State of the H.A.M.B. Classifieds

Ryan, would you consider Alliance members at a discounted price if I do not get a tag??? Maybe $30 and no tag? Or maybe a HAMB sticker and $40 ? $50 alliance membership is tough for me to swallow for the occasional part I am willing to sell.

 

I read the whole post and must have missed what the problem is. is it just too many classifieds? or the 1% doing something wrong? if so what is it? if it is newbies signing up just for a free ad there would have to be a way around that

I notice an overwhelming amount of support from alliance members for these changes.

how will this affect the wanted section? I put a few wanted ads, I got no results, but have helped out 3 HAMBers who needed some stuff I had, and I look every time I'm here to see who might need my leftover junk. by the way... I made 5 bucks total from all 3 people so don't think there is a profit motive.

I really have no idea what it takes to run this show, so do what you got to do, but I'd like to see the wanted section stay open for everyone.

 

I kinda miss the "for sale" and "wanted" ads being together anyway, so if the traffic were to be cut down, could that be combined again...?
Was that move to make them seperate about moderating, or about ease of use for the guys on the board?


JOE

 

one solution to the problem of people registering and doing nothing more than selling on the board might be to sell that person a "sellers license" on the HAMB, or assess a scaled percentage of the total sale. this would help generate a bit of capitol for you Ryan, as going to an alliance only classifieds would cut your bottom line. 2% for the first hundred, 3% up to $250, 4% from there to $500, and for $501 and up, spank em with 5%

hell, that shit works for erape and they arent hurting any.

allow non alliance members to view, hell even to post replies... but only alliance members or those who chose to cough up the extra dough to sell could start a FS thread... if you wanna play you gotta pay.

 

OK newbies, post all the good stuff you have right now, so us Alliance members can buy it all up.

 

That's not a bad idea... alliance members can post... all can read and reply... hmmm... would that be too tough to do?

 

I use the classified all the time so I just got my Alliance membership. Problem solved.

 

I like the wanted seperate from the for sales.
I read the wantedsa and reply then I have money for the for sale section.
I have no problem joining the alliance if that is what it takes. Just comes out of the car budget.

 

I am pretty new here and I am very trusting of everyone here on the HAMB. I have only recently sold one part here and I only posted if here because I thought that a fellow HAMBer would be able to use it. I am wanting to get my Alliance but currently I am putting all of my extra dimes toward parts, and redoing the front end of my car. to me this site is based on honesty and whatever you have to do to keep it that way is what you have to do. there is no way that I would ship anything to anyone on the other sites without payment, but this one I trust the people.

 

It is a good idea for tracability as to dealing with a good seller. It was mentioned earlier that the alliance members address is known so the goon squad can be sent out if the deal turns out to be a scam.
As far as buying, There is still the PM system if one is not a member. Myself I would rather PM the seller for it keeps the thread from getting strung out.
I have used the Classifieds a Lot, Hell I will bet 1/2 to 3/4 of the pieces I have gathered for my rod was found on here Not to mention the pieces I have found for my buds cars. I have been lucky I guess I havent been ripped off and if there is a problem with having late shipping problems The sellers are really cool and have contacted me.
I commend Rashy Rocky and Cob on the great job that they have been doing.

Dawg

 

reason being, most of the HAMBers who i have seen become alliance members have a pretty decent feel for whats going on behind the wizards curtain down there in austin, and they want whats best for the board in general...

i know i probly speak for a LOT of the alliance members when i say, i got my membership to give Ryan a hand with the bills. yea, there are a couple "perks" from membership, such as the Tags, and the discount from vendors, the schnazzy title next to your avatar. . .but thats not what this place is all about in the long run now is it?

 

As a 'non-AM' HAMBer that still sounds pretty fair to me. I don't think a decision like that will hurt anybody. As long as the PM or email-possibillity stays open for registered HAMBers AND the workload gets less for the 'Magic-3', then it's a good thing. It's a buyers/sellers decission to wether or not deal with a 'non-AM'.

Although being a relative new-comer here, I've already bought a couple of items (mags/dvds/parts) through the classifieds and ofcourse had to send money to complete strangers to me, but that's a chance you take with everything on the internet.
I almost bought a complete '57 car recently, but the seller didn't want to take the chance of ending up with a possible deadbeat foreign-buyer... I could understand that all to well ofcourse.
I pretty much always send a PM when I see something I like, and only post a reply in the topic that says I've sent a PM to the seller, so other's are aware of that.

