Read This Before Posting in Buy & Sell

[Amin Sabet]

1) Buy and Sell Forum Disclosure and Rules

2) Guide to Describing and Pricing Items for Sale

3) Tips to Avoid Getting Scammed in Our Buy & Sell Forum

 

[Amin Sabet]

Disclosure​

Buy, sell, and trade at your own risk.

This site is not affiliated with anyone buying or selling on the board.

We are not liable for any misrepresentation, fraud or spam posted here. Always verify the seller's reputation on other photography boards and/or auction sites. Remember that personal/gift payments via PayPal offer no buyer protection whatsoever.

We offer this board for member use. However, we do not actively patrol this board for fraud, and we are not responsible for arbitrating any disputes which arise.

None of the transactions made on this board are representative of NikonCafe.com.

We reserve the right to immediately remove any post in this section for any reason. We reserve the right to exclude any person(s) from use of this forum for any reason. No guarantee is made with regards to provision of services in this Buy and Sell area.

Rules
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Note: In addition to the rules listed below, all rules from our Site TOS apply in Buy & Sell as well.

If your post does not follow these rules, it will be deleted without explanation and may result in permanent loss of access to the Buy and Sell forum without further warning or explanation.

The Buy, Sell, and Trade board has grown very active. The moderators are volunteers and do not have the time to private message members about every issue in the marketplace.

Please take care to follow the rules below so that we can continue to offer this service and avoid having to delete posts which you've taken time and effort to create.


1) "For Sale" listings must include an asking price for every item being sold.

Any FS or FS/FT listings without an asking price will be deleted without comment or opportunity to amend. Giving an astronomical price and adding "or best offer" does not satisfy this requirement.

Note: FT, WTB and Ebay threads do not have to include a price.


2) No discussion of price is allowed in the replies to a listing.

The only exception to this is that you are allowed to say the equivalent of "Great price!" if someone gives a particularly good selling price.

You may not in any other way comment on or discuss price in a reply to any listing.

All comments about price must take place by private message (PM) or email.

You need at least one post in the main forum (outside of Buy and Sell) to be able to PM, and this post should not be "I am posting so I can PM" or equivalent. If you are unable to PM, an alternative is to post a reply in the thread with your email address asking to be contacted that way.

Being unable to PM is not a legitimate reason for commenting on price in a reply to a listing.

Examples of comments which are not allowed:

"You realize that B&H sells that lens brand new for $500, right?" (Seller asking $600)

"I'm unable to send a PM. Would you accept $300 shipped?" (Seller asking $300 plus $15 shipping)

"Good luck with that " (WTB listing offering low amount for expensive item or FT listing offering higher value item for lower value item)


3) No off-topic discussion in Buy & Sell.

For example, don't ask why someone is selling an item or comment about how a trade offer is unrealistic. You can PM with such questions/comments, but they don't belong in the thread.


4) No auctions may be carried out within our marketplace.


5) Photography-related transactions only.

Computers and tablets are used to edit/view photos and therefore may be bought/sold here.


6) No commercial vendor sales.

Commercial dealers interested in advertising on the site should contact me directly by PM or the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the page.


7) You can only start a new topic/thread every 8 hours. No redundant listings.

If you are selling or seeking more than one item, we encourage you to combine them in a single listing. No single item should be listed in more than one open thread at any given time. See below for procedure to close a thread.


8) Don't leave feedback unless you have had a transaction.

We have a feedback system so you can leave feedback after a transaction. Leaving feedback before a transaction (eg, negative feedback because the price is too high or the seller won't ship to your location) is not allowed.

Please think carefully before leaving feedback. All feedback is permanent.

Don't leave negative feedback to provoke a response with plans to change your feedback later. You cannot change it, and we will not change it for you.


9) Don't use a lot of caps in your thread title.

Don't overuse capitalization to get your classifieds listing noticed. Your thread will be deleted without comment or opportunity to amend.


10) Don't make a new post to say "Sold" or "Found" when your transaction has been completed. Just mark it as completed.

Posting to say that a transaction is finished serves no purpose and bumps your thread unnecessarily to the top of the list where active listings belong. Instead, follow our protocol for marking threads as completed. If you want to specify something like "Sold to [member name]", edit one or more of your existing posts in the thread instead of making a new one. This must be done prior to marking as completed, which closes the thread permanently.


11) Don't ask moderators to open, close, delete or change thread titles.

You can edit your title and body of your ad for 72 hours. After that it is permanent. You can add a post to your original thread indicating any necessary update (eg, change in asking price), or you can mark your thread as completed and start a new one. Even if it has been less than 72 hours and you are having difficulties, do not ask a moderator to do this for you. Moderators do not have time to perform such services in the Buy and Sell area. You can post a thread in our Help & Feedback forum if you are having technical problems with the board.


12) Don't post under more than one user name.

Some people have chosen to post under multiple registered accounts/user names in order to bump their own posts, comment on how good their own prices are, or even to give themselves feedback. This abuse of the forum will result in a permanent ban.

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Please don't go back and edit your post to remove the price after an item has sold.

Leaving your price in the post makes it a valuable resource so people can go back and see what the asking price was at that time. It doesn't necessarily mean you sold for that price or that the value is the same now as it was then, but it is a resource that someone might benefit from. We don't require that you leave this information intact, but we appreciate when you do so.

 

[Amin Sabet]

Guide to Describing and Pricing Items for Sale

What follows below are some suggestions for sellers. These are mainly intended for new sellers and are not rules, only suggestions.


