is being called out here too I'll repost it here as well.

Have been thinking about this overnight Hermitage and I think you are way out of line.

The behavior you are talking about describes more or less all collectors across all hobbies. People in the know will buy stuff that they think represents a good deal when they see it, maybe hold onto it a while as part of the collection or maybe they haven't had one before so they are curious about it, then on sell for what they think it's worth.

Buying, selling, trading is what collectors do. There is a whole industry purely for this. I went to Teds last auction and the last Ruahine auction, along with 200 or so other people at each, I put my hand up and paid more than anyone else in the room was willing to for a number of guns and parts, some of those are still in my collection and some have been sold on (to very happy buyers) for a bit of profit to help fund the collection. This is just what collectors do.

When it comes to buying and selling it's none of your business what the person selling an item paid for it and the same goes for knowing if they just bought it to onsell or have owned it as part of a collection for a while. Items are worth what someone is willing to pay for them and going by the figures gained by your determined investigative skills I'd say that JS probably gets this right often if he has so many sales AND happy feedbacks to his name.

I know JS personally as a good mate and can confirm that he is a collector, mainly of target oriented airguns and starting on rimfires now. He has put many hours into sourcing and importing parts to complete or restore many high end, neglected target rigs that would otherwise be discarded or left in poor condition somewhere to rot. He is a generous dude, he often collects rifles or parts that are up in Auckland on my behalf and has helped me source stuff or given me parts that I need for free etc.. I also know that he has volunteered a lot of time at the Howick airgun club to teach new shooters and get people into the sport.

Also I'm not sure what your beef is with asking someone for a buy now price? I think that's pretty common practice and probably why the feature exists on trade me in the first place?

Put the pitchfork down and mind your own business.

[Steve123]

I posted this on the thread Hermitage is referring to above about JS but as he is being called out here too I'll repost it here as well.

Have been thinking about this overnight Hermitage and I think you are way out of line.

The behavior you are talking about describes more or less all collectors across all hobbies. People in the know will buy stuff that they think represents a good deal when they see it, maybe hold onto it a while as part of the collection or maybe they haven't had one before so they are curious about it, then on sell for what they think it's worth.

Buying, selling, trading is what collectors do. There is a whole industry purely for this. I went to Teds last auction and the last Ruahine auction, along with 200 or so other people at each, I put my hand up and paid more than anyone else in the room was willing to for a number of guns and parts, some of those are still in my collection and some have been sold on (to very happy buyers) for a bit of profit to help fund the collection. This is just what collectors do.

When it comes to buying and selling it's none of your business what the person selling an item paid for it and the same goes for knowing if they just bought it to onsell or have owned it as part of a collection for a while. Items are worth what someone is willing to pay for them and going by the figures gained by your determined investigative skills I'd say that JS probably gets this right often if he has so many sales AND happy feedbacks to his name.

I know JS personally as a good mate and can confirm that he is a collector, mainly of target oriented airguns and starting on rimfires now. He has put many hours into sourcing and importing parts to complete or restore many high end, neglected target rigs that would otherwise be discarded or left in poor condition somewhere to rot. He is a generous dude, he often collects rifles or parts that are up in Auckland on my behalf and has helped me source stuff or given me parts that I need for free etc.. I also know that he has volunteered a lot of time at the Howick airgun club to teach new shooters and get people into the sport.

Also I'm not sure what your beef is with asking someone for a buy now price? I think that's pretty common practice and probably why the feature exists on trade me in the first place?

Put the pitchfork down and mind your own business.

I disagree. A lot of people put good deals up to help out others because they're GC's. If Steptoe cnuts keep stuffing this up people will just not bother.
Maybe the Steptoe cnuts should keep to scalping concert tickets. Fuck them.

[Mintie]

I disagree. A lot of people put good deals up to help out others because they're GC's. If Steptoe cnuts keep stuffing this up people will just not bother.
Maybe the Steptoe cnuts should keep to scalping concert tickets. Fuck them.

Yep, But JS isn't one of them. He isn't scalping or stuffing anything up (quite to the contrary if you read my post and understood the positives he actually does for the shooting community) and the Hermits rant at him is not justified or fair. I'm quite surprised the admin allow attacks of character like this

[dannyb]

This has gone far enough ! Some of you need to move on and let go.