Why not introduce a sort of feedback-system like on the 'Bag? If it's at all possible to incorporate into the forum ofcourse.
That would be pretty much self-controlling I would think?

 

I'll give you a hint of what the Mods here do...
I bought an item form a guy in the classified, and sent him the dough. Month went by, no item. No answer to PM's.
Posted on the ad that my stuff didn't arrive.
Brother Rashy jumped in....helped find out where the guy hangs out, where he lives and passed that on to me.
I think he also sent a word or two to the guy....
Anyway, three days later I get an email with a scan showing the shipping receipts. 3 more days later the goods arrived.

These guys are our police and do a DAMN FINE job. There is a LOT of work that goes into tracking down the 1% ASSHATS and trying to make them pony up.

Any call you make Ryan is fine by me. And I volenteer to help if you need more folks to help track down these idiots..

To all of you mods, THANKS!

Glenn

 

How bout also adding a couple of more Moderators? To help out with the load.

 

i wonder what makes an Alliance Member any different from a normal member? Alliance Members can be just as shifty as a normal Member. i have negative feedback only because some people got their pussies hurt by what i said to them... not because im a shadey character.

is it because the care takers of the HAMB have access to personal information of an Alliance Member in case a deal does go bad?

that being said, its a good decision... $50.00 is not unreasonable, ill just have to not go out to lunch over the next week.

 

Ryan, the fact that you're even tossing this out for some discussion is a positive thing.

I do make the classifieds a daily ritual.... in fact my bookmark goes to the 4sale section 1st. I'd hate to see a decrease in how much cool stuff is available, but I can see the need to try weed out the scuzzbuckets.

 

The classifieds have been turning me off to the HAMB in general as of late. The HAMB wasnt about Hot rods for 50 thousand dollars, it was a place where if a guy had something laying around collecting dust he would sell it to a fellow member who was building a car and needed that part and didn't want the egay ripoff. Ryan I will be sending my cash for an alliance membership. And for these guys that like to rip off fellow hot rodders can continue on ebay and The Pomona swap meet.

 

Sounds cool to me.I've sold a few things on the classifieds & met some very nice people along the way.
It's only fair to give something back to the guys that run the show,& as Ryan said,take a load off of them.
Thanks for the hard,dedicated work.

 

If a smoother running Classifieds section is the result, I'm for it. I see alot of replies about nothing on there cluttering up the works. I've made enough from the classifieds to justify an Alliance membership for the use of the forum.

I prefer posting sale items here first over any other forum. It's easy, it's reliable, and it's cheap (so am I). But it has become cumbersome of late.

If you decide to go with more moderators, I'm willing to volunteer to help keep an eye on things. Let me know what I can do.

If you go Alliance Members soley, that's the way it'll have to be. If that happens, do we get special maroon Alliance Members Only jackets??

 

that sounds like a damn fine idea- I know I've placed quite a few ads and used quite a bit of bandwidth and wholeheartedly believe that the privelege to place an ad and the opportunity to make money doesn't come free. If I weren't an alliance member I would also understand that it isn't free, and I think you'll get quite a bit more members if that rule is put in effect.

If you can't pony up the $50 for the right to advertise your stuff, then you don't really understand what the HAMB is about right? ie, at least it will get rid of those that only have classifieds post, and cut down on the BS.

It also requires members to give their name and address, so that if something goes wrong, its much easier to find them

 

can you make it so the only way to see the "marketplace" is if you're logged in?

 

...as with other things in life it seems 5% of people find a way to eat up 95% of your time. i think i'm with you on this.

 

Thats the funniest thing I have ever seen.

 

Just a suggestion-To use the classifieds, you pay your fifty, have been a member for x amount of time, AND have x amount of non-FOR SALE threads/posts.

 

As a non alliance member, I think it sounds like a very fair deal and just makes sense.

Mootz

 

DITTO, oh well

 

To me, there are enough good deals in the classifieds (along with the other perks) to justify the $50 AM dues. I'd pay for an ePay membership if I actually thought they could cut down on the scam factor. On that site, we pay as sellers with not much recourse against the overwhelming amount of deadbeats. So IMO, go for it. I suppose that's easy for me to say though, I'm already a member...I'll pass on the jacket, though.

Bryan