> I'm not suggesting that a mechanism be developed for judging the value of members!
Seemed like what you were saying?
> adding a filter for length of membership would be good..., say, 80 posts
> if I'm selling something for $5k
Then someone honorable but nothing to add to the forum might "join" JUST to bid on that item. Douglas Self? Pete Millet? Maybe you have Neil Young's dream-box?
> If I'm selling to you (PRR), .... You say the checks in the mail? Fine.
Ha. Even if I said that, today the check would bounce. I know technical words; very few people here know if I cover my debts.
Yes, if I cheated you then you could bad-mouth me in my favorite places. OTOH we have seen several long-time members just vanish; I myself now avoid several of my old haunts.
> Make them send you $100 bills stapled to a piece a cardboard
No! I send you cash, you never send me the gizmo.... sellers can rip-off too. AAMOF, seems to me (without doing a study) there have been several complaints of sellers taking money and not following through.
There's escrow services, feedback systems.... more overhead for a fairly small market.
> I like the idea of doing the transaction in a community
Is this a true community? 10,000 members-- you can never know more than a few, and you know very little about those few.
> some members here I'd prefer to never sell anything to.
> there are definitely people on here that I won't sell anything to
That too. Just from posts, I get impressions that some folks are basically honest and others are trouble-makers. Again the post-content is not proof of the deal: some of the members who I dislike seem to be satisfactory traders.
> an auction with a commitment to sell.
Yes, if the winning bid was forced-sale, I'd be real uneasy also. Ethan has now said there is a "reject bid" function; but if you reject the $120 bid for a $100 bid the guy with $120 will be un-happy.
The "Reputation" idea is good, but many good traders may have too few transactions to judge by.
I have no dog in the fight. I can't afford to buy and have nothing worth selling. I do understand why folks would rather deal here than on eBay. It's a great place. But stuff happens. And with cash on cardboard, disagreements.