Idea: The CS Garage Sale Thread

[Blade_Raver]

Why not have a thread where people can post things they have for sale?

[Rapscallion]

Interesting idea. However, some slight flaws exist.

Why post here with a bit over a thousand active accounts instead of Ebay or Craisglist with many more people more local? How could we prevent someone from adding to their ebay job revenue, especially when we have a no-adverts policy? What happens if things go wrong?

I can see benefits. I can also see issues. Thoughts?

Rapscallion

[Dreamstalker]

One of my other forums has a "for sale' section that specifically prohibits ebay/CL listings (members' personal websites that have a for-sale page are allowed); the goal is to keep sales/trades within the community and it works quite well.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

If it's a private/forum only, then yeah... and it doesn't even have to give out specific addys, PO boxes can happen for smaller items, right? What's the other forum? (you can just give Raps the details, since this is a public-view thread, so he can investigate a bit). Also, is that forum mostly local to you? we do have many international members here, but they're practically guaranteed not to be asshats about international shipping/problems...
EDIT: you can add a very thorough disclaimer to mitigate the things going wrong.

[ArcticChicken]

The other thing that might be cool is a CS free-cycle thread.

[Blade_Raver]

Only reason why I thought about it is because I like the community here on CS and would feel more comfortable trading with them vs. trading via Ebay or CL..

Ebay and CL just don't have that warm fuzzy feeling like this site does

[Dreamstalker]

The other forum is gbfans.com. I haven't tried accessing the for-sale section while not logged in, they have a fairly strict set of rules for being able to post there (been a member for a certain period of time, certain post count and you have to have purchased a supporting membership). The mods over there also keep tabs on posts/users that seem shady.

[MadMike]

The previous owner specifically chose not to allow this because of bad feelings that could result from someone being unsatisfied with what they bought, and thinking the other person ripped them off.

[telecom_goddess]

The previous owner specifically chose not to allow this because of bad feelings that could result from someone being unsatisfied with what they bought, and thinking the other person ripped them off.

Well that can happen anywhere! I think it's worth the risk. I like the idea.