Describing items which you are selling:

• Carefully look over your item in good light before describing it as "perfect" or "like new".
• Avoid the use of the word "mint" (or variants like "minty") which ought to mean "perfect" but is often used by unscrupulous Ebay sellers to mean less than that.
• Don't describe your item as "new" if it has been opened, handled, or otherwise used. Instead, more accurately call it "like new in box" or "in perfect condition"
• Overdisclosure (pointing out the smallest flaws) won't harm your sales. Potential buyers don't usually care about tiny flaws (eg, "2mm faint scratch on LCD, visible only on close inspection in certain lighting"). On the contrary, such descriptions instill confidence in the seller.
• In the absence of providing a high level of detail about your gear's conditions, grade it conservatively. For example, even the most minor marks on a camera should be disclosed in specific detail if you are calling it "like new minus", whereas a buyer doesn't need such detailed description if you are calling it "good cosmetic condition with minor wear but nothing very noticeable".

Pricing an item for sale:

• Do a search on completed sales on Ebay as well as a search on the Fred Miranda Buy and Sell Forum to see what your item has been selling for recently. Note that people generally expect a somewhat better deal in a forum than they get on Ebay, both because of the community feel on the forum as well as because of the absence of selling fees on the board.
• Check what the major retailers in your region are selling the item for brand new. If the item is in stock at those retailers, you will not have much luck pricing at a same or higher level.
• For most items which are not in great demand (eg, out of stock everywhere), a reasonable price for used in excellent condition would be about 80% of current retail prices, inclusive of PayPal fees and shipping. Expensive or very highly regarded lenses may fetch somewhat more (up to 90% of retail), and out of stock/hard to find items may sell for 100% the retail price or even more than that. With uncommon exceptions, used kit lenses and lenses which have lesser reputations will fetch less than 80% of retail price, often significantly less.
• When possible, avoid "net to me" pricing, which indicates how much you wish to be paid not including any PayPal or shipping fees. This type of pricing doesn't give the buyer much of an idea how much they will need to spend, which is really what they need to know. Instead, estimate how much shipping will cost using online tools such as the USPS Shipping Calculator and count on being charged a 3% fee for payment by PayPal.
• Avoid requiring or allowing buyers to use PayPal Gift payment, which makes you look shady since it is a violation of PayPal policies and affords no protection to you or the buyer.

 

[Amin Sabet]

Tips to Avoid Getting Scammed in Our Buy & Sell Forum

Most people buying and selling here are well-intentioned, and thankfully most scammers are obvious. That said, we've had at least one crafty scammer on this board. Remember that all transactions are at your own risk, and be careful! Below are some tips for avoiding scams, written up with forum buy/sell newbies in mind.


Tips for buyers

1) Verify ownership of feedback: Anyone can register here using someone else's name from another site and then point to that other person's feedback. Validate that the feedback from another site (FM, POTN, Ebay) really belongs to the person who claims it by sending them a message on that other site and waiting for their reply.

2) Verify quality of feedback: Don't just go by the percentage and amount of good feedback someone has gotten on Ebay. If they reference Ebay feedback, look at what they sold and how long they've had an account. Scammers often have relatively shortlived accounts where they sell low value items to get good numbers. Recognize when someone's only iTrader feedback on this site comes from one or two relatively unknown other members. Scammers will often register months ahead and make a few reasonable posts here and there, planting a bit of feedback for themselves under another account before going for it.

3) Never use personal (Gift) PayPal: Paying by PayPal Gift gives you no protection as a buyer. If you freely offer to pay the 3% PayPal fee and the seller is still pushing you to save your money and use Gift or any other payment method you are unfamiliar with, there is a very high likelihood that they are attempting to scam you. The best options for payment are insured credit card and regular PayPal with buyer protection.

4) Be wary of deals which seem too good to be true.

5) Check the post count, post history, and join date: Be wary of sellers with a recent join date, few posts outside of the buy/sell forum, and/or many buy/sell posts and little feedback. Some members have suggested a minimum post count or time as a member requirement for participation in our Buy and Sell forum. While we don't currently have such requirements, post/registration information is plainly visible for each forum member, so you can decide whether someone has enough posts/months for you to trust them.

For example, you can choose to buy only from members who have been here for at least 6 months and have at least 100 forum posts where you go back through their post history to make sure the posts look legit. That gives you some added security, because not many scammers will fulfill both of those criteria. The other tips still apply, because someone can be a participating member for a long time and then decide to try and pull a scam.

6) Check that the seller's PayPal address is verified: Type the following address into your browser replacing "Seller_PayPal_ID" with their PayPal ID (email address used to receive payment), and make sure the ID is verified before you send payment:

https://www.paypal.com/us/verified/pal=Seller_PayPal_ID

Tips for sellers

1) Get paid, then ship: Don't ship the gear until payment has been received (and cleared if personal check). If you get an email that you've received PayPal payment, don't click the links in that email. Instead, go directly to the PayPal site by typing the address in your browser, sign in, and verify the payment there. If you get a PayPal payment but PayPal is holding your funds, you've been paid and can/should ship with confidence. More on PayPal holds here: How to solve a problem with accessing funds in your PayPal account - PayPal

2) Don't refund until you get your stuff back: If you are issuing a refund, don't do so until the buyer has returned your gear and you have verified its condition.

3) Use insured shipping with delivery confirmation: For those in the USA, USPS Priority Mail with is an affordable and quick (usually 2-3 days) method that automatically comes with basic tracking and delivery confirmation. Insurance is optional and recommended. Signature confirmation is optional (see below).

4) Meet the requirements for PayPal Seller Protection: This takes some advance planning, such as specifying in your sale that a PayPal-confirmed shipping address is required. Don't ship to a different address than on the PayPal payment. Add signature confirmation option for items where payment is over $250. See here for more information about Seller Protection requirements.